System Tool virus and malware removal

[seeker630]

My laptop has become infected with the "System Tool" malware/virus and it's blocking almost everything with its fake scans and warnimgs of infection. I've found several sets of instrucitons for removing it - I wonder if anyone else has encountered it & successfully removed it? I'm guessing I'll spend a big part of tomorrow (Tuesday) dealing with it.

 

I'm also disappointed that my AVG Antivirus didn't catch/stop it. I have Norton on my desktop machine, and no infection thus far, but I'm not a big fan of Norton!

 

Anyone else encountered this?

[Kevin Slater]

Sorry I can't help, but suspect you'll get a better and quicker response if you post in Daddy's Place.

 

Kevin Slater

[nate_sf]

This happened to me once and I ended up having to have Geek Squad come and fix it. The malware is horribly stubborn and I couldn't figure out anything myself. Good news was that Geek Squad was able to come to my office and got it fixed quickly - it's faster for them to do a fix onsite than it is to leave the computer with them at the store.

[+ deej]

This one masquerades as another AV program, so I'm not surprised that it gets past a lot of other AV programs.

 

Looks like removal instructions are all over the net. Just make sure you get them from a *reliable* source! A lot of virus authors circulate bogus removal instructions with things like "download this tool" except the tool is more malware.

 

Good luck!

[Diverdan]

It was the Geek Squad for me. I had a terrible virus that got by Norton... now I have Kaspersky and have had no problems. The other virus was so bad that EVERYTHING had to be erased and even the operating system had to be reinstalled. They were only able to save a few things from my files, as the virus had infected almost everything. But, they saved the laptop and reinstalled the operating system and the Kaspersky anti-virus programs at no cost. Great service. Sorry this happened to you, it is a mess to deal with.

[seeker630]

Sorry I can't help, but suspect you'll get a better and quicker response if you post in Daddy's Place.

 

Kevin Slater

 

Hi Kevin,

 

I considered that, but in the end I thought I'd go for the wider audience here, since Daddy's Place doesn't seem very active, and I thought some of the non-techies here might have had actual experience (as Nate did).

[jackcali]

I believe my old laptop was once infected with this virus -- and it came from a totally legitimate website, like CNN or my local news channel's site. The instructions I found on the internet (using someone else's computer) worked for me. As I recall, it involved booting up in safe mode and then running an anti-malware program called Malwarebytes, which is (or anyway was) free for download. I had the software already on my computer when the infection occurred, so the remedy wasn't that difficult once I found the instructions. I don't know if you can find the software and download it using your infected computer, even in safe mode.

 

Good luck to you.

[seeker630]

I believe my old laptop was once infected with this virus -- and it came from a totally legitimate website, like CNN or my local news channel's site. The instructions I found on the internet (using someone else's computer) worked for me. As I recall, it involved booting up in safe mode and then running an anti-malware program called Malwarebytes, which is (or anyway was) free for download. I had the software already on my computer when the infection occurred, so the remedy wasn't that difficult once I found the instructions. I don't know if you can find the software and download it using your infected computer, even in safe mode.

 

Good luck to you.

 

Jack, that's exactly the path I chose - I even found a video which showed all the steps. (I have an older desktop machine that I still use periodically & so was able to find the solutions). Safe mode did allow me to download & run Malwarebytes. I have Malwarebytes on my old machine but somehow never got around to installing it on the laptop I bought last year. There were a number of other solutions that were totally manual (i.e., no software involved) but I don't like to mess with registry files.

 

Anyway, it seems to be all sorted out now.

[Racketjock]

I had the same thing two to three weeks ago. Completely destroyed my computer and everything had to be erased and re-installed. I had the Geek squad do it for me to the tune of $300 and it took the guy almost 6 hours to fix. It was a pain and I share in the misery.

[seeker630]

I had the same thing two to three weeks ago. Completely destroyed my computer and everything had to be erased and re-installed. I had the Geek squad do it for me to the tune of $300 and it took the guy almost 6 hours to fix. It was a pain and I share in the misery.

 

And I share in yours! If I hadn't had my old machine to find the solutions, I would have called Geek Squad - and I almost did anyway, since the research turned up multiple solutions, most of which workedfor some people but not others!

[josephga]

I got one so bad about 2 months ago the whole hard drive had to be wiped clean and internet security missed it. I got a message that said java was ready for update. then came the blue screen saying system memory dump. computer would restart to only say system memory dump and restart all over again. i took it in and in the end i had to wipe the hard drive and re install windows

[seeker630]

I got one so bad about 2 months ago the whole hard drive had to be wiped clean and internet security missed it

 

That reminds me - time to do another back-up!

