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Problems with Virus Chest and Log Viewer

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ruthyj:
Hello,

I have been using Avast 4. Home for about a year and a half with all updates kept current and have never seemed to have any problems. The regular scans have never found anything to report until recently in August when I received an email from Hallmark Company. As soon as I opened it a warning covered the screen with sirens blasting. I never knew it did that. I immediately closed my browser and ran Avast thorough scan. It found 8 files which I moved to the virus chest as recommended. Two of them were listed as Trojans. I began reading the Help files and all the posts here to discover what I should do with them. I could not find any information on these so I emailed them to Avast, waited a couple of weeks and then deleted all but one which I knew was an unrelated DLL that I may need.

After reading many of the posts here I decided to take a look at my Log Viewer and found that there were no files in it to view except the Error log. Is that normal? My Error Log has 6 items listed and all pertain to virus chest errors and AAVM initialization errors which I never noticed before now. The most recent of these is dated April of 2006. Is it possible that my program never installed correctly and has been corrupted all this time without showing any sign of it?

I do not have any other security programs running because every time I have installed anti spyware over the past year my computer starts having all kinds of problems such as locking up, quick launch icons disappearing, 15 - 20 web pages opening at once, etc. I am still using Win98SE and have concluded that I must have some corrupted file in it that could be causing this problem. I plan to purchase XP Pro upgrade this week but I want to make sure that my computer is clean before I install it. I will uninstall Avast and reinstall but there are now 2 items in the virus chest that I need but don't know how to get out. One item was captured by Avast while I was uninstalling a 'check up' program connected to my DSL. I had no idea what the item was that Avast saw as a virus (too little info showing) so I moved it to the chest as recommended. It turned out to be connected to the program I was uninstalling. This apparently crippled the program so that now it is unable to be uninstalled. The restore button will not work on these 2 items. The extract option seems to work but I don't know what files to put them back into or even if I should. How does a person go about figuring this out? The Avast help files are no help here.

I've tried to be brief on my first post here, but I'm not any better at that than I am at computers. Sorry. System info is as follows: PIII, 866Mhz, 512 SDRAM, Win 98se, IE6 with SP1, Avast 4.7 Home, VSP 000777-2.

Thank you all in advance for any assistance. I enjoy reading your posts, although I don't yet understand a lot of it.

Lisandro:

--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---After reading many of the posts here I decided to take a look at my Log Viewer and found that there were no files in it to view except the Error log. Is that normal?
--- End quote ---
Which level are you using? The 'Debug' is the most verbose one.


--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---Is it possible that my program never installed correctly and has been corrupted all this time without showing any sign of it?
--- End quote ---
Most probably avast is working perfectly...


--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---I am still using Win98SE and have concluded that I must have some corrupted file in it that could be causing this problem.
--- End quote ---
Which problem exactly?
If you still detecting strange behaviors or you want to be sure you're clean, maybe making a HijackThis log to post here and, specially, scan and submit to on-line analysis the RunScanner log would help to identify the problem and the solution.


--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---I plan to purchase XP Pro upgrade this week but I want to make sure that my computer is clean before I install it.
--- End quote ---
Are you intending to upgrade or make a clean install (from the scratch)?
If the first, uninstall avast, upgrade Windows, install avast again.


--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---I will uninstall Avast and reinstall but there are now 2 items in the virus chest that I need but don't know how to get out.
--- End quote ---
Out? Do you want to keep that files or get rid from them? When uninstalling, you'll get rid from them forever...


--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM ---The extract option seems to work but I don't know what files to put them back into or even if I should. How does a person go about figuring this out? The Avast help files are no help here.
--- End quote ---
If you right click and scan the files, are they infected?
Why do you want to restore them?

oldman:

--- Quote from: ruthyj on September 29, 2007, 02:05:16 PM --- One item was captured by Avast while I was uninstalling a 'check up' program connected to my DSL. I had no idea what the item was that Avast saw as a virus (too little info showing) so I moved it to the chest as recommended. It turned out to be connected to the program I was uninstalling. This apparently crippled the program so that now it is unable to be uninstalled. 


