Very strange...

[Genesis15]

My hdd makes loud noises "somtimes" depending ont he current load... when i first format my computer runs crispt... internet runs good, games run good, downloads go good... But.. about 14 or so days after installing, depends usually my computer starts acting up... Programs take forever to load, games slowdown a lot.. My downloads speeds slow down and my ping is raised a lot... Somtimes I can't boot, and I get a Microsoft popup stating I have critical errors with my system.. Basically at first Computer = Like New... But 7-14 days after format = Total Meltdown on my comp. I'm thinking somthing is wrong with my HDD but how can that be the cause for all of this? or maybe my OS is corrupt... I need help... Specs:

AMD 64-bit 3000+
512 PC2700
60gig Maxtor 7200rpm
Windows XP Home

 

[tk11]

Check for viruses. Aside from the "loud noises" comming from your hdd it sounds like a virus or viruses are infecting your fresh install.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: tk11
Check for viruses. Aside from the "loud noises" comming from your hdd it sounds like a virus or viruses are infecting your fresh install.

Yep, check his thread here, he's infected it with what appears to be a MyTob variant and its buddies. What became of your antivirus scanning there, Genesis15?

 

[Genesis15]

I have nortans 2004, I've ran many scans... I can be infected even after formatting? and it can be long term?

 

[mechBgon]

There are new flavors of Mytob every day, sometimes every 1-2 hours. Norton releases updated definitions every week. You can see where there's a window of opportunity there.

Mytob has lots of variants, and they have different behaviors. Some install SDbot worms to make your computer take orders from outside and carry out criminal acts like participating in Distributed Denial Of Service attacks (DDoS), send Spam, and try to infect more computers.

Since you have Mytob and Norton 2004 isn't picking up on it, something's wrong. There's a special class of viruses called "rootkits" that wedge themselves underneath Windows and filter what Windows is allowed to see, resulting in invisible viruses that are being hidden by the rootkit. And naturally the rootkit won't let itself be detected either. They're rarer but they are out there. Mytob.AR and Mytob.AD use rootkits.

Anyway,

1) answer my question about what firewall you use. Also, what Service Pack level does your Windows have?

2) run a LiveUpdate of your Norton 2004. Go through all the configuration panels and max out the Heuristics, enable scanning within compressed files, and enable every other detection option too.

3) get today's Intelligent Updater and use that to top off your Norton definitions to the very latest version

4) get the manual McAfee scanning tool, and unzip it as the directions in my text file say.

5) Restart the system in Safe Mode and run the McAfee scanner and also your Norton scanner. The McAfee scanner will vanish when it's done. Write down precisely the names and variants of anything Norton reported.

6) Restart the system in normal mode and post what you found. McAfee's findings will be in a file called C:\Report.html.

Make sure you run your scans while the computer is in Safe Mode.

 

[redbeard1]

XP can install on a hard drive that is degrading. It maps out the bad sectors at the time of the install. There may be other things going on, but I'd download the tools and boot to the diagnostics to see if the drive is going bad. It's something to eliminate.

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