Avast! and atapi.sys problems

[oldman]

Hi pogie1987,

Looks good. A little tidying up to do and remove the tools.

uTorrent
You have uTorrent, a P2P/file sharing programs installed on your computer. P2P applications like it are the largest source of malware we see. You'll be doing yourself a favor by removing it. It's not the program itself that is the problem, but what can be downloaded with it, usually from an unknown source.

References for the risk of these programs can be found in these links:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/commun...protection.mspx

http://www.internetworldstats.com/articles/art053.htm://http://www.techweb.com/wire/1605005...cles/art053.htm

I would recommend that you uninstall uTorrent, however that choice is up to you. If you choose to remove this program, you can do so via Control Panel >> Add or Remove Programs.

If no other problems, we can clean up our tools. We will ise Degogger in a few minutes so don't delete it.

From your desktop, please delete

• any notepads/logs that we created
• GMER.zip
• GMER.exe

In Windows Explorer, you can delete this file

C:\WINDOWS\atapi.old

Next

Click the Start button, click Run. Copy and paste the following line into the run box and click OK
Combofix /uninstall

Open OTL then click the Clean Up button. You may get prompted by your firewall that OTL wants to contact the internet -  allow this.  A cleanup.txt will be downloaded, a message dialog will ask you if you want to proceed with the cleanup process, click Yes. This will do some clean up tasks and delete some of the tools you have downloaded plus itself.

I suggest you keep MBAM. Keep it updated and use it regularly.

Now use Defogger,

To re-enable your Emulation drivers, double click DeFogger to run the tool.

• The application window will appear
• Click the Re-enable button to re-enable your CD Emulation drivers
  
• Click Yes to continue
  
• A 'Finished!' message will appear
  
• Click OK
  
• DeFogger will now ask to reboot the machine - click OK
  

[color="red"]IMPORTANT![/color] If you receive an error message while running DeFogger, please post the log defogger_enable which will appear on your desktop.

Your Emulation drivers are now re-enabled

Updates and upgrades

You have an older version of Adobe Reader.  You can download the current version HERE

You may want to consider Foxit Reader instead. It may be a bit lighter on resources.

Visit their support forum
Foxit Forum

In either case you should uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.7 first. Be sure to move any PDF documents to another folder first though.

Some Recommendations and prevention tips

Basic security consists of 1 antivirus program, 1 resident antispyware program, 1 on demand antispyware program and a firewall. Just add a firewall and keep TeaTimer enabled.

* If you are behind a router Windows firewall should be fine. Otherwise a 3rd party firewall with outbound monitoring is recommended.

Click FIREWALL for tips, reviews and links to good, free and paid for firewalls. (Note: Zone Alarm is becoming bloatware, imo)

You should also use Spyware Blaster to help immunize your computer.

 - SpywareBlaster will add a large list of programs and sites into your Internet Explorer
settings that will protect you from running and downloading known malicious programs.

-Secure your Internet Explorer

From within Internet Explorer click on the Tools menu and then click on Options.

• Click once on the Security tab
• Click once on the Internet icon so it becomes highlighted.
• Click once on the Custom Level button.
• Change the Download signed ActiveX controls to Prompt
  
• Change the Download unsigned ActiveX controls to Disable
  
• Change the Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe to Disable
  
• Change the Installation of desktop items to Prompt
  
• Change the Launching programs and files in an IFRAME to Prompt
  
• Change the Navigate sub-frames across different domains to Prompt
  
• When all these settings have been made, click on the OK button.
  
• If it prompts you as to whether or not you want to save the settings, press the Yes button.
  

Next press the Apply button and then the OK to exit the Internet Properties page.

- Keeping your Windows up-to-date is crucial to your computer's security. Please go to the Windows Update Site (using Internet Explorer) and download and install all critical updates on a regular basis

- Ensure that Automatic Update is turned on so you get all the latest patches.
Click start, control panel, click Security Center.

- Keep your antivirus program updated, as well as any other security programs you have.

- You may also want to read this article By Tony Klein
http://www.freedomlist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22879

Take care

[hawklord]

Hi Folks
Similar prob to Pogie here. Tried the recover from disk as quoted

-From the recovery console, type the following command:

cd "C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386"

But XP CD won't find i386, just ServicePackFiles, and i386 isn't in there.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but, help, please?