My Laptop is Infected with Spyware

[Jimbub]

I wonder if someone can help me?

I am having trouble with my laptop which has recently been infected with malware/spyware. My laptop locks up and freezes intermittently when Internet browsing and after using Malwarebytes and Spybot. I have to shut down and restart using the power switch.

I am running Windows XP Service pack 3 and have the latest free versions of Avast, AVS Firewall, Spybot and MalwareBytes.

To give you an outline, Avast detected a threat on a website so I opened Avast and found 6 infected files which I deleted from the virus chest. I ran Avast quickscan and moved 6 infected AMRes-de.dll files to the virus chest. Avast then prompted me to run a bootscan which detected some infected files (WIN32:Trojan-gen and WIN32:Malware-gen) in Sytem Restore, Temporary Internet Files and a folder in My Documents that I use to back up my data. I was unable to delete, repair or move the infected files from Avast bootscan and had to ignore the files and boot to Windows.

I was unable to restore to a previous restore point. I turned off system restore point and did a full system scan using Avast and Malwarebytes but nothing was detected.

I uninstalled Avast and tried to install Anvi Smart Defender 1.8 but the install did not complete so I removed Anvi Smart and re-installed Avast. I ran another full system scan with Avast and Spybot but again nothing was detected. I turned System Restore back on. I have checked several times and there is no WIN32:Trojan.exe or WIN32:Malware.exe running in Task Manager.

I have backed up my System Registry using ERUNT and have the log files.

Regards

Jimbub

[shelf life]

Hi Jimbub,

Your post is a few days old. If you still need help post your DDS log.


locks up and freezes intermittently:
This symptom you describe is not necessarily a result of malware.

[Jimbub]

Hi Shelf life,

I am afraid my laptop has died. I need a new motherboard and it will take 7 to 10 days before I can get one. Is it still worth posting the DDS logs I have saved or should I wait until I get the new motherboard and then create new logs?

Kind Regards

James

[shelf life]

hi,

Wait until you get the new board installed although at that point they wont be needed. Most likely a new board will require a reformat/re-install of Windows. In which case afterwords: you will have a malware free machine.

[Jimbub]

Hi Shelf life,

From what I understand I will install the new motherboard which will work with my existing hard drive and the O/S will not have to be formatted/re-installed, but I will still have the problem of what I believe to be spyware/malware on the hard drive. Of course I could erase the hard drive and then rel-install the O/S to remove the infection, but then I would lose all my data which I was hoping to avoid.

I think all I would need to do to the new motherboard is possibly update the BIOS.

[shelf life]

ok good luck. Personally, its not something I would do with out a reformat/reinstall, just to avoid potential conflicts.
Post a DDS log when you are up and running.