Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: spydee1129 on March 28, 2011, 03:12:07 AM
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Hello,
I have been using Avast for awhile now and have never any any problems until today. While I was on the internet, i got a message stating I had some threat detected and recommended I run a boot scan on my computer. I went ahead and ran a full scan on my computer and it did not find anything. Before I left the house, I went ahead and scheduled a boot scan to be done on my computer right away after I restarted it. After being out for about 2 hours or so, I find my computer at a black screen and a blinking cursor on the top left hand side of my screen. I tried F8 to see if I can boot to safe mode but have been unsuccessful. I tried to select F10 and still the same thing, just a black screen with a blinking cursor. I have some family pictures that are on my hard drive which I do not want to lose and am unable to boot up to windows. Need help if anyone has any other suggestions. This all happened when trying to run a boot scan via Avast.
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I got that one time a long time ago. Just a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left. The only way I was able to get things working was to format the disk and reinstall Windows. Since then I have read that if you have an original Windows disk, you can repair that problem. I did not have a disk of the OS that was installed at that time since HP didn't give me one for XP Media Center Edition. It's the main reason why I installed XP Pro from a disk a friend gave me. You have to use the recovery console after booting up from the Windows disk and fix the MBR (master boot record). If you don't have a Windows disk, you may be out of luck.
Hopefully, someone else who has recovered from the problem without having to do a full reformat and install can help you more.
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This is not going to help but................Always keep a system image handy stored on an external HDD. You can try booting up from a rescure cd such as Kaspersky's. Do you have a Windows CD? Do you have a recovery partition to boot into?
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Hello,
I have been using Avast for awhile now and have never any any problems until today. While I was on the Internet, i got a message stating I had some threat detected and recommended I run a boot scan on my computer. I went ahead and ran a full scan on my computer and it did not find anything. Before I left the house, I went ahead and scheduled a boot scan to be done on my computer right away after I restarted it. After being out for about 2 hours or so, I find my computer at a black screen and a blinking cursor on the top left hand side of my screen. I tried F8 to see if I can boot to safe mode but have been unsuccessful. I tried to select F10 and still the same thing, just a black screen with a blinking cursor. I have some family pictures that are on my hard drive which I do not want to lose and am unable to boot up to windows. Need help if anyone has any other suggestions. This all happened when trying to run a boot scan via Avast.
Oh man that sucks! I am so sorry! What a PITA!
It sounds like you got a vicious nasty rogue (fake) Anti-Virus alert as you browsed and searched On-Line. Remember everyone that if you get something like that, the best thing to do is DON'T CLICK on anything just browsing and searching. Bring up Windows Task Manager by doing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and within Task Manager, look for your browser in the Window, for example, if it is IE, it will say something like ie.exe. Click End Task, that will get you out.
Than open up Avast, Update the definitions, and schedule a Boot Time Scan.
NEVER CLICK ON ANYTHING FROM THE INTERNET WHEN YOU BROWSE THAT SAYS, "You have a virus. Immediate action is required to clean now!" You should only be working within the Anti-Virus program that you have on your computer and trust. Practically anything else will be a scam and a fraud.
Is there anything else this user can try to get this system up to at least somewhat of a usable state? Or is reinstalling Windows the only option?
Jack
PS. This is probably not going to help, but you could try booting into Safe Mode, and selecting "Restore Last Known Good Configuration." Maybe that might do it, although doubtful. If you get your desktop back, run a Full Boot Time Scan as soon as possible! (Remember to select "Move to Chest" for whatever it finds.) I would also recommend getting ASAP Malwarebytes from malwarebytes.org (note the .org extention) Update the program before you run it each time and run a full scan immediately.
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He tried safe mode jack but unsuccessful.
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He tried safe mode jack but unsuccessful.
I see that now. It sounds like the Boot Sectors may be toast, unfortunately,
Jack
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I also don't know if he got a rogue. From what he said it sounds like maybe Avast! itself was suggesting a scan.
I have torrents to download recovery disc iso's for Vista 32-bit and W7 32 and 64 bit. I can also give a link to directly download any of those iso files that can then be burned to a CD and used to boot the machine into the appropriate recovery environment where you might be able to fix the problem.
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While I was on the internet, i got a message stating I had some threat detected
What was the name of the threat? Was there an Avast pop-up? If so, it should have told you the name of the threat and given you options (and suggested action).
I am going to refer you to our Certified Malware expert, named Essexboy. He will also review your logs and give you further instructions, however he comes on the forum late UK time. He will respond to you in this thread, so remember to check this thread daily.
IMPORTANT: If you are on a home network, disconnect the affected machine from the network. Do not share a USB/flash drive with this affected machine. Do not use this machine unless Essexboy instructs you do to malware removal instructions.
In your next post, please give us some specs. on your machine, the version and product of Avast you are using, and security software you are using (firewall, other security software either on-demand or resident).
Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.
Edit: Essexboy has been notified.
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Hi with this programme the very least we can do is enable you to recover data, the best would be to restore your computer. This could be the hard drive error malware
Please print these instruction out so that you know what you are doing
Latest version: v3.1.46.0
OTLPENet.exe
MD5=79209302A1AFB2490808DB890A815CED
Size: 127,222,215b / 121.3MB
- Download the attached scan.txt to a USB drive
- Download OTLPENet.exe (http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTLPENet.exe) to your desktop
- Ensure that you have a blank CD in the drive
- Double click OTLPENet.exe and this will then open imgburn to burn the file to CD
- Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom)
- As the CD needs to detect your hardware and load the operating system, I would recommend a nice cup of tea whilst it loads :)
- Your system should now display a Reatogo desktop.
