aaarrrrgggghhhh Vista!!! please help

[trouttrooper]

This is going to be long and hopefully not too confusing, I hope some of you can help me here.

So a friend of mine said he was having computer problems, wouldn't connect to his internet (satellite WildBlue). It's a Dell desktop (can't remember model #, but pretty new system) with Vista. I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem, but a system restore to 2 weeks prior fixed it. Anyway, he has no antivirus running since Norton expired on him awhile back. I figured no biggie, I'd uninstall it and load AVG for him. First problem, I can't uninstall Norton, brings up a system error. I can't open it up either, click the link and nothing happens. Second problem, I believe is related to first problem. I download the AVG file, run it, and when it tries to connect to load the program it says the internet connection was lost. HOWEVER, I can still surf the web so the connection is still working. I'm thinking Vista and/or Norton is preventing it from loading. He had tried to download an antivirus program from his wifes company and it did the same thing, downloads the initial file, but says it lost connection to download the program. Another HOWEVER, I was able to download CrapCleaner and installed it sucessfully. It just won't allow an antivirus program to install.

I don't deal with Vista much, is there something I'm missing?? I'm pretty computer literate, but I just spent 2 hours tonight and had to walk away before I put a bullet through the screen. I don't think he has a virus, because the computer doesn't act like it any other way. :mad2::mad2:

 

[NVW]

I think Norton is holing you up, try using "Revo Uninstaller" I've had good luck with it

http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html

 

[88gmctruck]

Mike, I can tell you exactly what to do. I deal with this crap at work constantly. Norton is junk first off. Secondly, it sounds like he may have picked up a virus.

First, start the computer in safe mode. To do this, when it's at the Bios screen repeatedly hit "F8" and choose "safemode with networking."

Once it has loaded, run Norton Removal Tool. this should get rid of anything norton. Restart back to safemode.
http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN&ln=en_US

Then, assuming the computer is 32-bit, run Combofix
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix

If it's 64-bit, run malwarebites anti-malware. You can run this after combofix on a 32-bit machine as well.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Assuming the virus scans come up clean, restart again into normal mode, and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's honestly a much better, lower resource intensive anti-virus than AVG.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

If this does not work, there may be another problem. Let me know how it turns out. Also, Vista is pure junk. It's a corrupt big pile of crap that honestly will brick itself from time to time.

 

[JiFaire]

Yep, David is on it. If you can't open, access, or uninstall Norton, then your friend has a bug. There are several variants of BHO (yes, you heard me, but in this case BHO stands for Browser Helper Objects - should be Browser Hijacker Objects) that prevent you from downloading new antivirus updates, or from going to sites that can clean your PC.

David's procedure should work - if not, come back here and ask some more, as there are several ways to get by this.

And Vista is junk.

 

[trouttrooper]

Thanks guys. I am very well aware that Vista and Norton is junk, in fact I helped my boss buy a laptop awhile back and I made damn sure it had XP not Vista, and the first thing I did for him was uninstall Norton that it came with. Consequently I haven't dealt with Vista much because I've successfully got almost everyone I help with computer problems running XP.

Didn't know about Security Essentials being worth anything. Last time I researched that stuff AVG was ranked pretty high for free crap.

It will be a couple days before I can get back to his house, I'll let you know how it goes. He's house-bound right now with a serious blood clot in his leg and was going stir crazy not being able to surf the web. He's watched all his movies.

 

[88gmctruck]

Well hopefully you can get him back up and running.

 

[great white]

It's not vista.

You have a virus or bug or malware.

Most common new ones show up as blocking the popular antivirus sites (ie: malwarebites, AVG, spotbot S&D, Etc).

The real nasty ones won't even let you install anit-"x" programs.

The most recent one I dealt with required me to download malwarebites on a different computer, rename it to something else (the virus recognizes the "malwarebites" file name and blocks it, I named it "getthebastard" you can call it anything), and then it would install.

Even then, it still blocked malwarebites. I had to go into the program files, rename the file from malwarebites to "getthebastard", then rename the .exe file to "getthebastard".

Then it would run, update and it found the little SOB in my machine.

By the way, this was all on a Vista machine.

Vista works fine for me, but mine is.............*ahem*.............."modified".

 

[SfcJones]

I wwuld agree with everyone else, it isn't Vista (even tho it is crappy), but I would think it is a BHO too and Norton is a POS antivirus. I run MSE without any issues and it does great and it is free.

 

[trouttrooper]

Mike, I can tell you exactly what to do. I deal with this crap at work constantly. Norton is junk first off. Secondly, it sounds like he may have picked up a virus.

First, start the computer in safe mode. To do this, when it's at the Bios screen repeatedly hit "F8" and choose "safemode with networking."

Once it has loaded, run Norton Removal Tool. this should get rid of anything norton. Restart back to safemode.
http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN&ln=en_US

Then, assuming the computer is 32-bit, run Combofix
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix

If it's 64-bit, run malwarebites anti-malware. You can run this after combofix on a 32-bit machine as well.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Assuming the virus scans come up clean, restart again into normal mode, and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's honestly a much better, lower resource intensive anti-virus than AVG.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

If this does not work, there may be another problem. Let me know how it turns out. Also, Vista is pure junk. It's a corrupt big pile of crap that honestly will brick itself from time to time.

ok, I'm at home on my machine downloading these initial files to a thumb drive to save some time when I get to his house in the next couple days (my connection is much faster). I don't know if he has 32 bit or 64. Is one version more common than the other? Without his computer in front of me I have no way of knowing. Like I said before I have very little experience with Vista so some of this takes me a little to figure out.

 

[great white]

most vista installs seem to be 32 bit in a consumer product.

 

[NVW]

ok, I'm at home on my machine downloading these initial files to a thumb drive to save some time when I get to his house in the next couple days (my connection is much faster). I don't know if he has 32 bit or 64. Is one version more common than the other? Without his computer in front of me I have no way of knowing. Like I said before I have very little experience with Vista so some of this takes me a little to figure out.

You might want to take rkill along on your flash drive as a last resort, it ties up the virus in the event it won't allow the anti malware to work.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/rkill

 

[trouttrooper]

Update: well, his wife's company offered to fix their computer for free. Company perks I guess. Any rate I'm off the hook

Thanks for the help anyway guys.