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morslaMy desktop is toast, so I'm posting from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aeliel's laptop.
It's been a little slower than normal over the last fortnight, though I had assumed it was a combination of a 2002 machine, a 2009 copy of iTunes, and some kind of problem with Trend Micro's antivirus updates.
I was partly right. Something had been blocking access to antivirus updates, allowing the program to download increasingly large files (cumulative daily definition files) and then causing an error when Trend Micro tried installing the newly downloaded files. Unfortunately, Trend had been cheerfully reporting this as "Your antivirus protection is up to date! because it had successfully downloaded the file...
When I tried looking into it yesterday, I found that I also couldn't access a bunch of different antivirus websites. That got me worried enough to run a full system scan.
The scan brought up 523 infected files, mostly in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\, half of which had random greek alphabet symols for filenames.
The antivirus program then stalled while attempting to fix the first of them, throwing me back into Windows. I ran the scan again, found even more problem files, and then the antivirus program shut down and wouldn't reopen... and neither would any other program, as each mouseclick resulted in "SHELL32.dll not found" errors.
Windows Explorer screens (My Computer, etc) still worked, so I warily grabbed a few essential files (InDesign docs for work, etc) on a spare thumbdrive and then tried unsuccessfully to do anything else. Even trying to shut down the computer failed, bringing up the same error messages. I disconnected the thumbdrive (which the Parkdale IT people checked tody for any infected files*), and turned off the computer.
Since then, the desktop will only display three error messages:
- winlogon.exe - unable to locate component (SHELL32.dll not found)
- lsass.exe - unable to locate component (SHELL32.dll not found)
- User Interface Failure (msgina.dll failed to load)
And then restarts, returning to the same errors.
I last made a full backup using DriveClone back in January, before we moved house. Hopefully that will mean I can at least get some of my music collection back, though I'm not sure what to do with the desktop at the moment. It was long overdue for replacing, but it's a pretty abrupt way to say goodbye to an otherwise trusty old machine.
* Mind you, after looking at the error messages described above their advice toaeliel was "oh, that's happened because you pulled the thumbdrive out too quickly" so I'm reluctant to trust their opinion on this...
aeliel's laptop.It's been a little slower than normal over the last fortnight, though I had assumed it was a combination of a 2002 machine, a 2009 copy of iTunes, and some kind of problem with Trend Micro's antivirus updates.
I was partly right. Something had been blocking access to antivirus updates, allowing the program to download increasingly large files (cumulative daily definition files) and then causing an error when Trend Micro tried installing the newly downloaded files. Unfortunately, Trend had been cheerfully reporting this as "Your antivirus protection is up to date! because it had successfully downloaded the file...
When I tried looking into it yesterday, I found that I also couldn't access a bunch of different antivirus websites. That got me worried enough to run a full system scan.
The scan brought up 523 infected files, mostly in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\, half of which had random greek alphabet symols for filenames.
The antivirus program then stalled while attempting to fix the first of them, throwing me back into Windows. I ran the scan again, found even more problem files, and then the antivirus program shut down and wouldn't reopen... and neither would any other program, as each mouseclick resulted in "SHELL32.dll not found" errors.
Windows Explorer screens (My Computer, etc) still worked, so I warily grabbed a few essential files (InDesign docs for work, etc) on a spare thumbdrive and then tried unsuccessfully to do anything else. Even trying to shut down the computer failed, bringing up the same error messages. I disconnected the thumbdrive (which the Parkdale IT people checked tody for any infected files*), and turned off the computer.
Since then, the desktop will only display three error messages:
- winlogon.exe - unable to locate component (SHELL32.dll not found)
- lsass.exe - unable to locate component (SHELL32.dll not found)
- User Interface Failure (msgina.dll failed to load)
And then restarts, returning to the same errors.
I last made a full backup using DriveClone back in January, before we moved house. Hopefully that will mean I can at least get some of my music collection back, though I'm not sure what to do with the desktop at the moment. It was long overdue for replacing, but it's a pretty abrupt way to say goodbye to an otherwise trusty old machine.
* Mind you, after looking at the error messages described above their advice to
aeliel was "oh, that's happened because you pulled the thumbdrive out too quickly" so I'm reluctant to trust their opinion on this...
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 10:12 am (UTC)The Macs can usually read the Windows disk, but it won't get infected by any Windows viruses.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 12:08 pm (UTC)Alternately, find a bootable CD with a mal ware scanner built in, (I think something like this may be available from the malwarebytes site) boot from the CD (or USB stick) and let the software do it's magic.
I hope it's sorted easily.