Virus? problem Help!!!
 

Hello,

I have been to fix my girlfriends computer, but I am baffled.
She has a 1 yr. old HP notebook running Windows XP with an up to date subscription to Norton.

Every time I reboot her computer, Norton anti-virus auto protect is disabled. I enable it, download the latest virus def's, and turn the virus protection all the way up to max, but the next time I reboot, it is disabled again. When I try to run a virus scan, her computer just shuts down a minute or so into it.

I have tried booting in safe mode, but the computer shuts down immediately.

When I go into the bios to change all the settings back to the default, the computer shuts down before I can change anything.

When I try to boot from a disk, the computer shuts down.

This seems to be related to aol instant messenger because she got something on her machine that would send messages to everyone else. She didn't fix it, and then the more serious problems began. Also I am unable to disable AIM from loading at startup.

She tells me that she does not have a real rescue disk or a copy of all her software.

I know I am probably not providing enough information, but her computer is not in front of me now and I will try to supply any additional information as needed.

What can I do?

Thanks

um... burn it? Seriously, that's one nasty virus. My first instinct would be to reformat that sucker and start from scratch. she HAS to have a recovery disk somewhere. ask her to show you EVERYTHING that came with the computer. it's in there. but, if it's shutting down when you boot of a disk, then that's gonna be difficult... dunno what else to tell ya, man, but good luck!!

have you tried booting off the norton CD, and let it do it's thing?

um, she has nothing in the way of disks. Her parents may have saved some stuff back at her house, but it's not likely. This was her first computer, and I don't think she knew enough to save all the little extras that came with it.

hmmm, I have a norton cd of my own, that might be a possibility, but I am pretty sure the computer will shut down before it tries to boot from a disk. It was turning itself off when I was in the bios too, go figure.

Try an on-line scanner first to knock out whatever virus that is running active on your machine. It will also help you figure out which virus you has gotten and will tell you the right procedure how to get rid of it first..

I think the problem is that she has a Trojan horse. She has opened something in her mail that drilled a hole into her system, and someone else has control of it. (*hence the e-mails from her name*) Also, it will turn off your Virus software due to the fact that it will check for the trojans when it runs. That is just a change in the registry, nothing really hard to do. I would say that you should unplug your modem, then try to do the virus scan. That should allow you to do it without it shutting down. I would also check your registry (*Start/Run/regedit*) to see if there is an entry in the Norton file that makes it disable. (*to fix that problem*).

Hope that helps some. :)

Sorry, off topic. ICPD, this is the first post I have seen from you in a long time. WELCOME BACK!!!

Thanks Ratman. Glad to be back. (*now if I could only get this 'rookie' from under my name... :)

If it is being remotely controlled by someone, disconnect the internet connection before booting up. Then when it's booted, try running norton av and see what it comes up with.

could it be something else? hardware? like is something overheating and that's why it wants to shut off all the time? it seems really weird that you couldn't even work in the bios.

maybe reset the bios by physically shorting it out, (on mine you pop out the backup battery and then short a jumper on the mobo)

anyways i'd get in there and check the cpu temp

I tried going to pcpitstop.com and using their online virus scan, but the computer just shuts down. After that I unplugged the ethernet cable.

I will try to check the registry the next time I see her, but I suspect the computer will just shut down on me again.

Oh, I did get a virus alert from norton the first time I manually enabled it and turned the virus protection to maximum, but the computer shut itself down again before anything could be done about it.

If it were my computer, I would reset the bios via a jumper, but I dont want to void the warranty on her machine. I think she might just have to take it to a repair place.

I have been wondering whether the problem is actually a virus, and a hardware problem that causes the computer to crash, but it doesn't seem to be very random. It always happens when I try to mess with anything, and almost never when I just try to use the computer.

I didn't think there was much I could do, but I was hoping for a magic fix or something.

Thanks for all your help!