Can't find computer forum. Have virus(?) Need help.

[aquart]

I'm sure the pc is infected. First I had trouble getting it to admit I have a mouse. Then it interfered with Outlook, closing the whole thing every time I closed an email. Then it gave me double pages every time I clicked a link in Explorer. Then it closed all of Explorer when I closed a single page. Then, this morning, I turned on the machine and the Internet Explorer icon was gone from the desktop.

I know the signs and I don't like them. It took me three hours to get my mouse working yesterday.

My Norton is out of date and Symantec won't even sell me upgrades. I use Win98SE. Is anyone still making a virus application for that OS?

I DON'T WANT TO BE CRASHED FOR THE ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blogslut]

1. try this

http://free.grisoft.com/

also this:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[karlrschneider]

2. Here's the DU forum, it might be helpful

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=242

[bananas]

3. Use housecall - it's an online scanner

Just go to the website and follow the instructions.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[aquart]

13. Thanks. Trying it as I type this.

[aquart]

15. Well, ain't that weird.

I moved the mouse and Firefox closed.....that was DU and the TrendMicro scan. How very unsettling.

Going back and starting the scan over.

[aquart]

17. And it happened again.

This time I wasn't touching the mouse.

[uppityperson]

21. if you have a wire mouse, change it, maybe wire crimped

I had a mouse that went nuts one day, turned out had crimped the wire in a drawer. It was one of those wtf shut off the computer now moments. Things getting opened and closed at random. It was a fast cheap fix.

[aquart]

23. Interesting. I'm on my third mouse in 48 hours.

Amazing what I was able to find around the apartment.

[Squatch]

4. DBAN your HD

and start from scratch. Most antivirus programs are shit for actually removing viruses, etc.

[aquart]

8. If it's a virus, then I will. How do I save favorites and bookmarks?

[JeffR]

27. You should be able to export favorites, address book & email

from File>Export in each program. Do that ASAP. But be careful when reloading these onto a clean or new machine. Best to run a virus/malware scan on the exported files before importing once you are starting with a clean slate and a suite of good protection utils.

[Marnieworld]

5. Symantec and McAffee have removal tools on their sites

It usually works. I work in IT and it helps at least to figure out what infected you.

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/security_response/removaltools.jsp

http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/?siteID=1&resolution=1024x768&rurl=vrContactOptions.asp

[hobbit709]

6. May not be a virus

98SE had its problems-one of which is that it never gets rid of anything. when was the last time the junk files were cleaned out? It gets so cluttered with old files that it cant' find its way around anymore. Unfortunately when you tell it to delete temp and temp internet files, it just hides them instead of really deleting them. There's a DOS procedure to do this-it won't delete them from Windoze.

[aquart]

7. I've had freezes from that kind of thing

So I'm reasonably good about housekeeping.

I never had it cause this before.

[porphyrian]

9. Also, make sure the mouse is plugged in all the way.

That's the first thing tech support would tell you to check.

[aquart]

11. That, of course, was the first thing I checked.

[B Calm]

10. Delete your internet cookies. First click tools, internet options, then

click delete cookies.

[aquart]

12. Why?

Spybot deleted a bunch, but I have some I rely on........and they've disappeared. I've been signed out of everything I'm always permanently signed into. Including DU for the first time in years.

[blogslut]

16. hope you saved your passwords

My guess is you probably (unwittingly) downloaded spyware or some auto-installing software. Regardless, it is wise to flush our your cookies and other stuff from time to time. I know that means inconvenience but there you go.

Whereas SPYBOT is a very nice spyware detector, it's good to have more than one. I use SpywareBlaster, Adaware and HiJackThis in addition to SpyBot. All of them find different things.

As a last resort, I use CCLeaner to just get rid of all the crap.

[B Calm]

19. Having too many cookies stored in your HD will slow you down.

[DaveJ]

14. May be damaged beyond repair

Sorry to be a downer. But you may have to do a complete reformat and reinstall. If a virus got onto your system it may have damaged and infested so many files that getting rid of the virus itself may not help. If you want to go that route remember to save your important documents and scan them before putting them on a newly formatted system.

