Massive computer issues for me
Friday, January 23, 2004 by CerebroJD | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Yesterday I was surfing the net minding my own business, when all of the sudden I get a whole bunch of pop-ups. I began closing out of them, but one thing led to another, and somehow, I ended up installing something pretty dangerous I think. I think that because last night at 8 oclock our time, my computer decided to freeze up on my dad (while I was at work). So he restarted it, and now I cannot log into either of the two users on the computer. It simply freezes up before it has a chance to do anything besides display the "Loading personal settings..." dialog. Anyways, I tried to get in via Safe Mode to recover some of my data, but it still wont let me into my user. It will let me into the other user, but since all my files in my user are protected, I cant access or copy them to another computer on our home network. So this has left me in a fine situation. 1) No backups. (doh!) 2) No access to files. 3) Possible reformat on the horizon.
Oh yeah! I also ran three different virus scans from the other user, and all showed up with no results. Nothing new in msconfig that I could find, and when I did a system restore, nothing changed for the better.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this monumental catastrophe? Any help would be appreciated. With luck, I will be able to figure out some way into the system, but things arent looking good at the moment.
CerebroJD crosses fingers
Oh yeah! I also ran three different virus scans from the other user, and all showed up with no results. Nothing new in msconfig that I could find, and when I did a system restore, nothing changed for the better.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this monumental catastrophe? Any help would be appreciated. With luck, I will be able to figure out some way into the system, but things arent looking good at the moment.
CerebroJD crosses fingers
 |
|
Page 4 of 7 | |
|
|---|
IPlural
Reply #62 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:01 PM
Reply #62 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:01 PM
ah, well if he messes it up he could be mmm, dinked 
ok ok, mmmm IPlural reconsiders typing tutor on 5 1/4, now if I could only figure out where I might have put that drive?
ok ok, mmmm IPlural reconsiders typing tutor on 5 1/4, now if I could only figure out where I might have put that drive?
HG_Eliminator
Reply #63 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:14 PM
Reply #63 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:14 PM
ok stop dinking around an les get back to the topic at hand....
JaGWiReBrian
Reply #64 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:32 PM
Reply #64 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:32 PM
Alright, as much as i'de like to agree with you, i'm going to have to disagree. I heard recovery console takes like a day to do. Also, if you think for 1 minute that this guy unforteuntly didn't back anything up, he most likely doesn't have anything that important on his computer, if he does it will be a lesson to him as it has been to most of us atleast once. Now i know im being harsh here, and im sorry but for all we know seeing we don't know this guy in real life he may just not want to have to rebuild his hard drive and think's we will find him a way to fix it. I'm not even sure if he has recovery console, and i believe that the software is quite exspensive. If you send it out to a company, it's hundreds of dollars to fix.
So honestly, I have no clue what you have on your comp, but even school assignments can be redone.
Also, i'm sure you have a printer and have everything that you've probably done printed out.
As for having passwords on your computer, well that's just plain stupidity for the fact of being lets say backdoor trojanned. Anyway, I think you should just rebuild your computer, if you want to waiste time and try recover console go ahead, but honestly, even if it work's i doubt your gonna be able to save much work. Saving stuff in this type of a situation can take day's, and it might not be worth it.
Anyway, that's just my oppinion.
So honestly, I have no clue what you have on your comp, but even school assignments can be redone.
Also, i'm sure you have a printer and have everything that you've probably done printed out.
As for having passwords on your computer, well that's just plain stupidity for the fact of being lets say backdoor trojanned. Anyway, I think you should just rebuild your computer, if you want to waiste time and try recover console go ahead, but honestly, even if it work's i doubt your gonna be able to save much work. Saving stuff in this type of a situation can take day's, and it might not be worth it.
Anyway, that's just my oppinion.
kongit
Reply #65 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:53 PM
you heard wrong. It takes about 25 minutes to install and once its installed you have the option to start into that insted of windows during boot. Recovery console is part of windows xp. you can install it from the disk. all it does is act like you had put in a dos boot disk.
And Çërêb®øJÐ how are things going?
Reply #65 Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:53 PM
| I heard recovery console takes like a day to do. |
you heard wrong. It takes about 25 minutes to install and once its installed you have the option to start into that insted of windows during boot. Recovery console is part of windows xp. you can install it from the disk. all it does is act like you had put in a dos boot disk.
And Çërêb®øJÐ how are things going?
