Salinye Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 I have a problem on my computer that is making me want to cry in frustration. I have some sort of thing that at first was constantly launching Real One Player. I got so mad I deleted Real One Player off of my computer, so now it's constantly launching Windows Media Player. It's horrible, it will hardly even allow me to type this email because it is constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY popping up in front of me. I know this is probably some virus or another. I seriously want to cry. I'm so sick and this is really stressing me out. I can't do anything because of this. Even now I have to constantly get it out of my way just to type this email. If I shrink it, it pops right back up. If I close it, it opens right back up. It's horrible. Does anyone know how I make it stop? ~Salinye Sick and not handling irritation well...
Zadown Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 Try running a series of anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-everything programs and .. um, if it is trying to show ye something from the net and ye have a firewall, try to block whatever the program is that tries to do that. One of those things should work. Oh, and try using Google to find help, I got my problems repaired by googling and reading the links.
Katzaniel Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 Another good thing to try (for temporary sanity) is closing as many of the running tasks/processes as possible. You may find the one that's causing the loading. (Don't close Explorer, though, that'll restart your computer). I think alt-ctrl-del will get you the task window regardless of Windows version...? Just don't press it twice.
Yui-chan Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 If you have a virus scanner, run it. If not, get one. Really. You cannot be on the internet safely, nowadays, without one. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ Here's a free online scan you can use in the meantime, if you don't have something already. I also like their personal antivirus, PCcillin. It's less intrusive and resource-intensive than McAfee and Norton. After that, you need to go get a few spyware and adware erasers. They're free and very, very useful. (What you are describing sounds more like an adware problem to me, but it's hard to say... ) http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ http://www.safer-networking.org/ No joke. All three. Spyware Blaster will help keep you from getting infected in the first place, and the other two together will manage to wipe 99% of the nasties off your computer. Together with a virus scanner, I consider this to be a minimum package for internet safety. None of the spyware/adware programs are large, nor hard to install or use. They won't take up your computer resources. Just open each. Run. Close. They don't have to stay open. Do that once a month or when you notice something squirrely happening. Best of luck. Relax and breathe, Salinye.... Yours, ~Yui
Appy Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 (edited) If all else fails, reinstall OS a link to a free spybot, run that and it'll find whatever trojans and spyware might be on your comp... well, it'll find most, and possible that one too http://www.safer-networking.org/ Good luck hun! *hugs tight and massages Salinye's shoulders a bit to get some tension out* PS: no, you don't HAVE to donate to download the programm Edited June 24, 2004 by Appy
Katzaniel Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 Oh - and have you tried restarting the comp? If not, do that ASAP, as it fixes most problems.
Salinye Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Posted June 24, 2004 Thank you. See, the problem was, I couldn't even get to my anti virus program to get updates and do a scan because the stupid Windows media player was constantly in my face. It was constantly making itself the top window so I couldn't do anything. I finally got a scan going then downloaded the other programs Yui and Appy suggested and the problem seems to have stopped. My anti virus scan is still going. The program that Yui and Appy both did said that 1944 bad items are now blocked! http://www.themightypen.net/public/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif Anyway, thank you for the help. I'm really not as pathetic as I sound, but I'm having a really horrible day and I'm sick out of my mind. Dog pooped in the house, babies crying, son breaks one of my good bowls, computer freakin' out, you know, one of those days. Hope you all are having a better time of it! Also, thanks again for the help, I really truly appreciate it! ~Salinye
The Portrait of Zool Posted June 24, 2004 Report Posted June 24, 2004 "Gah! It's the Locus! Should have known. *Zool wanders into the background of his painting, muttering incomprehensibly further to himself*
Jareena Faye Posted June 25, 2004 Report Posted June 25, 2004 HOW many items blocked? Sal, honey, you'd better start running anti-virus more often! Wow, you got a cool sig since I was last here...
Salinye Posted June 26, 2004 Author Report Posted June 26, 2004 Thanks, Jareena. The lovely and ever talented Yui-Chan drew the picture, Gyrfalcon made it into a signature. I'm feeling very loved and spoiled now! ~Salinye
Peredhil Posted June 26, 2004 Report Posted June 26, 2004 There is a currently unpatched Internet Explorer trojan horse worm speeding around the internet. It exploits three vectors, two of which Microsoft has already released patches (run windows update) and one which they haven't. It infects web sites with malicious code, and when you hit the web site, it infects your computer. The payload captures keystrokes and sends them to a Russian site. Normally this sort of thing looks for credit card numbers, account numbers, etc. Work around - disable JAVA in your Internet Explorer, or use Mozilla for a while. A Hong Kong site conducted an experiment where they loaded a machine fresh from disk and put it on the internet. The longest it took for some type of malicious code (worm, virus, malicious cookie, etc) to hit the machine was sixteen minutes. Get a firewall (Zone Alarm from Zonelabs is still free for the home version. Black Ice looks better, but has some things it thinks it blocks but doesn't - which is a Bad Thing). Get a virus scanner. Run all the updates and patches for your Operating System. If you use Microsoft Office, make sure you go to the *Office* Update site and run all THOSE patches. People forget these, much to hacker's delights. *hugs* Hope y'all feel better. -P
Salinye Posted June 26, 2004 Author Report Posted June 26, 2004 Well, the virus, which reeked suspiciously of being the Wallon virus, really got bad. If it weren't for Gyrfalcon's brilliant idea of trying to restore my computer to a previous date before I picked up the virus, I would have had to reload my OS. So, THANK YOU GYRFALCON! Those of you with XP, explore the "undo bad things through restore" option, if you have problems. It's reversable and efficient! ~Salinye
Gyrfalcon Posted June 27, 2004 Report Posted June 27, 2004 I would note that it's better to see if the problem can be fixed without using the Restore Points, but when all else fails, it does mean less work installing stuff. Basically, you do have to reinstall anything that made changes to Windows or the Registry after the date you restored to, such as any new programs, windows updates, and the like. (The data files will actually still be there, but any folders it added to your programs menu and any entries made in the registry disappear. Also, while it might solve the problem, it'd still be a good idea to reupdate your antivirus software, along with your anti-spyware things and run a full set of scans to make sure that everything's gone. But yeah, I already told Salinye all of that, so this is mostly for the rest of you! *grins*
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