A new customer calls, saying he has a few annoying problems:
- The PC is running slow (this is very familiar to me by now)
- Web browsing (over dialup) is very slow.
- PC spontaneously wants to dial the internet (he now disconnects the phone line to prevent dialups)
- Constant windows popups
- He has new stereo speakers, but only 1 speaker works.
- 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.