JaGWiReBrian
Reply #66 Sunday, January 25, 2004 2:02 PM
Reply #66 Sunday, January 25, 2004 2:02 PM
Huh, i may be confused but "a dos boot disk" alright, are we talking about recovery console to recover data from your hard drive, or reformatting.
yrag
Reply #67 Sunday, January 25, 2004 2:11 PM
Reply #67 Sunday, January 25, 2004 2:11 PM
I think Justin is off re-loading his system...that's what I would be doing. I asked about a boot floppy earlier because I thought he may have corrupted his login system files and sure enough it gave him 'error code is 0x000006ba (The RPC server is unavailable)'. This error is for User authentication in any number of proggies...XP itself being one. Once that's cooked on a system, you're done. It will not let you do anything. The only way to transfer files to an un-used drive is thru Dos and then you will be transferring corrupted files as well. If he transfers the files back to the new install, he runs the risk of frying it again...
IPlural
Reply #68 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:31 PM
Reply #68 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:31 PM
yrag, yep it was noticed and part of why I've been mum. BootDisk.com will enable him to boot to the NTFS partition and also open a Dos based " Net /use " connection to one of the other systems, or to put a second drive in the system and pull what files he wants off of it.
Net /use is your friend....
http://www.computerhope.com/nethlp.htm
AVAILABILITY
The net.exe command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft Operating Systems.
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows NT
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
----------
ABOUT NET
The net command is used to update, fix or view the network or network settings. Listed in the Syntax we have listed each of net commands for additional information and examples see our Syntax section
read, read, and read again...
[Message Edited]
Net /use is your friend....
http://www.computerhope.com/nethlp.htm
AVAILABILITY
The net.exe command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft Operating Systems.
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows NT
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
----------
ABOUT NET
The net command is used to update, fix or view the network or network settings. Listed in the Syntax we have listed each of net commands for additional information and examples see our Syntax section
read, read, and read again...
[Message Edited]
Peff
Reply #69 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:48 PM
Reply #69 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:48 PM
Odds are that he will need to re-format the system (IMO). Not sure if the utilites at bootdisk.com will allow access to the NTFS partition from DOS (didn't look that hard at the site).
The following app allows you to boot in DOS and access an NTFS partition.
http://www.soft411.com/company/Active-Data-Recovery-Software/Active-NTFS-Reader-for-DOS.htm
This will allow you to back up any data you need (as yrag and IP mentioned, you should not attempt to back up and restore any system files). I've had to use it once...and it was a life saver.
Oh, and it's free.
The following app allows you to boot in DOS and access an NTFS partition.
http://www.soft411.com/company/Active-Data-Recovery-Software/Active-NTFS-Reader-for-DOS.htm
This will allow you to back up any data you need (as yrag and IP mentioned, you should not attempt to back up and restore any system files). I've had to use it once...and it was a life saver.
Oh, and it's free.
IPlural
Reply #70 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:58 PM
Reply #70 Sunday, January 25, 2004 3:58 PM
ah well
I just hope he gets what he is needing in the end so I'll keep me fingers off the keyboard for this one...
I just hope he gets what he is needing in the end so I'll keep me fingers off the keyboard for this one...
kongit
Reply #71 Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:37 PM
Reply #71 Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:37 PM
I was bumming around on the internet looking to fix a little problem of mine, and ran across some information about how your rpc could have been hacked. It looks like the safest thing to do is reformat. If you don't there is a good chance that the virus is elsewhere on your system and will come back. You could try to save some of your files, but you run the chance of the virus being in them too. Since you said that you had all of the popups at once, I think that a) you didn't have your firewall on or 
somebody bypassed it and got into your system. A likely culprit is windows messenger if you hadn't shut that off. So back where we started, I'd say that if anything on your computer isn't vitally important I'd just reformat and then reinstall windows. And when you install make sure you aren't connected to the internet so you can get all of the security stuff (like turning on the firewall and disabling messanger).
somebody bypassed it and got into your system. A likely culprit is windows messenger if you hadn't shut that off. So back where we started, I'd say that if anything on your computer isn't vitally important I'd just reformat and then reinstall windows. And when you install make sure you aren't connected to the internet so you can get all of the security stuff (like turning on the firewall and disabling messanger).
