Please Help remove infection by Win64:Sirefef-A + Win32:Sirefef-AO

OK we will skip Combofix for now as I did not expect it to find anything… Lets track down the programme that is hanging

Now we get to the tedious part,:

If windows behaves itself then do the following

Restart MSConfig and select half of the disabled services and reboot

Is the problem still present ?

If Yes then deselect half of the services that you resumed and reboot

If no then select half of the remaining services and reboot

The intention here is to isolate the one service/driver that is causing the problem

OK. I’ve done that. I’ve enabled them all (except avast for which it claimed I have to be logged in as an administrator and it disappeared off the list after that) and it’s working as good as it ever did. I can try to enable that too…from Safe mode I guess (since I can’t seem to find how to log in as an admin…and I’ve given my only profile admin privileges anyway).
But I guess that could be the problem then.

No the problem may well be related to system restore, if you use that without disabling Avast self protection it can damage the programme

I would recommend that you do the following

Download a fresh copy of Avast to your desktop http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe

Download aswClear to your desktop http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear.exe

Uninstall Avast via add remove programmes
Reboot to safe mode and run aswClear

Reboot to normal mode and install Avast
I would also recommend that you update to SP3

I’ve done all of that as you specified and nothing…the same problem. It’s obviously some issue with Avast and interference with something else. To me it looks like everything hangs up after the network connection is starting to load in the Task bar tray.

Open the Avast GUI

Go to settings and set Avast to start after other services
And select I only connect using dial up

OK. That changed very little.Avast has not loaded…it’s still hanging up (task manager says access denied). And the Task bar is non existent, anything that you minimize just disappears and won’t show up again (including the task manager) but is obviously still working in the background (Firefox asked to allow a cookie).

I’ve played around with the system a bit (nothing too drastic :slight_smile: ) and I think I’ve figured out what’s the problem. Avast is apparently interfering with explorer.exe.
Anybody has any ideas how to take care of that? I like avast and I don’t want to deinstall it if there’s some soultion.

What makes you think it is explorer ?

There appear to be a few cases where Avast and XP have problems, it looks like a conflict with other software but as of yet no common denominator has been found

Could you run a clean boot again, but this time just keep Avast enabled… Is the problem still present ?

Because explorer runs the task bar. And I’ve tried ending explorer and then starting it up again from the run box, after that it works better and other applications (like firefox) will run. Although after a while it all breaks down again.

I’ve tried a clean boot with only avast (which causes the problem same as always) and without only avast (in which case the task bar and everything else works normally).
Plus I’ve been trying to remember since when is this happening: Since I’ve upgraded Avast to the newest version the other day trying to find a way to get rid of the rootkit it kept reporting. (And I’m still a little bit worried about that :stuck_out_tongue: )

There is no sign of sirferfr on your system so you can rest assured on that

Have you tried a full uninstal/re-install of Avast using aswClear

Yes. I’ve tried that yesterday. It works wonderful until the first reboot. Then it all hangs up again. It’s obviously something in the start up process.

And thanks for the reassurance about the virus :smiley:

There was a fix for something similar earlier on… But I belive that it has been incorporated into the latest version … I will have a rummage though

OK. But I need to get my computer into at least a semblance of a working order as soon as possible because I need it for some work and so on.(I should also start thinking about getting a new one probably :slight_smile: ) So for now I think I’m going to have to remove Avast and see what other options I have.

Thank you very much for your help and patience.

Not a problem, like all software though sometimes a programme will not work on one system for no apparent reason. It appears you are one of the unlucky ones