Rootkit, anybody?
I was just about to suggest the same as mook too but the trouble is these days most laptops don't have floppy drives and vista and 7 (and later i assume) don't seem to have a pre-boot dos prompt to use 
I'm working on a laptop now thats also been hit with a rootkit, the antivirus had expired (free but the owner being a woman didn't know how to renew it - despite the onscreen instructions) and had several other expired similar products too.
Somehow the laptop got hit with a rootkit and all hell has broken loose. It still sees other machines on the network via ping but the browsers cannot access anything via http - even on my intranet so something is clearly screwed up!
I know that feeling Dom. This same laptop I mention above has been here before last year and was in just as bad state then. To add insult to injury it was also badly overheating and needed a complete backup too and was incredibly noisy
Nasty job that, I ended up dumping it out in the kitchen just to escape the noise and then once I'd VNC'd into it and backed up everything I ended up stripping the damned thing down to parts. The cooling fan being the bit i wanted to get to of course being the very last part to come out of the system buried under everything else.. was completely clogged with a carpet of dust on each set of cooling fans. That also took me a few days to sort out.
I now have it here again and guess what... IT'S THE BLOOMIN SAME! Stuff dismantling it again though, last time I got a "thanks for that.. we didn't get you anything though" so considering the same repair would cost £150+ with most laptop specialists I'm just doing as little as possible this time - rid it of the nasties and give it back. At a push i might reinstall windows if i'm really forced to..
I'm working on a laptop now thats also been hit with a rootkit, the antivirus had expired (free but the owner being a woman didn't know how to renew it - despite the onscreen instructions) and had several other expired similar products too.
Somehow the laptop got hit with a rootkit and all hell has broken loose. It still sees other machines on the network via ping but the browsers cannot access anything via http - even on my intranet so something is clearly screwed up!
Quote from: DomS I've had one machine that was so riddled with stuff after contracting a rootkit that it took a clean boot with Hirens, a disinfect then some serious repair work afterwards - three days to rebuild that machine
I know that feeling Dom. This same laptop I mention above has been here before last year and was in just as bad state then. To add insult to injury it was also badly overheating and needed a complete backup too and was incredibly noisy
Nasty job that, I ended up dumping it out in the kitchen just to escape the noise and then once I'd VNC'd into it and backed up everything I ended up stripping the damned thing down to parts. The cooling fan being the bit i wanted to get to of course being the very last part to come out of the system buried under everything else.. was completely clogged with a carpet of dust on each set of cooling fans. That also took me a few days to sort out.I now have it here again and guess what... IT'S THE BLOOMIN SAME! Stuff dismantling it again though, last time I got a "thanks for that.. we didn't get you anything though" so considering the same repair would cost £150+ with most laptop specialists I'm just doing as little as possible this time - rid it of the nasties and give it back. At a push i might reinstall windows if i'm really forced to..
Quote from: ReedRichards A computer that keeps coming back with the same sort of virus problems possibly isn't being 'cured'.
It doesn't keep coming back, this is the second time i've had it. The last time it was cured and it is this time too (now i've spent ages on it since my last post).
I've not bothered dismantling or reinstalling though, i've just ridded it of everything, run several more scans after (which always turns up stuff that was being hidden by the previous nasties) and eventually got it nice and clean. Internet works again too so she will be pleased.
Can you believe the last time i repaired it (taking it apart, sorting out the cooling fan and fins and applying new thermal paste), i asked them to pay for the thermal paste as i had none left.. and they even took the rest of it with them
Not that they'd ever use it or know how but they took it simply because in their eyes, they'd paid for it. Stuff the out of work guy repairing it for free (for two employed people) who might be able to use it 
Some people are so tight their backsides must squeek
Quote from: 7up ...the out of work guy repairing it for free (for two employed people) who might be able to use it
So why do it? You're depriving some poor techy of work that he/she might need to feed the family, you get no thanks and you quite possibly encourage a careless attitude towards the computer that lands you with much the same thankless task a year later.
Quote from: ReedRichards
Quote from: 7up ...the out of work guy repairing it for free (for two employed people) who might be able to use it
So why do it?
You know I keep asking myself that. I'm a mug.. I was brought up with the christian attitude of always help others. Clearly that doesn't work in the real world does it.
This is the last time i touch this laptop... i'm not doing it again. I've had enough of freeloaders.. it gets me nowhere.
