Pop up virus, please help!

[Butterscotch]

I have a terrible popup virus which gives me unending viagra and casino adds and even takes over my background picture and all the browsers. My computer will now only open in safe mode and is very limited in what it will do. I have run AVG every day, and every day it says it finds and quarentines the virus, but the next day it's manifested itself again. I have tried to go into the files and delete it, but now it's attached itself to something in my system 32 and I fear that every day it will go deeper and deeper until it destroys my registry. Before I take it to a shop and spend money I can't afford, is there any advice any of you may know or have that will solve this problem for free using something simple? I am desperate so I thought I'd try asking first. Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[Galeongirl]

Use a spyware/adware program to scan, the program adaware is quite useful, and as someone on here advised Malware Bytes, that one's good too.

Besides, you could try a program like CCleaner to fix the registry if it's infested.

 

[digitize]

My honest advice is to backup all your files and run the system restore disc that should have come with your computer (or re-install Windows manually if you know how to). That will wipe out all of your data and restore your computer to the exact state it was in the day you bought it. But I, being my paranoid computer-neat-freak self, really don't trust anti-malware programs to screw with my computer.

Also, do yourself a favor and install Firefox.

 

[DRay9911]

something similar happened to me on sunday

did a new icon that looks like a virus protector and asks if you want to fix your computer show up on your desktop?

-dan

 

[sue4u2]

I didn't see any new icons, but something happened while I was trying to follow the setlist party yesterday. It was going along fine then the pages started taking a long time to load and I couldn't keep up with what was being played.
I've run adaware, ccleaner and scanned with my anti-virus progam,and nothing was found.
It's still taking forever to get from page to page and some pages won't load at all.
I've just done a system restore back to earlier this month with hopes that it won't take 5minutes or longer to submit this.

 

[sue4u2]

I have a terrible popup virus which gives me unending viagra and casino adds and even takes over my background picture and all the browsers. My computer will now only open in safe mode and is very limited in what it will do. I have run AVG every day, and every day it says it finds and quarentines the virus, but the next day it's manifested itself again. I have tried to go into the files and delete it, but now it's attached itself to something in my system 32 and I fear that every day it will go deeper and deeper until it destroys my registry. Before I take it to a shop and spend money I can't afford, is there any advice any of you may know or have that will solve this problem for free using something simple? I am desperate so I thought I'd try asking first. Thanks for any help or advice.

Well, sys restore worked for me. Just out of curiousity what does one look for in the files and how did you find it.
Good luck Butterscotch I hope you can get it fixed without spending too much money.

 

[SethVincent]

I need to vent for one second

I don't know WTF is up w/ my computer but it keeps freezing up on me & takes five minutes to exit the damn browser & I have to start all over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Butterscotch]

Thank you all for your help and responses!

YES it does install itself as an icon on my toolbar, Dan. What did you do about it?

YES it did start out as a popup asking about security, but I never clicked on it.

I still have to run my computer in safe mode, and AVG and Adaware are useless. Sometimes it goes online, sometimes it won't, it's like it's scrambled its memory and it never really knows what to do. Some things work, others don't, next time something else shuts down.

What's happened to the rest of you, has it stopped on its own, or have you found out how to destroy it? I do NOT want to run a system restore because I have no confidence in my ability (or even a store's) to successfully completely save all my valuable stuff.

 

[DRay9911]

what i did was right click on the new icon and select 'properties'

in the 'target' section it will probably point to the c-drive...

c:\program files\blah\blah\blah.exe

click "open file location" and it will bring up the folder where the .exe file is located.

delete everything in the folder first, and then delete the icon on your desktop.

hopefully when you restart your computer, you won't get the popups

-dan