PC problems

My PC keeps rebooting all of its own accord. I have something called a
'Holica b' trojan downloader somewhere, but I have run the latest update
of AVG and it still comes back. At one point I looked up on the web how
to remove it, followed the instructions and thought it had gone, but I'm
still getting an AVG window popping up telling me it's still there. I
also have something else residing on the system somewhere. I have run
Spybot and Adaware but even after they've run I still keep getting
random advertising pop-ups when in IE.

Now the thing keeps shutting down and rebooting every 5 minutes or so.
WTF is going on, can anyone help? I'm even thinking of reformatting and
starting again.

 

AVG should give a location for the offending file, go there and delete
it or if it's in 'System Volume Information' then turn restore off,
reboot and turn restore back on.

 

Boots Blakeley wrote

This is the important bit right, the turn off the restore part of it I
mean?

 

For the pop-ups, you want hijackthis:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html but FFS be careful what
you do with it...

Unless the pop-ups are coming from Messenger or something else?

Do you have the latest version of Spybot? Don't forget the updates.

 

AIUI yes, XP home keeps restore information in System Volume
Information, a system directory which if you've got networking on is a
PIA to gain access to, XP Pro is different I think. Turning restore
off and rebooting empties the directory. <wibble flibble etc>

 

Have you tried loading Stinger (it's a mcafee app, google for it)

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X
BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

Dan L says...

Downloaded, set it up, ran it and my PC s still working, hasn't shut
down and no pop-ups yet.

Thanks.

 

You may have acquired onr of the RPC viruses that were doing the rounds a
while ago such as the lovesan worm. These use a "Remote Procedure Call
(RPC)", initiated by NT Authority\System that shuts down Windows (you might
also see svchost.exe error occasionally). Do you get any kind of warning
before it shuts down?

Tony

 

TMack says...

There was no warning, it just switched off and rebooted. I checked task
manager/applications, I have 5 svchost.exe listed at 3,320K , 2,736K ,
16,656K , 3,600K , 2,412K. Any idea why I have so many of these?

 

Dunno, but I have 6 running so ner.

You may find Kelly's Korner of some interest for XP problems:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm

There is an A-Z of stuff, have a look at "reboot" (that's under "R")

 

ITYF the rebooting is not required.

 

Blimey. May be able to claim some of the crdit for that. Not much
though. Twas a bloke in the US put it together.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24

 

Thanks for that, saves me a bit of time next time I need to do it.

 

raden says...

Turn off restore where?

 

raden says...

There is no settings option once I click Start in XP Pro.

 

Try Start > Control Panel > System > System Restore

That's the path I take on my XP Pro machine

 

Statto says...

Thanks, done.