Note : as you are running from CD it is not exactly speedy
- Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
- Select the Windows folder of the infected drive if it asks for a location
- When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
- When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
- Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
- OTL should now start.
- Double click the Custom scans and fixes box
- In the dialogue locate the scan.txt you have on the USB
- Press Run Scan to start the scan.
- When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
- Copy this file to your USB drive if you do not have internet connection on this system.
- Right click the file and select send to : select the USB drive.
- Confirm that it has copied to the USB drive by selecting it
- You can backup any files that you wish from this OS
- Please post the contents of the C:\OTL.txt file in your reply.
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If you have created a Windows 7 Repair Disk you can use it to try and fix something like this.
It is a always a good idea in Windows 7 to create a System Repair Disk when you first get your W7 computer or upgrade to W7
System Repair Disc - Create
How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
information Information
This will show you how to create a Windows 7 system repair disc to use to boot to the system recovery options if you don't have a Windows installation disc, can't find your Windows installation disc, or can't access the recovery options provided by your computer manufacturer.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html
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If you have created a Windows 7 Repair Disk you can use it to try and fix something like this.
It is a always a good idea in Windows 7 to create a System Repair Disk when you first get your W7 computer or upgrade to W7
System Repair Disc - Create
How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
information Information
This will show you how to create a Windows 7 system repair disc to use to boot to the system recovery options if you don't have a Windows installation disc, can't find your Windows installation disc, or can't access the recovery options provided by your computer manufacturer.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html
And who said he is on Windows 7?
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Wow...This was my 1st time posting to this forum and got great responses from alot of people genuinely willing to help out with my problem. Thank you very much for ALL your responses. Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I am on the road most of the week (every week) and haven't had the chance to check for any responses to my post. I do believe I still have the original Windows disk that came with my computer but will have to find it in my storage unit. This might be a good solution for me if it can restore my OS without deleting any of my documents or pictures that I would really like to retrieve. Like I mentioned before on my original post, my computer just boots to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I can't even get to the options to select safe mode. I don't know if I got a rogue threat or virus while on the internet. All I remember was an Avast window pop up at the lower right hand corner of my screen saying I needed to run a boot scan. After I was done on the internet, I ran a full scan disk (using avast) to check for any viruses and got nothing. Then I selected to run a boot scan from the Avast menu and proceeded to turn off my computer. After that, I got the black screen. I will try the Windows recovery disk 1st (GOD willing I find it) and let you all know if that worked. If not, I will try the other suggestions that everyone else has provided for me.
Thank you again and have a wonderful day!
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I also don't know if he got a rogue. From what he said it sounds like maybe Avast! itself was suggesting a scan.
I have torrents to download recovery disc iso's for Vista 32-bit and W7 32 and 64 bit. I can also give a link to directly download any of those iso files that can then be burned to a CD and used to boot the machine into the appropriate recovery environment where you might be able to fix the problem.
My computer is running Windows XP Home edition I believe so the torrents you have may not work for my computer but I will give it a shot if you can forward them to me. Thank you.
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SUCCESS I think. After trying to locate my Windows Recovery disk for my HP computer I tried using a different recovery disk from another HP computer I used to have. It allowed my to get to a command prompt. First I tried repairing Windows XP (not reinstalling Windows which would have had me reformat my hard drive and then I would lose all of the documents and pictures I am trying to save). That didn't work. Then I tried to do an xcopy from hard drive to hard drive but MS-DOS was saying command not valid eventhough the xcopy.exe program was there. Next I tried fixing the Boot Record (fixbr). That didn't work either. Last thing I did (and I didn't notice it for some reason) is try fixing the Master Boot Record (used fixmbr) and it gave me a warning that I could lose all my info on the computer and basically screw it up at which point i would definitely need to reformat and reinstall Windows on it. I took a chance and tried it. It actually worked. he computer booted up and started the boot scan that AVAST was suppose to perform over a week ago. I went ahead and have AVAST program do its boot scan test. Thanks again for all the help everyone has given me. I hope this info will be useful for someone else that experiences the same problem.
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We're glad everything seems to be working for you now. Let us know if you have any additional questions. :)
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Hi, everyone. I am having this exact same problem on my laptop right now. I was surfing around and got a pop-up from Avast saying there was a threat detected, and I believe it said either 37.exe or 73.exe in the TEMP folder was the problem. Then Avast gave a prompt in the middle of the screen that I've never seen before and suggested a restart just to be sure. So, I did and ended up with spydee's problem. However, I used my install disc as they have and when the computer said "Press any key to boot from disc", it remained there and did not do anything. I even left it running for a few hours and still nothing happened. Safe mode does not run for me either.
Laptop: Gateway Model no.: MA3
OS: Windows XP Home
I do not mind if I need to reformat, as I back-up my files regularly, but a fix without doing so would be great.
Also, I apologize if it is preferrable to start a new thread for this, but since it happens to be the exact same problem as the OP, it saves me a whole lot less of typing on my smartphone which I have been using for my main source of internet.
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I suggest you check on BleepingComputers how to remove and clean this up and in the future learn about and use Sandboxie. A Rouge tried to own my system last week, froze windows and I closed the browse or window and when I opened the window Sandboxie deleted the Rouge. That simple. I swear by Sandboxie and it's free or pay.