Suspicions of virus activity

[mauserme]

I think we should do our best to provide the help requested within our abilities.  And there is a lot of ability on this forum.  This can be seen every day in the number of problems solved.  I do agree that the best help will sometimes be an admission that someone else is better able to provide answers but "go away" should never be our first response.

[caroln]

I have never had a "Go Away" from anyone in the technical forums, only when I was foolish enough to ask an avast question in the Yahoo forum.  I believe the people in these forums are really interested in what they do, give the best answer they can, including telling people when they need to ask someone else for more technical help.

I really appreciate and respect what all the people here do.  It takes a lot of time and energy, and people would not do it unless they care.

I came to this forum this time, because I had a question about why avast was coming up with a red circle with a line through it on the lower left corner of the icon in the system tray.   Because everybody here uses avast, I felt you were more able to recognize my problem.  I also go to the Gladiator-antivirus forum and I get great help there.

One thing I would like to clear up though,  I did not run HiJack This from a temp directory.  I saved it to a directory under C:\Program Files and ran it from an active Windows XP SP2 Explore window.    The reason the listing was so small is that it was an initial load, after the registry got corrupted.

Thanks for all your help. 

PS  I am really enjoying this discussion of your favorite sites!

[Lisandro]

I think we should do our best to provide the help requested within our abilities.  And there is a lot of ability on this forum.  This can be seen every day in the number of problems solved.  I do agree that the best help will sometimes be an admission that someone else is better able to provide answers but "go away" should never be our first response.

Fully agree...

I would argue that the vast majority of people coming here seeking help only want to know where to look for answers .
in most instances It is better that a person gets contributions promptly and from a variety of sources so they can use their own judgment.

Fully agree...

I was just trying to say that sending people to other sites is not a bad attitude... just trying to help them and redirecting them to correct sites.

The last thing we should be doing is sending them off to these obscure, boutique removal sites with their toilet paper diplomas that get a couple of posts a week.

Well, if this is true... I remove my first comment. I thought Spiritsongs was sending the user to useful/trust sites...

I have never had a "Go Away" from anyone in the technical forums

And avast forum WON'T be the first one... You're welcome...

I came to this forum this time, because I had a question about why avast was coming up with a red circle with a line through it on the lower left corner of the icon in the system tray.   Because everybody here uses avast, I felt you were more able to recognize my problem.

1. Check the option in the Appearance tab of settings.
or
2. Repair your avast installation through Control Panel.
or
3. Make a link to ashdisp.exe in your startup folder
or
4. Add the path to ashDisp.exe into a value named avast! in the Windows Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

If that does not help, please, uninstall, boot, install again, boot.
Hope it helps...

[Spiritsongs]

   Hi Tech :

     Of course I am referring people to reliable sites, those who's Malware Experts are members of the
     Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals, who have passed their rigorous Training Program, like
     the one Essexboy is taking at Geeks-To-Go, and the one at "Malware Removal University" .

[Lisandro]

Edited. Sorry.

[DavidR]

Of course I am referring people to reliable sites,.

We know that the sites you refer to are reliable, that isn't the point.

That is all well and good if they aren't actually receiving any help here, or unless the help they receive is either inaccurate, incomplete, or just plain wrong. Otherwise those people who have devoted some time to helping people ('on this site where they first sought help') will feel that they have just wasted their time bothering if you simply point them to another site.

As I have said before if there is something wrong with the help you can contribute to helping them here where they sought help.

[mauserme]

I have never had a "Go Away" from anyone in the technical forums...

I'm glad you didn't interpret anything posted in this thread as meaning that you should go away.  But I'm reacting to a statement posted previously that I've seen, imho, much too often.  A statement that implies competent help cannot be obtained on this forum and has been taken that way by other users.

   

... just trying to help them and redirecting them to correct sites.

Of course - sometimes the best way to help will be a request for assistance from another forum member, stepping aside if a more qualified member has better input, and possibly redirection to another forum.  We all must recognize our own limitations.  I just don't think its truly being helpful to refer people to other sites as often and as early in a help session as sometimes occurs.

Of course I am referring people to reliable sites ...

I'm sorry to say, Spiritsongs, that even this statement carries the implication that the avast! forum is not reliable.  ie If it was reliable why refer someone elsewhere?

As David said, if the help we're giving is wrong or incomplete every forum member has a duty to speak up.  Its the only way we can maintain credibility.  But it really is a disservice to someone who may have devoted considerable time to research an answer only to find the person seeking help is being told that help should be sought on another site.  Its also a disservice to other people that might have been helped if the time had not been spent in research that was ultimately wasted.

As I have said before if there is something wrong with the help you can contribute to helping them here where they sought help.

And to me, this is the ultimate frustration.  The fact that you (Spiritsongs) have the ability to contribute some honest-to-goodness help, as you did earlier in this thread, but then choose the other course.

[Lisandro]

We all must recognize our own limitations.

Just to make my first statement clear.
I was thinking exactly the same as you're posting here.
I wanted to say only that I'm not an expert on malware removal and, for sure, I'm not.

[mauserme]

I wanted to say only that I'm not an expert on malware removal and, for sure, I'm not.

Realistically, no matter what a person's level of expertise, there will always be someone with better qualifications .  Until you reach that one individual who cannot be topped the argument could always be made that better advice should be sought.  And that one poor soul who started out just wanting to give a little help becomes a slave to malware removal sending out emails saying "I've scheduled your case for January 18, 2010."

But a competant, effective solution is just that regardless of where it comes from. 

Because I have a humble opinion of my abilities I choose those threads where I think I can help and I learn from those where others are better able to help.  You and most other forum members do the same, Tech.  Our strength comes in part form that and in part from the collective knowledge represented here.  That's why I'm so much against the idea of automatically sending people to other forums.

Well, anyway, I think we're agreeing with each other .... 

[essexboy]

Realistically, no matter what a person's level of expertise, there will always be someone with better qualifications

Couldn't agree more, there are so many variations on a theme out there and new fixes are being developed daily that no one person could be expected to know it all.  So a combined but unified effort is the best that any one can hope to achieve.  Even in the  Malware "universities" fully qualified people are still posing problems for which they have no resolution and everyone mucks in to find the answer

[Lisandro]

Realistically, no matter what a person's level of expertise, there will always be someone with better qualifications .  Until you reach that one individual who cannot be topped the argument could always be made that better advice should be sought.  And that one poor soul who started out just wanting to give a little help becomes a slave to malware removal sending out emails saying "I've scheduled your case for January 18, 2010."

Fully agree 

Because I have a humble opinion of my abilities I choose those threads where I think I can help and I learn from those where others are better able to help.  You and most other forum members do the same, Tech.  Our strength comes in part form that and in part from the collective knowledge represented here.  That's why I'm so much against the idea of automatically sending people to other forums.

I get your point of view... Maybe we can handle it and I should not say what I've said before, I mean, maybe I can't help but others will make it (fortunately).

Well, anyway, I think we're agreeing with each other .... 

Yes we are 

[mauserme]

Maybe we can handle it ... 

For the most part anyone who has left here without a solution to their problem has done so out of frustration with their situation rather than a lack of adequate help.  And no one can question your contribution Tech.