After getting rid of trojans, can't connect with wireless

Discussion in 'Computer Security' started by tripwire45, Sep 14, 2008.

  1. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Yes - it is supposed to be the first thing you do.

    However - in this case the hard drive still works - so you should be able to use the recovery system to restore the machine. When you have done that make the CDs!

    Harry.
     
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  2. Qs

    Qs Semi-Honorary Member Gold Member

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    Agreed. We use HP desktops at work and all have come with a create your own backup cd rubbish. We usually bin them as we use another piece of software for hard-drive images. If however, I was to use such a computer at home then I'd deffo make the CDs asap.

    Qs
     
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  3. Crito

    Crito Banned

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    If the HP recovery partition is OK you should be able to just press F10 when booting up the computer, at the HP splash screen.
     
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  4. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Thanks for the replies. If I'm ever asked to update my "PC Technician Street Smarts" book, this situation deffo gets added. :wink:
     
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  5. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    I second that, most folks completely ignore the on-screen prompts when the computer is new, then try and blame the manufacturer when they run into problems... (or expect free recovery media to be sent out).
     
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  6. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    ...right next to the "Strange third-party software and P2P apps will get you virused" section. :twisted:
     
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  7. neutralhills

    neutralhills Kilobyte Poster

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    Trip, most HPs come from the factory with the recovery partition and no disks. You can start the recovery routine usually by pressing F10 at the HP screen right at boot up. Newer HPs offer a "repair" option that leaves personal data intact. Older HPs only have the recovery option that frags the entire hard drive. Never EVER press F10 unless you're sure you've backed up your data first.

    Whenever an HP comes through my shop I mirror off the recovery partition and store it on my file server with a note of the model number. This way if another customer with a similar model comes in with a dead hard drive (which happens amazingly often when you use those piece of @#$% Samsungs), I can use the stored recovery partition and then just change the product key after the install so it matches the customers. This saves the customer having to shell out for recovery media or another copy of Windows.

    And speaking of HPs, I get a fair number of them through my shop. They've gotten almost as bad as Acer for using rubbish parts and undersized power supplies.
     
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  8. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    My son called me from work (due to the differences in our schedules, I haven't seen him in several days) and clarified that he did to the restore (says he pressed F11 at boot) and went through the whole process of setting up the computer again. He'd already backed up his data and said the computer seems ok after the process. He just wants me to install AVG and get him back on the network. I guess the worse is over (though I've yet to power up his laptop and take it out for a spin). Hopefully, all will be well from now on...but I'll let you know.

    Thanks again for all your helpful responses. :)
     
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  9. zebulebu

    zebulebu Terabyte Poster

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    Amen - its not just workstations either.

    Back in the Compaq days I could count on the fingers of one knee the amount of servers I saw come in and get found out to have a hardware problem after a couple of days' soak testing. Now its all HP I reckon about one in ten boxes I've dealt with in the past three years or so have either a dodgy disk, bad memory module or backplane. The DL380 seemed to be plagued with problems with the fan controller boards at one point - I must have had four of those replaced in the space of two months a couple of years ago.

    I hate Dell with a passion - their servers are a pain in the arse to work with, DRAC regularly punks out on me, their systems management software is crap and even their rail kits are fiddly compared to HP, but for my money there's no question that they're more reliable than HP.
     
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  10. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Happy Ending (finally).

    I fired up my son's laptop and got a runtime error stating that MSWINSCK.OCX was corrupted or missing. I Googled the error and found the instructions on how to fix the problem. I downloaded the file onto another PC and used "sneakernet" to put it in the System32 directory of the laptop (sure enough, it was really missing), successfully registered it...and wireless networking still failed. I could connect the laptop to the LAN and hit the Internet, so I figured it was a wireless issue.

    I did all the usual things I did before to try and connect the laptop to the WLAN, but still could only get limited connectivity. I checked the little server device that offers wireless and verified all the settings and that the wireless service was active. Then I removed all the security and completely opened up wireless. I got the laptop to connect to the WLAN.

    I subsequently, added one layer of security at a time, reconnecting each time and verifying that the laptop could get to the local network and Internet. Reinstalled and updated the virus/spyware scanner and gave the laptop back to my gleeful son. I'm sure he's busy setting up the specific configuration settings and (hopefully) doing a full scan of the system. He is also going to scan all of his backup files before reinstalling them on the laptop. Here's hoping.
     
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  11. Blowfish

    Blowfish Bit Poster

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    I had a similar problem on a laptop, and the short story is I had to use a Norton un-installer (available from their site) as although Norton was removed remnants of it remained, including the firewall, there was nothing to show that the firewall was there. After I ran it which can take a few minutes but be patient, re started the laptop and connected straight away.
     
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  12. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Oh...I guess I left this as a "cliffhanger". All is well. The recovery process worked and his laptop is running fine. Networking is back up and there are no further complains. I hope he learned from all this (and saw my "pain") and doesn't hose his laptop again. If he does, he's on his own.

    Thanks again everyone for all your help.
     
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  13. Obinna Osobalu

    Obinna Osobalu Banned

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    try re-installin the drivers for the wireless adapters and u can as well try sparky's suggestion. NOTE THAT ITS NOT BEST PRACTISE TO HAVE TWO ANTIVIRUS SIMULTANEOUSLY RUNNING ON UR SYSTEM CUZ THEY WILL ONLY B CONTENDING FOR SYSTEM OWNERSHIP AND DAT PREVENTS ANY OF THEM TO EFFECTIVELY GUARD AGAINST VIRUSES SO DEFINITELY VIRUSES WILL B HAVIN A FREE ENTRANCE AND ALSO COMFORTABLY SETTLING IN UR SYSTEM WITHOUT BEEN DETECTED.
     
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  14. Obinna Osobalu

    Obinna Osobalu Banned

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    definitely cuz every system has a RECOVERY MANAGER and that is actually used to create recovery cds or dvds which u can normally use to restore d system to its factory settings and all dat just in case even the RECOVERY PARTITION created by default on HP laptops is unaccessible.
     
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  15. Colloghi

    Colloghi Kilobyte Poster

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    Glad to see you got it working, and just in case it happens again .....(apologies if this has been mentioned but havnt seen it yet)

    When I had a similar virus, it seemed to play havoc with my xp services, turning certain things off and on, and all sorts. One of the issues I had was connecting via wireless to the net and caused me a few headaches to say the least. The reason seemed to be that my wireless service had been disabled.

    Upon looking in services.msc, I could see that "wireless zero configuration" had been stopped, I ticked the optio to start this again through Msconfig and the wireless connected with no problem upon a reboot:)
     
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