UNSOLVED
PC Doctor
I have an Inspiron 1525 less than 3 months old. I am running Vista Home Premium with Defender, Avast anti virus, Superantispyware and, A Squared free, these are all up to date and used regularly. In the last few days i have had a message come up from defender asking about something called PC Doctor and wanting permission for it to run. I have never installed this and I wondered if this was something that comes with a Dell, if not how can I stop this I cannot find it in add remove or my program files. Where has it come from, I don't want it.
DavidWKing
3 Posts
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Posted May 25th, 2011 10:00
Today I noticed a software install taking place while I was working on my Laptop. I stopped it and was extermly worried I was being attacked by a virus or trojan horse (or hacker, any thing). I did a lot of digging and checked in Event Viewer. I found that there was a download labeled as "PCDoctor_bundle_dell_dsc_x64.msi" that was being installed.
Turns out it is an update for Dell Support Center. (version 3.1.5830.10). I did not see any notice from Dell Support Center that there was an update available or question as to wether I wanted to install an update to DSC. In the end I got it figured out and it was not an attempt to attack my computer. I was wondering why Norton didn't pick it up (Latest version of Norton 360 just installed a few days ago), but guess it was because I had tagged DSC as safe in the past.
Hope this info helps for anyone else that has this expereince.
Interesting thread. PC-Doctor (which apparently is not used by Dell) was downloaded (invisibly) as part of an update to DSC onto my system. And I've lived UN-happily ever after. As near as I can determine, I must uninstall DSC to get rid of it. It is not listed as a separate entity for removal. My DSC is messed up anyway (no idea how), as I continuously receive a message via Event Viewer: "The SupportSoft Sprocket Service (dellsupportcenter) service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified. " and there does not seem to be any worthwhile help on this error - I even tried with Windows Powershell (with which I've had success fixing other problems - like unattached things left in a registry), but to no avail.
Oh well .....
@Bugbatter There's great value in those old discussions, so closing a topic just because it is old is en exercise in backwardedness really.
Hi infinum:
Actually there is zero value in re-opening any old HJT thread, which in this case was entirely specific to the OP 16 years ago. Security considerations and recommendations have evolved considerably since then.
Plus this board no longer supports HJT topics or malware removal, other than general recommendations.
beversoll
2 Intern
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301 Posts
12806
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Posted June 5th, 2008 03:00