Spyware/virus infection

[Elizabeth]

My dad has a Dell computer running Windows XP. When he turns it on, he keeps
getting popups that say the computer is infected with spyware. The computer
is not even connected to the internet. When he tries to connect to the
internet, all of the pages say they can not be displayed so he can not
download any spyware removal stuff. The computer has run slow and certain
things like the background on the computer can not be changed. How can he
uninstall the spyware without having to connect to the internet? He has
bought spyyware removal software and nothing has worked! My HP computer had a
program that was called system recovery where it recovered the PC back to the
factory shipped product but this Dell has nothing like that. He has tried
System restore and it has not helped. Thanks

 

[nass]

My dad has a Dell computer running Windows XP. When he turns it on, he keeps
getting popups that say the computer is infected with spyware. The computer
is not even connected to the internet. When he tries to connect to the
internet, all of the pages say they can not be displayed so he can not
download any spyware removal stuff. The computer has run slow and certain
things like the background on the computer can not be changed. How can he
uninstall the spyware without having to connect to the internet? He has
bought spyyware removal software and nothing has worked! My HP computer had a
program that was called system recovery where it recovered the PC back to the
factory shipped product but this Dell has nothing like that. He has tried
System restore and it has not helped. Thanks

You need or He need to download the Off-line scanners mentioned below on a
CD/DVD and run a scan on His machine.

Go through these Cleaning steps:
1... First, try to clean up your caches, Internet files and delete cookies
by doing this:
Click Start >> Control Panel >> Double click Network and Internet
Connections >> Double click Internet Options.
On the IE properties windows you will see these Tabs:
General | Security | Privacy | Content | Connections | Programs |
Advanced
Under General Tab clear your History, Internet Files and Cookies.
Then click on Advanced tab and scroll down to under the Browsing Option:
[&] Browsing
[ ] Enable Third-Party browser extensions (Req Rest) uncheck this box.
Then click on Programs Tab and click Manage Add-Ons and Disable all non
Verified Add-Ons (You should Renable them later one-by-one and see the
culprit and update it or remove it.
How to manage Add-Ons:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883256
Scan for malware from here:

SuperAntispyware - Free
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
RootkitRevealer v1.71
By Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Security/RootkitRevealer.mspx


Run a scan from here off-line scanner:
Download Avast Cleaner (offline scanner) from here:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html


2- Download the Hijackthis and send the report to one of many
forums for analysis and troubleshooting:
http://www.merijn.org/index.php
When all else fails, HijackThis v2.0.2
(http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis) is
the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. Post
your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
forums for expert analysis, not here.

If you need more help please contact me at:
to_you_rossatyahoo.co.uk for more help, if you wish.
HTH.
Let us know how it is going.
nass

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My dad has a Dell computer running Windows XP. When he turns it on, he keeps
getting popups that say the computer is infected with spyware.

It is infected. The program that is popping up these messages is
itself malware, probably one of the variants of the Smitfraud Trojan.

Read here:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

and here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Smitfraud_Trojan

He may have to read these pages on some other computer, and even
download tools on another computer to bring to his.

The computer
is not even connected to the internet. When he tries to connect to the
internet, all of the pages say they can not be displayed so he can not
download any spyware removal stuff. The computer has run slow and certain
things like the background on the computer can not be changed. How can he
uninstall the spyware without having to connect to the internet? He has
bought spyyware removal software and nothing has worked! My HP computer had a
program that was called system recovery where it recovered the PC back to the
factory shipped product but this Dell has nothing like that. He has tried
System restore and it has not helped. Thanks

No, System Restore won't help. He could also try a professional
service firm (not Geek Squad, or one of the other big box stores), but
he should realize that worst case, he may have to reinstall Windows
cleanly and start all over again. Contact Dell for instructions on how
to do that.