Gah, it's dead, Jim
 

So, my folk's PC, a win7 desktop, seems to have a virus. No outward signs but it runs really slowly, you cannot open the Task Manager or McAfee. Any suggestions before I reformat?:k_confused:

Could be a hardware thing.

If you do - purge all of your external flashdrives/HDDs using an ARM or other non standard system. BIOS persistent viruses are like AIDS, you need to take measures.

Ouch. Do you have a restore point you can go back to ?

First thing I'd do is a Malwarebytes scan. It's so reliable you don't even have to look at what it found: say "kill it all" and be done with it. Run the scan and eradication twice. Then go to bleepingcomputer.com and download and run ADWcleaner. It's free and finds things that Malwarebytes won't. Reboot and I'll bet it runs faster.

You could type Windows-r and do and type "msconfig." you'll get "msconfig.exe" in the results box. Click on it. Then you can go to the startup programs tab to look for programs starting with the system. You're looking for ones that are unfamiliar or those you know you don't want. Google the unknowns to see what they are. You can disable them right there in msconfig.

If your antivirus has been running the chance of a virus is low. It's much more likely that adware/spyware is just clogging the works and once it's out of the way their system will run well again.

Depending on age and how intensly the HD/system was used, I would consider to reformat the drive to kill the data (if it is sensible data, reformat and then also overwrite 3-5x), but to install on a new HD.

I once did all the installation combo and detailed FS installation and all those many addons I used, very time-consuming, took me two days - and one week later the HD broke down, this time for technical malfunctioning. The Bird was not amused.

Its no big money these days. If its older than 18-24 months, consider a new HD.

If you consider to "repair" or to "clean" the installation you suspect to be infested, the only advise you need to know, is this: once corrupted, always corrupted. You can never be certain if you only "repair" it.

That is irresponsible to advise, Robbins. MBAM is very good, yes - but not fail-safe. On very rare occasions it can produce false positives, though much more rarely than any AV suites I have ever used. And I use MBAM as long as I can remember. Two or three years ago they also messe dup people'S PCs by a terribly flawed update which made many people to reinstall.

You always have to have a very close look before hitting the "proceed"-button.

No security software is out there that you should trust blindly. Never. Even more so since today these security programs themselves get attacked to find entrance into the system. This turns them into a vulnerability themselves.

A "very close look" means nothing to 99% of people. You're best off by trusting what Malwarebytes shows you. At worst you might someday have to reinstall something it gave a false positive on. That's a tiny price for security.

I wish. I get the restore option to appear but clicking on it does nothing. No response.

Same with running McAfee or Malwarebytes, they don't seem to work.

I will probably back up all the files on a flash drive and reinstall Windows.Been a while since I've done that, so I'm due, I guess.

Did you try booting into safe mode and then running them?

that wont wipe out bios persistent payloads

I will try that next

Think again. You want to save files from an possibly infested system - and then play these files back onto a fresh system...? :o

No-no.

Better use an older data archive you have - even if that means you lose some of your latest data. It should be a data status from before your system got infested.

Also, if it is a high end persistent payload - it spreads without any file transfer, just by plugging the USB drive or external hard drive.

These people are too paranoid. ALWAYS start from the simplest and most likely fixes and do the weird stuff only if that doesn't work. Chances are of this BIOS and persistent virus stuff of being present are very, very low. The vast majority of slow computers only have spyware and adware going on. If your computer handles millions of dollars in confidential transactions, is involved with international espionage or terrorism, disregard my position.

A simple MSE or other antivirus scan will find most other problems and eradicate them. Yes an atomic bomb will kill a mosquito, but does a lot of collateral damage in the process. Of all the hundreds of computers I've fixed I've only dropped the thermonuclear device a couple of times. The rest were simple fixes and remained fixed until they brought them back with newly acquired adware and spyware.

Yes, vaporizing all of creation will fix all problems. Permanently. No, it usually isn't called for. It's called minimum necessary use of force. Ask any police officer what that means. You can stop any crime by shooting the suspect dead. Assuming he needs to be dead is usually a mistake. A doctor usually doesn't amputate an arm for a hangnail.

Man, today I went to start the computer up to a power off State and it just says "logging off"

Hey, it never logged on!

So, couldn't get the PC to work properly so I reinstalled Windows 7 from the disc. That went well, but I whiffed by the step where it mentioned partitioned drives. So not it appears the PC has a drive C: with 280 free GBs and a Recovery Drive E: with about 350MB and only 55 MB free. And it appears when I add files and installed programs to the PC, it adds them to the E:drive, which is rapidly running out of space.

So now I am looking for a way to change the size of the partitions. But hey, it runs fast like it used to :)

Is the Windows directory and Program Files - Program Files (x86) on Drive C: ?

It should be booting to Drive C: and Programs should be installing to Drive C:

That is the objective. If Windows etc installed to drive C: it should be relatively easy to get it to boot to drive C:

It shouldn't be booting to drive E: and Programs should not be installing to drive E: either. Drive E: or drive D: is the recovery drive.

It's hard for me to give advice over the internet. Hopefully the Guru's will chime in.

Oh, were spot on, the first time I reinstalled Win7 yesterday, I breezed through the screen about where to install Windows.

I reinstalled again, this time I selected C: and all is good. PC is fast and nice again.

Great news!

Was it possible to boot to a Safe mode?