Web Browser Issues

[Morris8504]

Gents...and potential Ladies,

I'm a bit bumfuzzled at the moment. A few weeks ago, I installed a new program and attached to that lovely little program was some malware, I found out. I started noticing my browser, Chrome, switching its homepage to Snap.do or other weird Adware search engines. I reset Chrome multiple times, ran MalwareBytes probably 10 times and searched for any malicious programs on my computer.

A few days ago, Chrome became unable to access the web, at all. I lost Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox today, apparently. I'm not sure what the issue is now.

I can play my MMO all day, without problems, and my laptop and my Surface browse just fine in any browser; I'm inclined to say something is infecting my main PC, but I cannot figure out how to remove it. I am about to run a full reinstall of Windows X, but wanted to see if there was anything I could do prior to the full on purge?

I've tried pinging from the command prompt and I get 0 returned packets on any IP address. Just not sure what to do with it aside from a full purge. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[thejackal85]

Sounds like you're infected, but no worries, it can be corrected. Download and install Spybot 1.6.2 and malwarebytes (you can get the .exe's from another system and transfer them via USB). Run both of these, not at the same time, and it will whatever is on your system making it do these things. Also, it wouldn't hurt to check out msconfig to see what is booting up with your system; a lot of times the viruses' will give themselves away there. Are you familiar with msconfig and startup items?

 

[Morris8504]

Sounds like you're infected, but no worries, it can be corrected. Download and install Spybot 1.6.2 and malwarebytes (you can get the .exe's from another system and transfer them via USB). Run both of these, not at the same time, and it will whatever is on your system making it do these things. Also, it wouldn't hurt to check out msconfig to see what is booting up with your system; a lot of times the viruses' will give themselves away there. Are you familiar with msconfig and startup items?

I am running Spybot now and I should have that completed in a bit. I do not know how to run MSConfig or what I'd even be looking for when I'm doing it. Also, I have no idea what to check for in my startup files, I really need to learn. I am in the process of running the Spybot, though, so hopefully I get some positive results soon.

Edit: Spybot returned 0 errors. I'm not sure what to do, now. The dang thing still doesn't work right.

 

[thejackal85]

Did you run Malwarebytes yet? I highly recommend you run that and see it through until completion if you haven't.

Msconfig presents you a list of all the devices that startup with your computer. You can know if you need it or not by just checking the "Startup items" column to see what it actually is. For example, if you see "Quicktime" in there, that is not something that needs to startup with your computer as it will start manually when you open it.

If you want you can take a snapshot and post it here and I can help you.

 

[zer0c00l587]

I also recommend Malwarebytes, also try out emsisoft emergency kit which is free and uses Bitdefender database along with its own which can help remove plenty of infections. Adwcleaner is a last resort tool that can help remove unnecessary adware that has infected your browser. If you have trouble installing malwarebytes etc, download Rkill, which stops malware threats that prevent antimalware scanners and antivirus from installing.