Computer help needed

[Intrepid]

i have a virus on my computer,
normally that wouldn't be too much of a problem because my virus scanner could find and remove it, or at least tell me where it is and i could remove it manually (in safe mode or whatever)
but the virus kills the virus scanner every few seconds so i can't do a scan, and i can't find the virus itself even when i did a search for files modified in the past couple of days, i also went through msconfig and the registry and stopped anything suspicious starting but that didn't help.

what can i do to remove it?

(Windows XP SP1
Norton AntiVirus Professional 2003, updated 2 days ago
also system restore is disabled)

[Harkoliar]

nasty.. can you try and do it in safe mode?

[Dundee Slaytern]

1) Are you sure it is a virus?

2) Do you get any error messages?

[LennonCook]

Kick it. Or lick it...

[Intrepid]

norton (the one part i could open) told me:
"Error: "Integrity of Symantec product settings cannot be verified at this time. . ." (1005,4)"
and told me to go here

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...cument&src=_mi

i could remove it in safe mode, but i can't find the file

i am 100% sure it is a virus

lennon, i have done both.... repeatedly

[ 04-23-2004, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Intrepid ]

[Bungleau]

Try going to Trend Micro and use their house call (www.trendmicro.com). It does an on-line scan, and can confirm if you're infected or not, and if so, what's got you.

[Intrepid]

House call found 2 viruses
one was the AV/FW killer which it couldn't delete
the other was more worring
it seems it sends my windows serial to a mail account
i can't remove either, i logged into safe mode with command prompt and deleted both but they re created themselves, and i can't find where they are being created from

the windows serial one is "winkey.dll"

so format is looking like a good option

ok i have 70 gig to backup now....

[Vaskez]

Damn, nasty. However, it is reassuring to know that we will always be in ultimate control. If something is using your email, you can disable it by not connecting to the web And like you say, if something takes over your HD, you can kill it with a reformat. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA! Bit of a bitch though. Make sure you don't back up the virus files

[Intrepid]

haha yeah,
i think i will partition my harddrive so i don't have the problem of backing up 70 gig, i'll try using partition magic or something and formatting the windows/infected section.

i am very annoied, but luckily so far i have only gotten replies of "the emailaddress you are sending to is full" so hopefully my serial is still mine

[Animal]

Had a similiar experience myself.

Just finished re-installing XP, and downloaded SP1. Everything went fine, next was to load Zone Alarm and Norton 2004. Everything was great until I hit Norton, and the darn thing just wouldn't start, it kept shutting itself down.

After about 5 re-installs, I tried one of those online virus scans, and low and behold there it was. It appears that everytime I downloaded SP1, this nasty little bugger came along with it.

I only really clued in when I was looking through the running processes and noticed something unfamiliar. It wouldn't let me open System Configuration, Help and Support, Norton and a few others. Since I'm running NTFS, the Norton Rescue disks were useless, so I headed over to Symantec on another PC and downloaded the removal tool for it. That's the great thing about Norton, if NAV can't remove it, they usually have tools on the website to get rid of it.

I don't recall the exact name of the little critter, but dig around a bit on Norton's web site and you should be able to come up with a solution that doesn't involve a reformat.