PC problems (hence why it's in this forum)

[Hells Belle]

I've been having problems with my computer.

First I was getting virus errors about a totour virus. I kept deleting it, but it kept coming back, so on advice of a site I created a "read me" only file called totour.exe so it couldn't create itself again.

Still I have problems though. The main one being that I get the blue screen of death, and a message about memory dump, which then has ascending numbers before my PC reboots itself.

A lot of the time my computer runs really slow, and I get messages about low virtual memory.

I'm running XP, so fear the blue screen is far more severe than it ever was with 98, with which I got that all the time.

Do you reckon I have another virus? I fear my problems started when I downloaded a key generator. I also disabled my firewall at one time when something related to java wouldn't work while it was up.

[jinjin]

Sorry to hear this HB. totour.exe appears to be a fairly recent trojan. The following two links contain information about totour.exe:

Link 1
Link 2

Unfortunately, I do not know of anyone who has been able to disinfect and repair their O/S, nor have I found any conclusive information on how to deal with this trojan without reinstalling the O/S.

Whenever I reinstall my O/S, I saved myself the time of performing a backup by buying a new hard drive.

I replaced my old hard drive with a new hard drive, installed the O/S on the new hard drive, attached the old hard drive back to the PC, copied the files I needed from the old hard drive to the new hard drive, and reformatted the old hard drive.

[Hells Belle]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm hoping it won't come to a reinstall, but I'm prepared for the worst.

*touch wood* I've had no problems today. Hopefully that's going to be an on going thing.

[boingo]

There's some information on how other people have been dealing with the virus here: http://forums.pcpitstop.com/lofiversion/index.php/t137078.html

You could attempt to use Windows Go Back, but you could lose some recent changes, such as recent additions to your desktop.

As Jin Jin said, it's a new virus, and there doesn't appear to be anything written to specifically deal with this Trojan yet, but there could be an update to your anti-virus soon, if your lucky.

[monosodium]

I'd mention something about stealing and karma at the point, but I think the blue screens are punishment enough.

There's some information on how other people have been dealing with the virus here: http://forums.pcpitstop.com/lofiversion/index.php/t137078.html

You could attempt to use Windows Go Back, but you could lose some recent changes, such as recent additions to your desktop.

As Jin Jin said, it's a new virus, and there doesn't appear to be anything written to specifically deal with this Trojan yet, but there could be an update to your anti-virus soon, if your lucky.

This totour.exe thing sounds like a symptom of the infection rather than the actual cause and as such totour wouldn't actually be a virus, although it may contain code to infect other systems. So you've got something else and as soon as whoever is in charge of it decides to change the name of the package from totour.exe to something else or decide to use their downloader for something else then you're back at square 1.

You will need to get at the root of the problem, and that could be a little more difficult. Keep an eye on your antivirus updates and run a full scan regularly until your a/v software nails it. It would probably be quicker to back up everything you care about on the machine and then reinstall windows and the software you actually own, thinking very carefully about stealing software in future...

[Spency]

As above, what kind of Virus Software do you have?

There are a couple of free ones AVG etc, but I have used Mcafee for many, many years now, and it seems (touch wood) to do the job.

Also, do you have any spyware scanners like adaware?

Let me know what you are using.

[monosodium]

As above, what kind of Virus Software do you have?

There are a couple of free ones AVG etc, but I have used Mcafee for many, many years now, and it seems (touch wood) to do the job.

Also, do you have any spyware scanners like adaware?

Let me know what you are using.

Updating the scanner is a bit late to be honest, once the machine is comprimised then all the av stuff will do is help to possibly stop a reinfection and what's been loaded on may not be included in the virus definitions...