OS WinXP Home Ed. SP2, updates current, McAfee Internet Security 8, Lavasoft Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG spyware thing (latest version)
I noticed either Sunday or Monday that my PC was frozen after leaving it on overnight. I usually leave it on nightly. I didn't think much about it and shut it off improperly to have it freeze again and again. I got suspicious about a virus or spyware and ran Lavasoft Adaware which found Win32.TrojanClicker (4 files) which it quarantined. I ran Spybot Search and Destroy afterwards and it found nothing. My PC continued to freeze up. I did a system restore sometime but now cannot remember if it was before the trojan was detected or after, but it was done the same night. The PC screen was black after the restore, so I rebooted and restored it back (or canceled that restore...not sure what term to use). Maybe I was too hasty in undoing the restore?? I downloaded AVG latest version spyware thing and it finds nothing. Neither does Adaware, McAfee or Spybot S&D. I tried Panda but could not get it to scan. I read everything about posting a Hijack This log and downloaded everything to get ready to go to Safe Mode and scan when I read the disclaimer on system restore that if I turn it off, all restore points will be lost. I thought if this was not a spyware problem, then maybe I would be advised to restore, so I decided I better post before I did that step. However, the night I did the restore and then undid it, I tried to pick several different restore points and none of those would work. While none of my scans are showing anything, I am still thinking that it is too much of a coincidence that my PC began freezing and then I found a trojan. My son had been on the PC on a gaming place he saw on Cartoon Network. He says nothing weird came up and he didn't download anything. He says a McAfee firewall alert popped up and he clicked to block the change. Could the trojan be gone but something is still messed up in the registry from the trojan? What would you recommend me to do next? I would almost reformat, but I am not 100% sure all my photos, music and Word docs are all backed up, though many are. I am very careful where I go online and what I do, and have never had a problem like this before. However, the PC keeps freezing! It seems to be doing it less frequently, but it does it sometimes after I turn on the PC (after turning it off so it doesn't freeze while it is sitting idle), last night it froze when I tried to download something from my email to my 2nd hard drive used for storage, it froze when I opened RawShooter, it froze as the PC was shutting down, it froze twice while I attempted to download the Superspyblaster (or whatever it is called, the one listed on here to download) and other times too (I just can't remember all the times). When trying to download the Superspyblaster, I clicked on the link which took me to the page for the product. When I clicked to download it, an alert popped up telling me to see the info under the toolbar which asked me if I wanted to download this and if so, click here. Each time after clicking, it froze, but when I tried the third time, I held down the ctrl button which allowed it to download (without the message popping up) and the PC did not freeze. Also, I just remembered, when I ran AVG in normal mode, it worked fine on my C and K hard drives. I had forgotten to plug in my external drive (I am keeping it off because it has many photos on it) and when I plugged it in and started the AVG scan again, it froze before finishing, getting maybe halfway thru the scan. One other thing I have noticed at times, down at the bottom in the little bar where it shows the Internet icon, the icon to click to check to see if this is a phishing site, and where the privacy report eye thing is, sometimes as I see the address of the site it is connecting to (like say
Yahoo!), I will quickly see about
:blank and then its back to the address. Sometimes I see about
:blank at the top in the address bar for just a second. I had wwwcoolsearch on the PC about 2 months ago or so, but it was quarantined by Spybot S&D and nothing else has shown up in any scans since. I have wondered though if the about
:blank was spyware too. However, after finding the Coolsearch, my PC was not freezing until either Sunday or Monday. Sorry this is long, but I was trying to be as detailed as possible! I am awaiting an answer to tell me what to do next, and should I turn off my system restore, and should I go through all the steps and post a hijack log! Thanks so much in advance!