How long does your Spybot scan take?

Forgot about a step to take before doing a repair.

Try the system file checker tool http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-24.html

Regards - Charles

 

SpyBot S&D Version 1.4
48038 critters in definitions
10/20 definition update
3 minutes 56 seconds complete scan
15.6 Gigs Used space on C Drive
18.7 Gigs Free space on C Drive
5 HDD System

This SpyBot scan was done after cleaning all temp files and pre-fetch.
Picked up 5 incidents with 2 bad guys.

Not trying to rub your nose in it, just giving you a comparison.

 

Rockster2U: Glad to have more comparisons. It's becoming clear something is wrong with my system, and it seems to be outside of Spybot rather than inside it.

For the past 2 days I've been working on preparing a bootable XP SP2 CD as recommended by charlesvar to do a system file check. Nerve-wracking. I was trying to slipstream XP and SP2, but it turns out my XP installation disk already has SP2 on it. So now I have to go back a few steps and take a different course. Additional AVG and TrendMicro scans find things, but deleting them doesn't cure the original problem.

 

Hi BOBBO,

Not clear on why you're trying to create a boot cd if your XP CD has SP2 on it - the XP CD is bootable and should be all you need.

Regards - Charles

 

Charles:

That's pretty much the conclusion I was clumsily arriving at. When I first entered into this process I didn't realize my XP CD had SP2 on it, so I thought I needed to start from scratch. I'll try to find time today to make some progress.

 

Finally got around to running the System File Checker Tool (sfc /scannow). Found nothing, was asked nothing.

Wondered if maybe something was wrong with Spybot after all. Ran the uninstall and also deleted the folder from C:\Program Files. Rebooted. Downloaded Spybot 1.4 and did a clean install and full update. Began a scan and it behaved the same as before -- oomed up to 499/48038 and stuck there for a full minute, moved to 500/48308 and stuck there a minute, then zipped up to 12xx and stuck for a minute, zipped up to 1600 and stuck again. Same pattern as before, so I bailed out.

Ideas?

 

Hi BOBBO,

Have you tried asking at the SpyBot forums? The same with Ad-Aware. If someone else has had this problem, it may lead to some insight as to what the problem is with your system.

You might as well take all these steps before doing the drastic steps.

Regards - Charles

 

Knowing next to nothing about your setup its tough to provide anything very specific but you can do a little general housekeeping before running any scan like SpyBot S&D. Personally, you might want to try something like CCleaner or CleanUp! utilities to automate the process of removing temp files, unnecessary junk and clearing your pre-fetch folder. I like CleanUp but I don't let it remove cookies. Also, just how fragmented is your system drive - it can make a difference. Then one would want to consider what else is running in the background and just what kind of horsepower you have under the hood. Obviously, a Pentium 233 MMX isn't going to rifle through this like 64 bit FX processor. You may also want to add another anti-spyware program to your arsenal that is going to get stuff AdAware and SpyBot might not - yes, I'm talking Ewido or as its now called, AVG Anti-Spyware. I'd also send you to your Event Viewer to check your application and system logs to see if you have anything hanging up on a regular basis.

Good Luck - something like this has to be frustrating. I'll stop short of sending you out to pick up a few rootkit scanners, but if all else fails - holler back and I'll make 3 or 4 recommendations. Hopefully, we don't need to go there.

 

Some interesting developments. I'll leave my signature showing this time so the details of my system will be more readily available.

I tried another Sybot scan and had the same thing happen -- it zoomed up to 499/48440 and then stuck there for a full minute again, then up to 500 and stuck again, so I bailed out. I ran an AVG scan (with NAV disabled) and it found 11 traces of a trojan, Downloader.Agent.uj, and 70 cookies. Deleted them, rebooted, then wondered if the latest ZoneAlarm would do a better job of catching such things (I'd gone back to 6.1.744.001 a few days ago). Installed it, rebooted, ran Spybot, same thing, stuck at 499. Started an Ad-Aware scan and it froze my system solid. Task Manager couldn't even thaw it. Rebooted, dumped the newest ZA, went back to that older one, rebooted. Ran a Spybot scan, again stuck at 499.

Went to the Spybot forum and saw a post regarding that particular trojan (see paragraph above). Decided to check Norton's listing of known bugs. Lots of Downloaders, but not the one I got. Went to their on-line support and had a lengthy on-line chat. Serious bug, needs to be remotely removed by a specialist. For $69.95. Chat got longer, as I felt NAV let the bug get by. Either they fix it for free or, if they never heard of this variant, they can request a report and produce an update so other systems will be protected. Nope. End of chat.

So I'm back here where things get fixed and for free! The issue now seems to be that Downloader.Agent.uj trojan. All my programs are updated, numerous recent defrags, and NAV and AVG aren't both enabled at the same time. Now what?

LATER: It's been an interesting day. I googled for that trojan and found on the Wilders Security Forums a thread containing a link to a fix -- rmdlagentuj.exe -- and downloaded and ran it. Rebooted, did an AVG scan and bingo! no more trojan. Ran a Spybot scan and for a change it went right through in 7 minutes. It found: Pipas.A, Statcounter, and Windows Security Center.AntiVirus. Fixed those and ran an Ad-Aware scan. It went through OK without jamming things up, and found nothing. So right now the problems appear to be fixed. Two possible exceptions: The malware could reappear tomorrow, and I still have the older ZoneAlarm version installed and running. Don't want to press my luck.

 

Hi BOBBO,

Glad that your problems are seeemingly over

You should really think about drive imaging as I mentioned in an earlier post - that would have saved you lots of time and worry.

Good idea - v6.5 causes some weird problems:

2nd CD Drive Loses Drive Letter Assignment At Bootup

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=58663

It is Pro - but a good example of seemingly unreleated problems that software can cause.

I also know from your past posts that you update ZA almost immediately - I don't think that a good idea - firewalls are not like AV's, really no need to do that.

I also posted a thread about ZA v6.5 updated by ZL w/o the user's permission, can be circumvented by changing the Check for Updates to manual: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=58903

Regards - Charles

 

BOBBO:

Congratulations - It sounds like your persistance is paying off. I'll also throw out a little more food for thought. Although I used to be a big fan of Norton, I've pulled it off all of my own machines and no longer use it for others either. Even though you feel that you can manually control it, you might want to consider removing it all together. This is not an easy task. Just uninstalling Norton and its basic components (Live update, Live Reg) is still going to leave you with all kinds of embedded files. The Norton removal tools don't do much either. If you want to totally remove Norton, holler and I'll walk you through picking out all the pieces and cleaning up your registry. Its your call.

 

spybot scan

Hi Bobbo, I read your post and it made me think about the scan time on my computer. It took exactly 8.29mins to do the scan and picked up 3 items. 80 Gig HDD. I find this General Discussion Forum most enlightening. Merry Xmas to you all from Neil in New Zealand.