Have I Malware or Virus?

[mshrmh]

Thanks for the response Downside - I'll work through & list the answers:

I guess one reason why you are having Internet problems could be due to a bad service from your ISP.  You should be able to access Microsoft and MajorGeeks but it sounds like you are timing out.  Check your ISP's customer service pages to see if there are any problems at the moment.

I've checked (Tiscali) - supposedly at 100% - no problems listed since Tuesday & those relate to areas a good distance from me.

The other thing to look at is Event Viewer to see if there are any constant errors occuring.  Click on Administrative Tools in Control Panel and select Event Viewer.  Check the Application and System categories.  Double click any error and it will give you a brief description of the fault and what caused it.  There will be a link to Microsoft for more information and a possible solution.

Applications - one error since 02 Sept - yesterday & it relates to Ad-Aware - probably the problem that led me to uninstall it.
Systems - rather more of these, all from when I finally booted up earlier today. There are several on the lines of "this can't be run in Safe Mode" (I tried Safe Mode to get it to boot at all). I'm going to have to print these out to check - the source on these is the "Service Control Manager". Looking at these there's two IDs 7001 & 7026. 7026 is agian relating to boot start/system start . 7001 basically translates (to me) as something wouldn't work because something else hadn't.
My gut feeling is that these are related to the safe mode start, as they haven't recurred since I started up.
I'll now go & list everything on the Startup - I know there's loads there as I've disabled stuff in the past (months if not longer ago).

Thanks for the help - I will be some time!

[mshrmh]

Right - I've gone through the list of Start Up items - in general I used http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/
to check them. According to that none were "baddies", several were not needed at start up & others were essential or user choice. There was one item it did not have an answer for
E_S9D
so I've googled & the references I found seem to have it in the results of HijackThis scans, but not be suggesting it is a problem. I'm going to try disabling it at start up & see what happens

By the way - re the access to McAfee etc  websites - that error message comes up quicker than RootsChat loads so I don't think it can be a time out problem!

Modified - I've disabled E_S9D at start up - rebooted which went OK, however still can't access McAfee, MS Updates - with the same message as before. I'm going to try e-mailing McAfee - after all their stuff let in whatever it is that's driving us crackers! The only e-mail address I have is subscriptions [at] mcafee.com (modified as usual) , which I'll try - anyone got an address for support other than the web ones that I can't access?

Thanks

[stanmapstone]

Try

http://us.mcafee.com/root/support.asp

Stan

[downside]

Looking at that image you posted earlier in the thread I just spotted a yellow shield in your system tray area (next to the clock, bottom right hand corner).

Was that Windows automatic updates downloading something?


If you look carefully at the image you will also see:

Transferring data from freelotto.com

This is some kind of scam:

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/lotteryscam_FreeLotto2.php

I suspect you have some spyware on your PC that McAfee is not picking up.

Do you have an anti-spyware program installed?

[pjbuk007]

Well spotted, Downside.  I guess the message re freelotto points towards the culprit.

Perhaps PHONE McAfee?  I assume you have run an anti-spyware scan as suggested variously above.

[mshrmh]

Thanks for all the responses, I'll go through them separately

Perhaps PHONE McAfee?

I can't access McAfee's website , US UK or any other variations (I have tried dozens of links!), so I can't get a phone number, e-mail or postal address to contact them. The only thing I have is the subscriptions e-mail address from taking out the sub. I'd be happy to phone them, but I need a number - I have tried the online directory enquiries, 192.com gave me an address in Reading, but doesn't have the number listed, neither does BT. I did e-mail the sub address last night, but no response so far. If anyone can provide a number or alternative e-mail address I'd be very grateful.

Looking at that image you posted earlier in the thread I just spotted a yellow shield in your system tray area (next to the clock, bottom right hand corner).
Was that Windows automatic updates downloading something?

The yellow shield - I've set MS to notify of downloads, but not to install automatically. Some months ago a .NET download failed & since then the yellow shield has been a fixture. (I'm assuming as this is a stand-alone PC that has never been networked I'm not missing anything important). This was also one of the ways I found out that I couldn't connect to MS - I was trying to access the updates on Wednesday as the link on the shield gave some new ones. However since the photo was taken the yellow shield disappeared & at one of the numerous re-boots we got a message that windows was installing some updates.
Today I got the yellow shield when I first switched on - clicking on it I got the message "Installing" & then %s - but no details of what was installing. I checked Task Manager - couldn't see anything other than the webpage I was on. I was rather concerned & after it had finished looked at the lists of Windows Updates etc in the Add/remove programs section of Control Panel & found none were dated today. I did wonder whether I'd get the Windows Installing message again, but didn't when I switched on again. Since then I've tried a website which had a problem apparently with Adobe 9 - as my program in the list is Adobe 8.0.1 I wonder whether there's any connection there? In the last hour the yellow shield has re-appeared & now tells me "Updates are ready for your computer. Click here to install these update" - I'm leaving well alone at the moment!

Do you have an anti-spyware program installed?

The only stuff I've got now is McAfee & Cclean - did have Ad-Aware but uninstalled it the other day (as mentioned in earlier message) - I'd tried to download updates & it got stuck & appeared corrupted - I'd had this before ages ago which I'd fixed by uninstalling & re-installing. If there's some safe download locations I can try for Ad-aware or any thing else you can recommend I'll try but I've a nasty feeling I won't be able to connect - this thing's clever!

Many thanks to all for your patience & suggestions

[silvery]

If you right-click on the yellow shield, and select the second option (custom install or something similar, I forget) it tells you what it's trying to install.  Recently mine have mostly been for windows defender.

(something is always trying to update and restart me!  pain. )

[mshrmh]

Thanks silvery  - it SP3 - I did that when it first came out & had problems & got rid, so I'll steer clear for the time being - I think one lot of problems is enough for now.

[silvery]

http://service.mcafee.com/Default.aspx

or

http://www.mcafee.com/us/about/contact/uk.html


McAfee charges to remove viruses, £20 or £30 by remotely taking over your pc.  See tech support specialised services


(you had problems 'right clicking' the yellow shield ??  Nothing happens unless you give it the go ahead.)