Ad Aware scan reboots PC

[Q]

I have some messed up spyware on my PC that I can't get rid of. I used to have Ad aware, but now when I run it, as soon as it starts, it finds an infected module somewhere in C:/windows or something like that, which is fine, but then 5 seconds later it reboots the PC. EVERYTIME

So I uninstalled Adaware and put in Spybot and Windows Defender, have scanned with both a few times, it deleted some stuff, and I reinstalled Ad Aware, but same thing happens.

How can I fix Ad aware to work? I like it better than the others and it gets things the others haven't/can't.

 

[John]

Ad-Aware is an inferior tool to be quite honest. While it was a top tool a few years ago it no longer detects a lot of malicious content and lags behind the competition. Please click on the URL in my sig for instructions and quality removal tools. Be sure to reboot to safe mode w/ networking before you do anything!

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: John
Ad-Aware is an inferior tool to be quite honest. While it was a top tool a few years ago it no longer detects a lot of malicious content and lags behind the competition. Please click on the URL in my sig for instructions and quality removal tools. Be sure to reboot to safe mode w/ networking before you do anything!

personally I don`t like bit defender at all!!
But the rest is good stuff!!
I use a Linksys Router that has a hard firewall and I also have found that using a sodt firewall along with the routers firewall adds added protection!!
Personally I use ZoneAlarm free firewall as my soft firewall!!


A Squared along with HiJackThis are both superb programs that are very useful in detecting and getting rid of hard to delete spyware as well as other programs!!

 

[cubby1223]

Ad-aware is fine, but no way should you trust it to completely fix a problem. It's a very fast scan that almost always indicates that there is a problem to investigate further, and usually cleans up enough of the system so the other tools will run faster. That's why I still use ad-aware. But yeah, whenever you have malware on the computer, there's always the possibility of system errors & reboots, Ad-aware is probably finding something, and it's the other running malware that's what's causing the reboot.

 

[Slowlearner]

OP, You have to clean up the old fashioned way:

1. Windows updated
2. AV updated, but not run
3. Update both spybot and ad-aware, but dont run them.
4. Turn off System restore
5. Using something like startup.exe from mlin.net, check your startup files and remove any that are doubtful - re-check using google what they are for, dont remove if not sure
6. Disconnect from network, start in Safe mode and run AV, then spybot, then adaware,
7. If everything is clean, turn on system restore, reconnect to network and reboot.
8. No luck, run a scan at housecall.trendmicro.com or an online scan at kaspersky.com.
9. Report back with what you come up with.

 

[mechBgon]

Hey Quintox, what exact malware has been found so far? Name some names (look in Defender's history and Spybot's recovery for the names of stuff). Any idea how it got on the computer initially? A new program you downloaded, new website you visited, you let your friend use your computer...???