Spyware Problem

Am having real problems with spyware.
Symproms, crashing software. Try to run superantispyware � get error message. Try to run System restore, get to the page where have selected the restore poin, then click next on the confirmation page and it just hangs. Try to update windows, get error message. Try to access IE, sometimes get to Google and sometimes IE just stops.
I am sure this is a spyware problem, can anyone offer any advice. Oh, also ran hijack this and it reckons no problems

it certainly sounds like it could be spyware / virus / etc trouble.

The best way to check & clean any infected windows pc relies on having access to another windows box. Take the hard drive from the infected pc & mount it in a usb drive chasis, plug this into the 2nd machine & do your virus / spyware scans there.

This gets around the problem of trying to disinfect an operating system we already know is compromised & that we cant trust, most spyware etc these days will make attempts to disable any antivirus stuff on your machine / prevent you accessing windows update etc.

Its not too much of a question about what software you use (we all have our favourite antivirus / antispyware / firewall), dont forget all this stuff we load our PC's down with is really to stop us getting infected in the 1st place, cleaning up afterwards is a much harder game these days.

You could try Ad-aware and Spybot S&D both free to see if that cures it. You may have to download on another machine to disc so maybe no updates.
Other wise it could be a complete re-install.
y2apm's idea could work but make sure any other machine up to date protection.
Have you run your antivirus scan?


.

Malwarebytes is worth a try. As is Asquared. As the others have said run your AV scan.

http://live.sunbeltsoftware.com/

In reply to a post by blfamily:

Malwarebytes is worth a try. As is Asquared. As the others have said run your AV scan.

Both are good.

Can highly recommend Malywarebytes and A-Squared and you should run them in Safe Mode with System Restore turned off

Spot on but turn it on afterwards.

Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Apr-09 09:48:30)

Yes indeed , turn it on again

Thank you very muich to everyone for help and advice. I removed the HDD< connected it to another machine. Ran Super Anti Spyware & NOD 32. They found nothing. I checked this thread a bit later and some people had suggested a-squared. I have never heard of this before. Well, the HDD connected to another machine, I ran a-squared and it found two bits of malware, both Trojans. I cleaned them after the scan and everythign is fine once more. ery many thanks to everyoine here, really appreciate your help and you allowed me to fix my machine without a worrying reformat and reinstall.