[gcursor]

cough please

 

I'd like to respond to this posting as I am quite the computer geek.

 

First of all, I'd like to remind everybody here that computers only catch viruses if they "don't play safe" so be sure to always give a condom to your computer before sending it off onto the internet where it can run into who knows what?

 

Second, I've found that LAVASOFT ad-aware is a good free anti-spyware/anti-virus utility. Further I like to use NORTON 360 as another layer of protection on top of that.

 

Third, recently I had to help a relative of mine get rid of a particularly bad virus. Although this isn't recommended, I ended up saving theirs by using the SYSTEM RESTORE feature and going back to an earlier date and then scanning it thoroughly afterwards to make sure there was no lingering infection (there wasn't). However this method typically is frowned upon because doing this can "re-infect" your computer with the same virus again meaning that you'll be in the same boat as before or worse.

 

gcursor

 

That reminds me - time to do another back-up!

[OneFinger]

As others mentioned Malwarebytes is a good program to use. It's still free. You might be able to download it on a thumb drive and then install it on your computer.

 

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

 

Another one that I've used (better than Malwarebytes) is SUPERAntiSpyware.

 

http://www.superantispyware.com/

 

The free versions works just fine.

 

I would highly recommend installing and running both of these in safe mode. FYI you may have to do multiple scans to catch all the nasties.

 

Another program I use as a preventive measure is Spybot.

 

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

 

I don't think the Spybot scans are as good as Malwarebytes of SUPERAntivirusSpyware. But Spybot can immunize your computer against known threats. Doesn't hurt to immunize your PC and then run updates regularly.

[josephga]

I had Malwarebytes spybot avast and still got a nasty bug

[jasoncarter_dfw]

As oliver's erotic technical consultant *wink*...this link will solve all your virus/malware worries:

 

http://www.ubuntu.com

 

I run it on all my computers now...it is amazing, especially the netbook optimized version

[adriano46]

Well I have to tip my hat to gcursor -- downloaded the LAVASOFT ad-aware and ran it through (took about 3 hours) and it found something and cleaned it up. Let's see what will happen in the future.

[jackcali]

Seeker, I'm glad it worked out. And thanks to everyone else on this thread for their recommendations of protective software. It may be time to rethink my malware protection.

[seeker630]

Automatic back-ups

 

Anyone have any recommendations for automatic back-ups? I'm running Windows 7.

[+ deej]

Anyone have any recommendations for automatic back-ups? I'm running Windows 7.

 

Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/)

 

A free account will likely suffice.

[gcursor]

Kind words/ubuntu

 

Thanks for the kind words Adriano.

 

Remember though, one of the things that I've found is the key to keeping malware at bay (and that Onefinger alluded to in his post) is using multiple programs. Maybe you run this one every week and another one every other week for periodic scans. Yes...I know it's a pain but with as fast as viruses/spyware gets updated, it helps to do this to make an extra-safe security net. There have been times that I've run one program and it didn't catch anything and another one might say "OH..hey..what about this?" and so this is the method that I use to keep all my private information private.

 

And yes..UBUNTU is an option if you want to reload your operating system. I know somebody in Brazil who swears by UBUNTU and has tried to get me to switch whenever I rebuild my core operating system.

 

Well I have to tip my hat to gcursor -- downloaded the LAVASOFT ad-aware and ran it through (took about 3 hours) and it found something and cleaned it up. Let's see what will happen in the future.

[JT Brooklyn]

Sorry to hear! Same thing happened to me 2 months ago...I ended up having to have DELL Remove it to the tune of $256..

 

It took almost 2 hours while I watched my PC being cleaned remotely from India! LOL

[seeker630]

Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/)

 

A free account will likely suffice.

 

Thanks, Deej. I've had a quick look and plan to install it today. I had heard of dropbox as an online storage option but hadn't realized that there was associated software with back-up & synching capabilities.

[seeker630]

Sorry to hear! Same thing happened to me 2 months ago...I ended up having to have DELL Remove it to the tune of $256..

 

It took almost 2 hours while I watched my PC being cleaned remotely from India! LOL

 

I had a similar experience last year with my older desktop machine when I had troubles with my Norton license. Someone with an Indian accent spent about 2 hours remotely uninstalling & installing Norton etc., and it was a lengthy process because we had to keep re-booting the older machine. he was very patient tho, waiting during the re-boots & re-connecting each time. And there was no charge.

[whyamihere]

Also look and sugarsync. 5gb free storage. Pretty slick and works on both Win and Mac. It will automatically backup designated files between your desktop and laptop and you can access those files from any computer anywhere.

Another is Mozy. 2gb free and also Win and Mac. It allows you to used you own encryption password (for double encryption) if you have something you REALLY want to be secure.