A new customer calls, saying he has a few annoying problems:

1. The PC is running slow (this is very familiar to me by now)
2. Web browsing (over dialup) is very slow.
3. PC spontaneously wants to dial the internet (he now disconnects the phone line to prevent dialups)
4. Constant windows popups
5. He has new stereo speakers, but only 1 speaker works.
6. He would like to "upgrade" windows… not sure what he means, but I'll find out when I get there.

Turns out he has a malware infection. He tried running zone alarm to control the dial outs. But without any anti-virus & anti-spyware measures, his PC doesn't stand a chance.

And he tells me not to worry about his speakers… they are faulty and he will get a new set.

He also runs XP service pack 0   😮

So after a quick scan (and I manually disable anything nasty from auto-starting), I install SP2.

However, AntiVir still keeps picking up a vundo infection within ddccc.dll (and cannot remove it). Ok, I'll start in safe mode. But Antivir & ewido still cannot remove this beast.

Given the time this is taking, I eventually take the computer back to the office & scan the internet.

Fixing this particular infection would have been so much easier to fix over a broadband connection.

Anyway, I eventually find an great way of removing it (using vundofix.exe) from: http://www.atribune.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t1444.html . Note: do NOT try the fixvundo.exe from symantec, it doesn't seem to work.

I still have a problem with auto-dialers, but a quick run with hijackthis, and another scan with antivir & ewido, and everything is rock-solid.

I update xp with the latest patches, and then hand back the PC.