HELP!

Nikolas · Thu 04/05/2006 19:17:41

Ok!

I just opened my cmoputer and I can't run anything at all!

All the files have been renamed with the extention lnk...

No shortcut or anything works!

No idea what's going on!

The word files (doc) show that they can be opend by word and if you double click them they open word. The same applies to all the files saved for various programs (lie cubase, or Finale, or Word or anything like that).

But no exe file works!

Save me

Please...

PS. Norton probably is not working...

Afflict · Thu 04/05/2006 19:36:42

Sorry nik what extension is the files renamed to ?? .dll

Tuomas · Thu 04/05/2006 19:45:11

Yeah, sorry from me too, I got a little excited. You know, tracked your ip etc. I'll recover it as soon as I find out how it's done. You know, young and wild, when you get something to your head, you do it, no matter how crazy it is.

edityeah, sorry for that, I'm a bit daft today... You know, young and wild, when you get something to your head, you do it, no matter how crazy it is.

lo_res_man · Thu 04/05/2006 19:49:58

If the programs arn't renamed something already in use, or dangerous, (like *.DLL)
try something like a batch renamer. http://www.nonags.com/nonags/fileren.html
(and no thats not Non AGS

) BTW if ALL the files are renamed how are you using windows? Last time I checked Explorer is an exacutible.
PS do *exe AUTOMATICLY turn into whatevers or can you install other programs?

Afflict · Thu 04/05/2006 19:56:54

Crazy interesting maybe the virus or whatever didnt attack OS

Now if you can manually kill it using the ren funciton that would be funny command rocks!

PS: I kinda figured its not AGS it says NON-AGS

SSH · Thu 04/05/2006 20:39:48

Errr... extensions are ALWAYS .lnk... I think you should just try restarting in safe mode before you go renaming stuff

Afflict · Thu 04/05/2006 20:50:13

http://www.pcmightymax.net/cgi-bin/view.cgi/pcweb201/download.html?dllfix.net

I found this if it might help...

Becky · Thu 04/05/2006 21:13:16

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

lo_res_man · Thu 04/05/2006 21:26:48

Quote from: Nikolas on Thu 04/05/2006 19:17:41
Ok!
I just opened my cmoputer and I can't run anything at all!

erm.. this isn't importent, but does that mean its a laptop?

Barbarian · Thu 04/05/2006 23:13:02

Sounds like it might be a form of the "Sircam" virus.
You can find out more about it and how to remove it over here:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@mm.html

But, it's possible it not a virus and some drivers got corrupted, or some settings got messed up somehow.Ã,Â Try first booting into Safe Mode (Usually this can be done by tapping your "F8" key on a fresh boot and before the Windows logo appears, then a "Boot Up" menu will appear).

Once loading into Safe Mode, try to do the System Restore option and pick a checkpoint of a date to before the problem occured. Settings will load in and reboot the computer. It will take a little extra longer when loading in once you get to your desktop screen but this is normal. If successful, then you'll get a message from Windows telling you the System Restore was successful.Ã,Â Ã,Â If so, then see if the problem is still there. If so, then perhaps it's something serious like the virus, or Windows has become seriously corrupted somehow.Ã,Â Salvage whatever important files you can, and you may need to do a fresh reinstall of Windows. But of course leave that as a last option if you can not find a way to repair things. You might also try to do an "Repair Install" of windows.

You never mentioned what Windows version you're running, but if you're running XP, you might consider trying to do a "Windows XP Repair Install", before doing a full install:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ã,Â Ã,Â Not sure what else to tell you at this point without being there and seeing first-hand what the problem might be.Ã,Â Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

*Edit* There's a good Free Online Virus scan over at Trend Micro:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Which may help to find and identify any viruses that may be lurking on your computer. But, that is of course if you're still able to connect to the internet with that computer anymore.

Nikolas · Fri 05/05/2006 06:39:36

Ok news update:

Things are still shity!

I did try to open it in safe mode and didn't work, so I thought, what the heck lets try system restore. SoÃ,Â I went a couple of days earlier.

Niente!

BTW, I use windows XP Pro and have Norton and Ad Aware and Ad Watch.

Anyhow I open the computer once more and the first message I get from Ad Watch is: "Warning, someone/something is trying to alter protected files..."(the Regedit.exe!!!!)"... What do you want to do? Accept / Decline".

And guess what no matter what I do, the registry is changed. Ad Watch is not able to block it. And this happens for another 20 times, and by the end of it nothing can be used. Except as I said if you try running the files ascociated with a certain program. So I can use Word, as long as I open it by running a doc file. The same goes with everything else.

So my solution up to now?

I didn't Block or accept the Ad Watch. I have left it waiting

I have backed up all the things I need basically... So the basic question is this:

Will the format everything option save me, or afte half a days work I'll get the same problem?

Thanks guys!

EDIT: Norton can't find anything with the latest updates and also Ad Aware can't find anything. No virus seems to be in my system...

Barbarian · Fri 05/05/2006 08:10:29

Go here and download the "Hijack This" utility:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

If you need help figuring out what might be a "bad / nasty" entry after you run it, copy and paste the results of the scan here in this thread, and I might be able to tell you if there's any "nasties" hiding on your computer that may need to be removed.

Don't remove any entries yet though untill you're sure of what's a bad entry, and of course it's wise to make a registry backup or make a System Restore checkpoint before making any changes to the registry.

PS: There's also a lot of other good utilities on that page such as "CWShredder" and "StartupList" amoung others that would also be worthwile checking out.

Afflict · Sat 06/05/2006 03:11:02

Thats sucks nik well I would back up everything of any signifigance and format the thing.

Goodluck on that!

rharpe · Sat 06/05/2006 03:54:00

Hey Nik, it's all those pr0n sites you visit! I knew it wouldn't be long before you would get hit with a virus.

Ok, seriously now, this is definitely work of an application that is running in your systems registry or startup. You need to find it, and then kill all instances of it. Did you previously install anything on your system? Uninstall it and see if this will fix the problem. And DEFINITELY use the HijackThis software to scan the registry entries to see what isn't right. (You should be able to spot it.)

Is there anything in the task manager that you see is running that looks suspicious? From the run command type "msconfig" to see if something unwanted is running in the startup of Windows.

Nikolas · Sat 06/05/2006 16:22:29

Barbarian, Rhapre, afflikt and everyone else who kindly helped (also lemmy...)

I'm done!

I mean I'm back!

I actually just reformatted the old disk, bought a new one, bought a new graphics card and that's about it...

I'm currently installing the things I need to install...

Thanks once again.