First off i’d like to say hello to the forum and all. I fix computers for a living and Avast! is a product I always recommend since its basically free and does a excellent job! I should have signed up here years ago but you know the old saying about needing help and all.
I have a previous customer who called me up a few minutes ago and says she accidentally downloaded a virus called SoundMAX. I’ve done some checking and a number of sites say that the soundmax.exe is a virus but also a legitimate program. So which is it? As of right now she is running her version of avast or some other antivirus program and she’ll get back to me when it’s done. The customer is telling me that she has no sound at all coming from her computer and that she cannot access the volume controls or the soundmax program to uninstall it or deal with the issue. she has also checked all of her connections and everything seems to be O.K… Since she is somewhat computer illiterate i can’t be sure of anything over the phone.
Since the lines seem blurred between virus and program I am unsure as to what to do if i have to go by and attempt to fix the problem. So could i get some help here? I’m not sure as to weather she has a Dell, HP, or Gateway so i’m running blind.
I’m not a specialist, so my comments here are just the most basic steps that “everyone” here knows from everyday posts.
You first should check the message Avast (or whichever AV) is telling you. Is this really an executable file? How did she get to know she has a virus? Which exact malware was detected?
In Avast, which specific shield has stopped the malware? (Tray icon, show last message may help if this was the last tray information).
What action was taken (by Avast and by the user)? Chest? Delete? Block? Other?
If it is an executable file, can you upload it to virustotal.com? Post here the link to the results.
There are additional tools to run and attach here the resulting logs, but I’ll leave those instructions to other more experienced (in cleaning malware) members.
as already said…how does she know she has a virus ?
what program detect it ?
what malware name is given ?
what file is detected and where is it located ?
thanks. I spoke with here about two hours ago and she says her antivirus software didn’t detect anything. So tomorrow I’m heading over there. It sounds like she may have messed up her drivers. But i’m not sure. So i’ll be heading over with a host of Av programs to see what i can do.