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Hi, let me start out by saying, I'm no techie, but I do try to fix things myself first due to financial restraints as a single mom/nursing student. I really could kick myself for not posting when all this started, but that's not going to help me now. The damage is already done.
My computer is a Toshiba P105, 32-bit, with Vista Home premium.
I have automatic backup through Mozy.com
Here's the story as best as I can remember and as brief as possible: A few weeks back I somehow got a Google hijack virus. I used Malware Bytes and found two Vundo viruses and cleaned them, but the problem persisted. I then used Spybot Search and Destroy, as I keep both anti-virus programs on my machine. SB found some additional viruses--Vundo and some kind of Trojan. I cleaned them off, but again, the problem persisted. I went on a search for Google hijacked, and found this site. I tried searching for a solution. The rest of the story remains sketchy, as I can't remember the exact sequence of events. But I think it went like this--I linked to a program called Combofix and ran it. First it made a restore point. then it found a bunch of what it called "rootkits", a bunch in files titled SKYNET, and some other stuff. I did hand write them out, as Combofix requested me to do so, incase they were needed later. It supposedly removed them, and the problem seemed better for like half a day, then it was back. Very frustrated, I ran MB & SB again but came up with nothing. By now I'd read that Combofix could cause big problems (I used it without fully reading the post having the link, out of desperation. thank goodness it hadn't caused me issues--as far as I know). So, I was afraid to use it again. I went back to searching. I came across a suggestion to use Avast home edition, at CNet. I ran it and it found the same rootkits that Combofix found. Although it kept popping up notices of the same rootkits and Trojans and didn't seem like it was actually getting rid of them. I ended up disabling the popup defender because it was interrupting my work. I just tried to ignore the Google hijacker by cutting and pasting addresses of what I needed, for the last week or so. Well, fast forward to three days ago... My frustraition got the best of me. I ran SB and MB, again, nothing. Went looking for Avast in search, since the icon disappeared off my screen, and couldn't find it. I figured I must have deleted the whole program when I thought I'd just shut down the defender. So, went on Cnet again and mistakenly loaded Avira. Avira wasn't any help and I'd realized I'd gotten the wrong one, so went bact to Cnet and found Avast, downloaded it, ran it, and poof, I now have nothing coming up on my screen, except a white mouse pointer. I've tried system startup repair and stystem repair, both stating action was successful but still gettting the blank screen with the white mouse arrow. I tried opening in safe mode, every version, and all that happens is some list of drivers appears and the screen goes blank again. I tried going back to the last good configuration--still blank, I tried to restore to the restore point Combofix or Avast made on 6/14, as those are the only ones showing, still blank. I obviously can't post a Hijack this log. I thought about just reloading the system with my systems disks, but my cd drive isn't working. Can I put the disks in the d-drive of my desktop and connect that drive to my laptop with a usb cable connection? Is that even what I would need to do, reloading the systems disks, to fix this issue? I don't know. I know I'm totally effed if I have to take it someplace, as I literally am scraping by financially. Can someone help me?
My computer is a Toshiba P105, 32-bit, with Vista Home premium.
I have automatic backup through Mozy.com
Here's the story as best as I can remember and as brief as possible: A few weeks back I somehow got a Google hijack virus. I used Malware Bytes and found two Vundo viruses and cleaned them, but the problem persisted. I then used Spybot Search and Destroy, as I keep both anti-virus programs on my machine. SB found some additional viruses--Vundo and some kind of Trojan. I cleaned them off, but again, the problem persisted. I went on a search for Google hijacked, and found this site. I tried searching for a solution. The rest of the story remains sketchy, as I can't remember the exact sequence of events. But I think it went like this--I linked to a program called Combofix and ran it. First it made a restore point. then it found a bunch of what it called "rootkits", a bunch in files titled SKYNET, and some other stuff. I did hand write them out, as Combofix requested me to do so, incase they were needed later. It supposedly removed them, and the problem seemed better for like half a day, then it was back. Very frustrated, I ran MB & SB again but came up with nothing. By now I'd read that Combofix could cause big problems (I used it without fully reading the post having the link, out of desperation. thank goodness it hadn't caused me issues--as far as I know). So, I was afraid to use it again. I went back to searching. I came across a suggestion to use Avast home edition, at CNet. I ran it and it found the same rootkits that Combofix found. Although it kept popping up notices of the same rootkits and Trojans and didn't seem like it was actually getting rid of them. I ended up disabling the popup defender because it was interrupting my work. I just tried to ignore the Google hijacker by cutting and pasting addresses of what I needed, for the last week or so. Well, fast forward to three days ago... My frustraition got the best of me. I ran SB and MB, again, nothing. Went looking for Avast in search, since the icon disappeared off my screen, and couldn't find it. I figured I must have deleted the whole program when I thought I'd just shut down the defender. So, went on Cnet again and mistakenly loaded Avira. Avira wasn't any help and I'd realized I'd gotten the wrong one, so went bact to Cnet and found Avast, downloaded it, ran it, and poof, I now have nothing coming up on my screen, except a white mouse pointer. I've tried system startup repair and stystem repair, both stating action was successful but still gettting the blank screen with the white mouse arrow. I tried opening in safe mode, every version, and all that happens is some list of drivers appears and the screen goes blank again. I tried going back to the last good configuration--still blank, I tried to restore to the restore point Combofix or Avast made on 6/14, as those are the only ones showing, still blank. I obviously can't post a Hijack this log. I thought about just reloading the system with my systems disks, but my cd drive isn't working. Can I put the disks in the d-drive of my desktop and connect that drive to my laptop with a usb cable connection? Is that even what I would need to do, reloading the systems disks, to fix this issue? I don't know. I know I'm totally effed if I have to take it someplace, as I literally am scraping by financially. Can someone help me?
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