Essencay
Reply #73 Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:41 PM
I agree and when you do....update firewall definitions and anti-virus software first
disabling the messenger service (another must do)....has nothing to do with Windows or MSN Messenger which you can still use
http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html Pop-up Stopper. It's Free
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download Spybot Search and Destroy. Also Free
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ AdAware. Again Free
Also go to http://www.grc.com they've got a couple of little proggies to plug up some bad holes, you can test your firewall there, and they've got directions on the right way to configure your network so that you aren't leaving yourself vulnerable with file sharing and printing
Another thing you can do if you are using IE6 is set it up to ask whether you want to save cookies or not. Goto Internet Options-->Privacy-->Settings-->Advanced.
(Check) Override automatic cookie handling
First-Party Cookies (Accept)
Third-Party Cookies (Prompt)
(Check) Always allow session cookies
My preferences....someone else may use other settings.
Most of the Third-Party stuff tends to be spyware crap. You could have it (Block) all Third-Party Cookies, but when I go to a site, I like to see what kind of stuff they're involved with and I don't buy, sign-up or use sites with lots of pop-ups and third-party cookies, unless I'm ready to get lots of spam.
Reply #73 Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:41 PM
| And when you install make sure you aren't connected to the internet |
I agree and when you do....update firewall definitions and anti-virus software first
| disabling messanger |
disabling the messenger service (another must do)....has nothing to do with Windows or MSN Messenger which you can still use
| all of the popups at once |
http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html Pop-up Stopper. It's Free
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download Spybot Search and Destroy. Also Free
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ AdAware. Again Free
Also go to http://www.grc.com they've got a couple of little proggies to plug up some bad holes, you can test your firewall there, and they've got directions on the right way to configure your network so that you aren't leaving yourself vulnerable with file sharing and printing
Another thing you can do if you are using IE6 is set it up to ask whether you want to save cookies or not. Goto Internet Options-->Privacy-->Settings-->Advanced.
(Check) Override automatic cookie handling
First-Party Cookies (Accept)
Third-Party Cookies (Prompt)
(Check) Always allow session cookies
My preferences....someone else may use other settings.
Most of the Third-Party stuff tends to be spyware crap. You could have it (Block) all Third-Party Cookies, but when I go to a site, I like to see what kind of stuff they're involved with and I don't buy, sign-up or use sites with lots of pop-ups and third-party cookies, unless I'm ready to get lots of spam.
CerebroJD
Reply #74 Monday, January 26, 2004 2:34 PM
Reply #74 Monday, January 26, 2004 2:34 PM
Hmm. I managed to get into my Event Viewer in Administrative tools. Apparently, when those pop-ups showed up, some aspect of the Remote Desktop Connection was activated. Thats looking to be the source of my problems possibly.
We have a router with a built-in hardware firewall.
So....how do I disable this?
Travis, your suggestion is to back up and reformat? Is there any way I could avoid this? I dont want to lose all the skins I've d/l from here.
If you believe this to be the best course of action I will do it, but I would like to avoid it if at all possible.
ps: Sorry about being gone for so long. Saturday was really busy and I dont get on the computer on Sundays.
| you didn't have your firewall on |
We have a router with a built-in hardware firewall.
| somebody bypassed it and got into your system. A likely culprit is windows messenger if you hadn't shut that off |
So....how do I disable this?
Travis, your suggestion is to back up and reformat? Is there any way I could avoid this? I dont want to lose all the skins I've d/l from here.
If you believe this to be the best course of action I will do it, but I would like to avoid it if at all possible.ps: Sorry about being gone for so long. Saturday was really busy and I dont get on the computer on Sundays.
kongit
Reply #75 Monday, January 26, 2004 3:20 PM
Reply #75 Monday, January 26, 2004 3:20 PM
I believe that backing up is the best source of action, but I am sure there are alternatives. However since it appears that somehow your system has been messed up whatever happened before has a higher chance of happening again if you don't reformat and reinstall. Right now I am in the process of reformatting and reinstalling. Luckily I do have access to windows and nothing serious is wrong, just a buch of annoying little things. I have been making backup cds for almost a day now so I can save all of the stuff like skins and music that I want to. My suggestion is for you to take the same course of action. If you can't move stuff onto cds, you should at least find a place that you can move them to and they will be safe from the reformat.
You can shut off Messenger in a couple of ways. The easiest is when you are installing windows, but once you have windows installed you can disable the messenger service.
