Need help with rundll32
 

I've developed a problem with my pc....everything I can google seems to indicated my rundll32.exe file has been taken over and it tells me to reinstall it.

Problem is...my computer didnt come with a windows xp disk... can someone tell me how I can find the file to replace the one I have?

I dont suppose the rundll32 file on vista is the same as xp?

what's the actual probelm you are having?

it should be different for Vista than XP.

I've developed some virus/malware/spyware thing. I've run three virus/malware/spyware programs, they all say they are getting rid of threats (the same ones every single time) but yet when I reboot Im still getting massive IE popups even though I dont open it. I have some file called

tuvVLLKe.dll that I cant get rid of. Security task manager keeps telling me it cant quarantine it and that it will do it on reboot.....it doesnt though. AVG, Spybot and panda all three say they are getting rid of things and they come back on reboot.

Whatever I have has wiped out all my restore points so a system restore isnt possible.

Im at my wits end

okay let's start with these steps:

Thanks Cyn :icare: I will have to do this tomorrow as I have no way at home to print out those instructions, so I will print them at work and do all of that!!

you can already run Hijack this and put up the information that it turns up that will help alot.

Yeah, having a HijackThis log will help us nerdy folk to figure out exactly what's going on...

Also, as a note, if you're attempting to clean up an infection you should always do it in safe mode. Your AV software won't be able to alter files that are in use by a running process, so it won't be able to get rid of an active virus. Safe mode circumvents that by only running the absolute bare necessities to get you to the desktop.

Thanks y'all....I was trying one more program while Cyn was posting last nite (SpyDoctor) and its *seems* that it cleaned it up, after the initial run thru it identified something all the other programs didnt .... 3 reboots and 3 rescans later it hasnt show up yet.

I AM going to do the hijack thing though just to make sure and I will make sure to post what it says when I get to do it. (just a note though, Dave is coming home from California today so Im hoping Im gonna be kinda busy tonite hubba hubba lol)

ok...here is what hijackthis says....

I had it fix several things that looked extremely funky....and when I rebooted in regular mode....I didnt have near the problems I'd been having

There's a lot of unnecessary software running, but that's pretty much par for the course with Acer notebooks. I suppose unnecessary is a subjective thing.

Everything checks out as legitimate. Barring any further issues and assuming I didn't miss anything, I'd say you're free and clear. Cynthetiq ought to be able to verify.

nothing seems out of the ordinary (aside from all those extras) everything looks legit.

good then what I took out...or had it "fix" worked (fingers crossed)

its running a lot better now and no popups

thank you both for your help :)

Can I just say for all the talk I've heard of how great Panda was....I hate it worse than Norton lol

For anti-virus, I'd just stick with AVG. It's free, and it's effective. AV programs don't generally play well with each other, so it's best to just pick one or the other.

I deleted all of them but my spydoctor with anti virus....do you think that will be ok?

The reason I did it was because between spydoctor, spybot, avg, and panda...spydoctor is the ONLY one that actually did anything about the infections it found

Spyware Doctor is specifically a spyware tool, and won't protect you from viruses. For that you need AV software.

Spyware/adware = software that collects surfing habits, changes your homepage, causes pop-ups etc. Not debilitating unless there's a lot of it, but certainly annoying.

Viruses = worms, trojans, and other software designed specifically to attack your computer.

Malware = all harmful software (spyware and viruses).

You had a spyware infection, and Spyware Doctor + HijackThis took care of it. AVG didn't do anything because AVG is anti-virus -- spyware is outside of it's scope.

Panda comes in two varieties, and one only handles AV while the other is a more full-featured security suite. According to what I've heard they're both crap.

For spyware detection/removal, Spyware Doctor is supposed to be quite good. So sticking with that should be okay. For anti-virus, though, I strongly recommend sticking with AVG.

umm....I hate to argue but the version of spydoctor I have also includes antivirus...its not just spyware

http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/

My mistake then. I'm not up to speed on Windows security software these days.

If it gives you protection from viruses as well as spyware than that should be fine.

The thing that really bugged me was that both AV and Panda said it identified spyware....and got rid of it.....but on reboot it was always still there. the version of AVG I had (v 8) specifically said it worked on virus, spyware and rootkit

oh well...hopefully its all sorted now!!!

@ Shani: I always thought spyware doctor was trialware, and I think it still is-

"The trial offers time unlimited real-time protection (free spyware blocking), but does not remove threats detected during on-demand scans, updates may also differ to those supplied to registered users."

Personally, I like AVG. I used AVG with Spybot, ZoneAlarm (firewall), and Ad-Aware with no problems. If you like the all in one packages: there is bundle of software from Avira, it includes free anti virus, AV removal tool, anti-rootkit tool, boot sector repair tool, file recovery tools, NTFS4DOS, and a "rescue system" tool. I don't know what the last two are, but I can say that every German and their mothers use Avira products. They still need a firewall, and they also all use ZoneAlarm.

I have a registered version, not a trial version