[aquart]

18. I think I'll have hysteria now.

[B Calm]

20. Have you defragged your computer lately?

1. Close out all programs running. Go down to the bottom of your screen and right click each little icon (MSN Messenger, etc. etc.) one by one and left click exit. This will remove it from the screen, but don't worry it will come back when we're done.
2. Now you need to do a disk cleanup. Click start, click all programs, click accessories, click system tools, click disc clean up. Do the disc cleanup at least once or twice a week.
3. After doing the disk cleanup, move your mouse down to start and click, then click all programs, then click accessories, then click system tools, then click disk defragmenter.
4. Now the disk defragmenter will appear on the screen. Click analyze. This will start the disk defragmenter, but all the analyzer will be doing is seeing how much free space you could have by defragging your hard drive. Be patient, may take awhile for it to analyze depending on your computer.
5. When the analyzer is done it will show you how much free space you could have after defrag. If you don't need to defrag, it will tell that you don't need to defrag at this time. Skip step 6 and go to step 7.
6. Ok, so now you didn't get the message, and you need to defrag. Just click the defragment and it will take awhile to perform this task.
7. When defrag is over, you need to reboot your computer. Go down and click start, click turn off computer, click restart.
8. The computer will shut down and restart. You should now will have all your icons back down in the lower part of the screen.

[Megahurtz]

22. Here's a good file cleaner

called "Crap Cleaner" that I use on my 98SE:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Too much junk will bog down the PC.
Just make sure that you do not delete any system files, and make backups of other files to be sure.

It takes a little getting used to with practice.

[unc70]

24. here is how to get real help ....

I have 40 years in the industry and hate MS, IE, Outlook, and all their ilk.

With W98SE, you are at an additional disadvantage. While you may have just a mouse problem (unplug, open it up, blow out the crud, try again). you quite likely have one of the new generation of spyware, keylogging, rootkit, nearly undetectable crap that is attacking us all. (Those of you with later versions of MS Windows aren't really much better off. Even those of you running Linux are also at risk; more about that later in this rant.)

First of all the common sense platitudes, but without added guilt: apply all available operating system, MS office, browser, firewall, antivirus, etc. updates and fixes. Block ActiveX, native scripting, anything executable, anything from Adobe and Macromedia (the nightmare of SWF ActiveScripts. even on Macs and Linux), and probably anything else that is not in plain text.

Quit using Internet Explorer (and Outlook). Please. Step away and download almost anything else for your browser -- things like Firefox, Opera, Seamonkey, w3m. Trust me, it can't be worse.

Then (from safe mode) run every known virus and spyware scan: Symantec/Norton, McAfee, Panda, Kaspersky, SuperAntivirus, Ewido, Adaware, Spybot S&D, HiJackThis, ... cleaning as you go.

Empty your Windows XP cache, delete those funny things in your Registry, and on, and on, and on....

and then ...

You are still probably screwed, infected, with your private info being captured by keyloggers and sent to the Ukraine, Thailand, or who knows where. BTW they are trading on your Ameritrade account. downloading a of bunch kiddie porn onto your system, and who knows what else.

Even know-it-alls like me are vulnerable. A couple of weeks ago I discovered a Shockwave Flash transparent image invisibly overlaying my browser window, intercepting my mouse and keyboard input and modifying the web pages I was accessing and probably sending my input and queries to unknown parties. (For the technically inclined, the scripting in ActiveScript within SWF can do almost anything to your system, even with the very latest version and updates, even on Mac and Linus. See places like www.securityfocus.com and search on the products you currently depend on.)

If you now think you could be at risk, I suggest visiting http://www.spywareinfo.com where you will find a variety of tutorials, links to some essential software, and a dedicated group of volunteers who are almost always able to cleanse the infected system, often after a lot of effort.

BTW reinstalling your system and starting over probably won't help much. Maybe next time we can consider wireless, infected iPods, pre-hacked disk drives, video hardware, digital cameras.

[Garbo 2004]

25. Broadband Reports has a security cleanup forum which provides help.

If it's an infection, not a hardware/software problem. First before posting in the forum have to follow the instructions here to clean up what can be cleaned up with the recommended apps and then log what's still there: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/13616 . (And yes, there are still antivirus/antitrojan apps that run on W98. There also are free AV's for ongoing use but an AV alone IMO is no substitute for safe computing practices some of which unc70 has mentioned.)

[Stephanie]

26. i once crashed right before the election and i rented a laptop cheap

it was crazy, i just HAD to have a laptop for election night. PM me I will give you the number. It was reasonable. They deliver.