And no firewall is complete safety, unless you have an industrial cia issue one.... with a normal one its very possible for someone to break through...its just a lot more difficult than if there wasn't one.
[Message Edited]
You can shut off Messenger in a couple of ways. The easiest is when you are installing windows, but once you have windows installed you can disable the messenger service.
And no firewall is complete safety, unless you have an industrial cia issue one.... with a normal one its very possible for someone to break through...its just a lot more difficult than if there wasn't one.
[Message Edited]
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #77 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:03 PM
Reply #77 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:03 PM
To get rid of messenger, go to Administrative Tools > Component Services > Services. Right click 'messenger' choose 'stop', then properties > General > Startup Type and change to 'disabled'. That should stop your pop-ups.
JaGWiReBrian
Reply #78 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:29 PM
Reply #78 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:29 PM
Yeah, well only disable messenger when you aern't really in need of it or using your comp cause in general a lot of things that we do rely on it i believe. Also, like i said earlier and what you people probably ignored, was the best thing would be to reformat and in the future just back up and a lot of stuff, as for dling skins, dude... No offense but couldn't you be a bit more well... realistic? Wiping out your whole sysmetrix atleast once every 8 months is always a good thing, stuffing up junk and junk onto your computer isn't worth it, and downloaded stuff can always be downloaded again most likely. Anyway, like i said i suggest you just reformat insetad of waisting time. Of course you probably could send your hardrive to one of those companies that recovers stuff from them, but that's not 100% and it costs hundreds of dollars, possibly sometimes even a thousand. Also, hey if you have installed more than lets say 10 things from the internet, i'de myself just there say you should backup.
Hell, say you had a school laptop and didn't back stuff up and one day ba boom something happens, your gonna have hours to redo that work and some won't even be replacable. So yeah, backing up stuff is good.
Now they have so many good thing's to.
There are 5 ways (maybe even more) now to back up stuff.
1. Floppies
2. Cds.
3. Memmorysticks. http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_MemoryStickMedia&Dept=cpu
4. Gigavault hard drive (My biggest recommendation if your backing up a LOT). http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHK40U2&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHM40&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHCU2&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHK80U2&Dept=cpu
5. Usb data storage.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM256S&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM128S&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM64S&Dept=cpu
Now, i'm sure some of you didn't even know of all these ways.
I would recommend using using choices 3, 4 or 5.
3 Would probably be good depending on how much you need to back up and the space.
4 Would be good for backing up a lot
5 Would be good for the same reasons as 3 although 3 has more uses and can work in things such as mp3 players, digital cameras etc etc.
Hell, say you had a school laptop and didn't back stuff up and one day ba boom something happens, your gonna have hours to redo that work and some won't even be replacable. So yeah, backing up stuff is good.
Now they have so many good thing's to.
There are 5 ways (maybe even more) now to back up stuff.
1. Floppies
2. Cds.
3. Memmorysticks. http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_MemoryStickMedia&Dept=cpu
4. Gigavault hard drive (My biggest recommendation if your backing up a LOT). http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHK40U2&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHM40&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHCU2&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=RHK80U2&Dept=cpu
5. Usb data storage.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM256S&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM128S&Dept=cpu
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=YtvTQwqHDM7TQ0qS8eHZSEWLZtPGaMoR3Ro=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PC%20AccessoriesPeripherals_VaioDrivesandStorage&ProductSKU=USM64S&Dept=cpu
Now, i'm sure some of you didn't even know of all these ways.
I would recommend using using choices 3, 4 or 5.
3 Would probably be good depending on how much you need to back up and the space.
4 Would be good for backing up a lot
5 Would be good for the same reasons as 3 although 3 has more uses and can work in things such as mp3 players, digital cameras etc etc.
JaGWiReBrian
Reply #79 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:33 PM
Reply #79 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:33 PM
Can't edit, sorry. I meant to say system not sysmetrix.
Oh yeah, some other things memmory sticks can be used in are pdas, printers, televisions and probably much more.
Oh yeah, some other things memmory sticks can be used in are pdas, printers, televisions and probably much more.
kongit
Reply #80 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:34 PM
Reply #80 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:34 PM
NO. YOU NEED TO DISABLE MESSENGER. no programs need it anymore. If they do don't run them. it is a serious security hole in windows.
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 4 of 7 | |
|
|---|
Reply #61 Sunday, January 25, 2004 11:49 AM