ok heres my scenario… i believe i caught a virus. it showed up thru msn messenger (windows live messenger) as dark angel m.e. virus. then afta tryin to fight it thru boot-scan (unhandled exception error), spyware scans, etc, it wiped my drive. this happened TWICE. now i m on my 3rd fresh install and its back again. it keeps showin up afta i install windows live messenger for sum STRANGE REASON… i get da install file from da msn site, so its not like i m usin a dirty file. at least i dont think i am since its not comin from me. i hav an external hard drive but i ve scanned dat numerous times only to find nuthn infected on it. now this 3rd time around of doin a fresh install, i did try to download sum things from da net dat avast said had viruses. but dam, da EXACT same symptoms again??? i evn tried uninstallin avast, then reinstallin it, boot-scannin without updatin it (which workd, but showed a bunch of ACCESS DENIED stuff), then updated it & did a boot-scan again only to run into da unhandled exception error again. seems like dat error only happens wen its updated.
symptoms dat sumtime arise:
right click/properties (on screen) doesnt work anymore
control panel wont open
nuthn i try to open in da run command box runs
add/remove programs wont open
system restore wont work
seems like anything dat takes administrative privileges wont work so then i got desperate and installed anotha antivirus program to see if it would find sumthn dat avast isnt findin. this program wouldnt even open. then i try to uninstall it to prevent further damage (from havin 2 antivirus programs installed) and it wont uninstall! so then i came here & lookd around. i found sumone sayin scan in safe mode, which i m doin right now. da otha antivirus program still wont open even in safe mode, but wen i try to uninstall it, it lets me! so i m thinkin sumthn changed my administrator privileges or sumthn. i m not sure… i believe one of u will tell me to post a hijack this reading or sumthn like dat, which i ve neva done before. avast says its updated to da latest vps database (8-27-07) & program update.
so yea dats da bulk of my story. any ideas? i really hope wateva it is dat wiped my drive twice doesnt do it again. i m tired of reinstallin everything all ova again
any help will b greatly appreciated & thx in advance
yep. i ve heard abt da 2 antivirus program thing. i ll uninstall da otha RIGHT NOW & try to get dat hijack this log up here for u. thx for da prompt response!
I suggest that you download, install, update and run AVG Antispyware. Some users recommend SUPERantispyware, Spyware Terminator and/or a-squared (take care about false positives).
If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete than.
Also, if you still detecting strange behaviors or you want to be sure you’re clean, maybe making a HijackThis log to post here and, specially, scan and submit to on-line analysis the RunScanner log would help to identify the problem and the solution.
Currently there is a problem with the boot-time scan and they are working on a fix for it. Let us know how you get on scanning from safe mode.
As Frank said 2 resident AVs can cause conflict and rather than provide twice the protection you may be more vulnerable. So you need to choose 1 resident AV (avast) and ensure the other is uninstalled completely. You can have an on-demand AV as a back-up scanner, something like BitDefender the free version is on-demand only, which should be fine. Or you could use an on-line scanner as a back-up scan - On-line Virus Scanners and other useful Links Security-Ops.eu.tt
oh yea i forgot to mention avast keeps askin to reboot everytime i reboot. its annoying!!! 2nd antivirus program uninstalled. ok heres my hijackthis log. i ll b tryin all da otha suggestions u guys made RIGHT NOW.
Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 11:31:09 AM, on 8/27/2007
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16512)
Boot mode: Normal
Looks like you are living dangerously as there is no active firewall detected or you are using XP firewall that really isn’t good enough, you should look at a third party firewall.
Whilst the windows XP firewall is usually good at keeping your ports stealthed (hidden) it provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
Other than that I don’t see anything obvious in it, the log looks clean.
da 2nd antivirus program was avg. it never ran or updated & i deleted it. avg anti-rootkit wont run. heres one thing it found, but this was afta da 1st two times my hd “stupposedly” got wiped by dat dark angel m.e. thing
8/27/2007 10:11:14 AM 1188223874 Free 1072 Sign of “VME family” has been found in “C:\Documents and Settings\Free\Application Data\SecondLife\cache\textures\c\c252bb12-0a0f-150c-eb29-f8f35f831a79” file.
i saw this wen i first did a search on here. i rememba da file detected was NOT da avast update file. mayb da threat is gone & my windows is jus corrupted now?
i mentioned i did this already. did it 3 times… twice afta my drive got wiped da 2nd time. bootscan worked wen avast wasnt updated. bootscan didnt wrk afta it was updated.
avg was da 2nd av. neva ran & neva updated. so i uninstalled it rite away
ok i m scannin wit super antispyware and spyware terminator and they both havnt found anything. i think i got rid of da virus sumwhere along da way, but now my windows is corrupted & needs a repair. anybody else think da same? i kno its corrupted cuz i cant open certain things anymore:
user accounts (in control panel)
avg antirootkit wouldnt open
avg antivirus wouldnt open
correct. i tried to run it & it didnt wrk. this was before i uninstalled it. so i uninstalled it.
but to ease everybody’s pain here, includin mine, i jus wiped my hd for da 3rd time in 3 days. reinstallin everything now AFTER installin all da protection FIRST (super antispyware, avast, avg antispyware). wish me luck!
thanks EVERYBODY for chimin in so promptly. i really really appreciate da help.
avast is STILL da best antivirus program out there to me!
Hi all,
I’ve a similar problem as settnfires, i.e. everytime I close MSN Messenger, there’s a pop-up by avast to say that ‘dark angel m.e.’ virus has been found in my computer. However, when AVG did a scan, they could not find anything. Is the virus a hoax?
Also, it seems that I couldn’t download the latest AVG update file. Is this the result of having another anti-virus program (e.g. avast)?
For Microsoft Vista, is it normal to have a lag time whenever you’re opening windows etc? Or could be due to the ‘dark angel m.e.’?
Please advise me how should I go about dealing with the virus as I believe I’m a computer idiot. Thank you.
The worst thing you can do… both will fight against the viruses at the same time and, probably, you can have HUGE problems like conflicts and you can be even forbitten to boot or logon.
Uninstall one of them as soon as possible.
so then i got desperate and installed anotha antivirus program to see if it would find sumthn dat avast isnt findin. this program wouldnt even open. then i try to uninstall it to prevent further damage (from havin 2 antivirus programs installed) and it wont uninstall! so then i came here & lookd around. i found sumone sayin scan in safe mode, which i m doin right now. da otha antivirus program still wont open even in safe mode, but wen i try to uninstall it, it lets me! so i m thinkin sumthn changed my administrator privileges or sumthn. i m not sure… i believe one of u will tell me to post a hijack this reading or sumthn like dat, which i ve neva done before. avast says its updated to da latest vps database (8-27-07) & program update.
Thank you.