[jezza]

Ok the situation is,

one of my neighbours rang me to say his pc had black bugs running all over his screen, and he was losing his files rapidly, he uses xp home. I was busy but got round there in half an hour. I sat down to find 'all programs, control panel, my document/pictures/music/videos, my computer, win media player, search, and log off' had all disappeared from the start menu, and his desktop icons were disappearing one at a time. I pulled his modem cable out of the computer and the disappearing icons stopped disappearing. I then find out that he had no firewall installed and xp's own firewall turned off. I then find out he only had the trial version of AVG 8 that was telling him he had viruses and spyware but needed to purchase to remove.

I tried to reboot to go into safe mode and see if i could salvage anything only to find it wouldn't shut down, so ended up pulling the mains plug out. In safe mode everything works as it would and everything is there (ie all the missing folders). Upon booting normally it has the missing folders again.

What should i do? From what i can tell either he was hacked or a nasty virus was deleting his system. Strangely his internet connection was left intact. But i cannot do anything unless it's in safe mode.

Lastly, it is an oem pc so no cd to re-install with. Nothing works in normal mode.

Thanks.

[evilfantasy]

Thats a new virus that's spreading like crazy. Do our Malware Removal Guide and post the logs when complete.

[jezza]

I'll be on his pc again on thursday so i'll get back to you.

[evilfantasy]

No problem.

[cheesepuff]

that link doesnt work...and what is the virus called?

[evilfantasy]

Originally Posted by cheesepuff that link doesnt work...

Fixed!

Originally Posted by cheesepuff and what is the virus called?

trojan_w32_pakes_csg

his pc had black bugs running all over his screen, Thats a new virus that's spreading like crazy.

I've helped remove nearly a dozen of these in the last week.

[pete21]

i had that virus from downloading a sound driver off the internet...i just re installed windows

[cheesepuff]

i wonder if there is a computer version of the AIDS virus....

[jezza]

Well i was going to sort his pc out but upon my return there today he has borrowed an xp home cd, wiped, formatted and re-installed
, so i have nothing to do to it

Cheers for the advice guys, at least i now know what the prob was if i need to sort it again.