--- End quote ---

One fix is to reinstall the program, then uninstall it.

ruthyj:
1. Since the help files don't give any duty description of the Log settings, I had never changed it from the Emergency level. I have now changed it to Debug and will watch to see if that makes a difference.

2. I said I have one or more corrupted Windows files that may be causing problems because when I first had this computer built (not quite 2 years ago), the guy that built it put Win98se on it and told me the Windows Help program wouldn't work because it was corrupted on his original CD but it was the only OS he had so I could take it or leave it. Besides that, I have recently been trying out anti-Spyware programs (again) and none of them have ever worked well on my computer. They either freeze up my computer, or parts of the program don't install and therefore don't work; even after several reinstalls. Last week I downloaded Spyware Detector which seemed to work ok and found more than 200 spys on my computer but I was aggravated that I could not delete any of them without buying their program first and an annoying persistant pop up kept flaunting the spys in my face and telling me to buy the program, so I uninstalled it. Immediately after uninstalling this program I noticed that the Volume Control and Scheduled Task icons had dissappeared from my quick launch toolbar and I haven't seen them since. Today, I downloaded Spybot S&D from Bleeping Computer site as advised there before using HijackThis. Spybot would not open or run but instead gave me a big error message that dissappeared before I could even read it and then a full white screen with "pybot" (the S was missing) Search & Destroy, but it would go no further. I waited for more than an hour and finally had to use the reboot button and then uninstalled it. I haven't tried RunScanner yet but I will attempt that tomorrow after I give my brain a rest.

3. I bought XP Pro Upgrade because I have some programs I don't want to lose and don't have the discs for. That's the main reason I have been trying to make sure my system is clean before installing the upgrade. I do have the 98se disc and will do a complete install if I absolutely need to.

4. I have rescaned the 2 files in my virus chest. This one is causing me the most trouble: virus chest name: UNINST~1.EXE, original location is c:\windows\temp, last modified on 1/31/05, and virus name is Win32: Adware-gen. [Adw].  I thought I should restore this because it belongs to my Alltel DSL Check up Center program, (an automatic diagnostic program for my DSL router, internet connection, and Outlook Express email with live 24/7 support). A few days ago we had a bad storm and I started having problems with my internet connection so I opened the Check up Center but it kept giving me an error message. I called Alltel for advise and was told to just uninstall and reinstall it. While I was uninstalling it Avast gave me an alarm that it had found a virus. I don't remember what it said the virus was but it was not enough info for me to realize that it was part of the Check up Center program that I was trying to uninstall, so I put it in the virus chest until I could check it out. Right after that I got an error message that the uninstall failed. The only thing it actually uninstalled was the app title from Add/Remove Programs. I called Alltel support again and was told that the program could not be removed without using Add/Remove Programs so they didn't know how to help me. I tried Oldman's advise to reinstall the program first, but that option is not available to me since Alltel's website sees it as still being installed on my computer. I tried again to "restore" it from the virus chest and this time it allowed me to do so and said that it had been restored successfully. I checked the file path and found it had been put back in C: \windows\temp, but the app title has not been put back into Add/Remove programs. When I go to the restored file and click on properties, it has the description: Alltel DSL Checkup Center application, Copyright: Motive. When I open the program it still comes up with the same error message as before the restore, so I doubt the integrity of what was "restored."  The error message has the program title across the top and in the dialog box is a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark and in the middle of the page is a number 0. However, the program seems to run after I close error message.   ???

If anyone can help me get this program uninstalled from my computer I would be very grateful. I suspect it is causing more problems than I realize because when I initially tried to open Spybot today it first gave me this same wierd error message with the triangle and the 0. I closed it and that's when the other error message came up that dissappeared before I could write it down or even read it.

The other virus chest file I wanted to restore is rather unimportant. It is: popcaploader.dll, c:\windows\downloaded programs, -no virus-. The loss of this file has prevented me from playing Popcap games online without having to download them; which I really don't have time to do anyway. Virus chest will not restore this one.

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