Stupid pop-up browsers won't go away!

[TheMojoPin]

OK, I've always had a pretty smooth-running computer...AdAware, Spybot and AVG kept everything clean and safe and all was well. The other day, however, AVG stopped updating, so I figured I'd uninstall the free version I have an download a torrent of a full version with a keygen.

Bad move.

Apparently in the 5 minutes I didn't have an antivirus program, my computer was raped by some of the most annoying trojans known to man. I've since re-installed AVG and cleaned up all the viruses, run and updated AdAware and SpyBot multiple times and deleted anything that was dropped into my system during the window.

I still am getting random pop-up ad browsers every so often when I have a window open. Yes, I use IE, but I have additional pop-up blockers and these damn things keep sneaking through and this was never a problem before. Is there any other program I should try to clean things up or a specific program or file I should look to delete?

[drjoek]

There seems to be a run on trojans and pop ups lately too

[Devo37]

have you tried CW Shredder (http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html)?

it found a few nagging trojans that none of the other tools i used found.

[TheMojoPin]

have you tried CW Shredder (http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html)?

it found a few nagging trojans that none of the other tools i used found.

Hmmm, it didn't find anything, but thanks.

One program I tried is saying I have something called Ebatesmoemoneymaker in my Registry, and it sounds like what is likely causing the problems...except I can't get rid of it without mucking around with the Registry, which is terrifying.

[Devo37]

Try RegSeeker (http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm). It cleans out junk from your registry without you having to manually mess around 'under the hood' of your pc.

[Devo37]

also found this: removeEbatesMoeMoneyMaker.html (http://www.spywareremove.com/removeEbatesMoeMoneyMaker.html).

hope it helps. god, i hate malware!!!

[Hottub]

Stay away from the porn sites, and these things won't happen.

[Fallon]

Stay away from the porn sites, and these things won't happen.

I guess I should just throw my computer in the dumpster then.

[Mangoat]

You need Adaware and some AVG anti-spyware

[JPMNICK]

try this free online scan

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[MadMatt]

IE7 Pro will also give you more control/blockage of pop-ups, flash ads, etc.

[Bill From Yorktown]

boot into safe mode and run all your scanning programs. It will take longer, but it gives them a chance to stop things if they arent started on boot.

If you are running XP and have a checkpoint saved from before all this started, restore to that - it was the ONLY thing I found to get rid of a couple of buggers my laptop got hit with. (Of course save a checkpoint now before you start, in case it doesnt help or makes things worse)

Funny (or not so) funny thing was I didnt notice it until I saw that something was preventing me from starting task manager.

[TheMojoPin]

You need Adaware and some AVG anti-spyware

Thanks for reading my post.

I appreciate all the help, guys. I did clean out my registry using RegSeeker as suggested, and then when I rebooted after that the pop-up browsers are gone. There still seems to be something "off," however...the reaction time between me clicking my mouse and the browser button I'm clicking randomly slows down noticeably at times. I'm also having trouble with Windows Media Player locking up my system.

[Cockstrong]

Most of the time I can clean out nagging spyware, but every once in a while I get a combination of really tricky self-replicating malware that even the best programs and registery cleaning can't fix.

For those situations, it's the old backup & format solution. You may want to consider this.

[TheMojoPin]

Yeah, I might be due for that.

And to further explain the WMP "freeze"...if I play a few videos, everything is fine. Then it'll randomly decide after the 3rd or 4th that it's gonna go nuts...the video itself never freezes and I can still move my mouse cursor around...I just can't click on anything...player, browser, desktop, start menu, toolbar, even that CTRL-ALT-DEL menu that pops up...hell, I can't even turn the volume up or down. It's the damndest thing I've ever seen. I end up having to power off and on each time.

Any ideas?

[zentraed]

I wish I could be more helpful, but I really don't know how people have spyware problems like this. Since switching to Firefox years ago, and using Usenet and Torrents for my pirating, I haven't had a single problem. And I don't use any anti-spyware/virus software. In fact, I hate how systems run with it installed (otherwise, I wouldn't mind it so much).

[TheMojoPin]

I wish I could be more helpful, but I really don't know how people have spyware problems like this. Since switching to Firefox years ago, and using Usenet and Torrents for my pirating, I haven't had a single problem. And I don't use any anti-spyware/virus software. In fact, I hate how systems run with it installed (otherwise, I wouldn't mind it so much).

Ironically, as far as I can tell, the problems came from the torrent sites where I was trying to get a new version of AVG.

[TheMojoPin]

Just to clarify, the spyware doesn't seem to be a problem now...no pop-ups or anything. It's just this weird freezing issue that randomly pops up after some video use. I've found it pops up even if I use a site like YTMND too much. And again, the entire computer doesn't lock up...I can still move the cursor and activate the start menu and CTRL-ALT-DLT menue through the keyboard...I just can't select anything on the screen with the keyboard or mouse. Can't adjust the colume, either. When I power off to reboot, however, everything de-locks in the instant before it shuts off...all the windows open or close, whatever I was tring to do, volume up and down. Anyone have any idea what kind of error this is?

[JPMNICK]

Just to clarify, the spyware doesn't seem to be a problem now...no pop-ups or anything. It's just this weird freezing issue that randomly pops up after some video use. I've found it pops up even if I use a site like YTMND too much. And again, the entire computer doesn't lock up...I can still move the cursor and activate the start menu and CTRL-ALT-DLT menue through the keyboard...I just can't select anything on the screen with the keyboard or mouse. Can't adjust the colume, either. When I power off to reboot, however, everything de-locks in the instant before it shuts off...all the windows open or close, whatever I was tring to do, volume up and down. Anyone have any idea what kind of error this is?

sounds like something that was removed is somehow tied into a certain video driver.

[TheMojoPin]

sounds like something that was removed is somehow tied into a certain video driver.

So if I reinstall it, I might be good.

I don't think it's the codecs, since I downloaded an update pack to be sure.

[Reynolds]

Try pushing ctrl + alt + delete and click the processes tab to see what's running on your machine. A lot of trojans will just be a blank line in your processes. Also run msconfig (start / run / type "msconfig" in the open box. Click the startup tab, and disable everything, reboot and run your scanners again. Permanently disable everything you don't want to run at startup, again trojans usually are a blank line in msconfig as well. Check the command column for all the programs that start up with your machine, if anything looks strange try googling the name of it, and if it's a trojan there should be a lot of hits, something there should tell you how to remove it. You don't really need anything to start up. I don't have anything startup, but I also don't use any virus protection. Just about everything you install has some stupid quicklaunch that starts when you boot the machine, it's dumb.

My mom has 7 kids in school, all using one computer, they must get 20 trojans a month. I got so sick of going there and fixing their computer all the time, I finally bought them a 500 GB external hard drive, told them to save all their shit there, and I just reformat the computer a few times a year, they drove me fucking crazy.

[TheMojoPin]

Thanks, but I got it already. I took care of all the Trojans right away...it was just buried spyware that was the problem. It ended up being a few files that had an "ALI.EXE" command. Once I got rid of those files and cleared them out of the registry, everything is back to normal.