Mouse and Internet Won't Work because of BitDefender (was Endless Windows Reboot Loop! Help!!)

NOTE: This was the Endless Windows Reboot Loop post.  I managed to solve that problem but new, related problems have emerged.  Please scroll down to my **UPDATE** reply to see my new problems.  Continue reading if you want to know the full history. 

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My problem is happening on my old Dimension 8200, not my new XPS 410, FYI.  I am writing this on my new XPS.  The Dimension 8200 is a P4 1.8 with 640 megs of RAM and Windows XP Home Edition.  Any details I post on my Dimension will have to be off the top of my head unless I can get it from MSDOS prompt, cuz I can't even boot it in safe mode now.  I'll tell the story from the beginning (or if you don't feel like reading you can just skip to the chase by scrolling down to THE CHASE below)

A few days ago, I tried out a new Anti-spyware program (SpySweeper) in order to prep my old PC to give to someone else (I was just wrapping it up) and to transfer a bunch of stuff to my new PC.  Spysweeper detected a Trojan (ldpinch) on my computer that my usual AV (Avast) didn't.  Amazingly, immediately after just-downloaded SpySweeper (yes I downloaded spysweeper direct from the company's web site) picked up ldpinch, Avast, which earlier the same day picked up nothing, suddenly picked up a virus as well, but a different one (possibly the virus was dropped by the Trojan or the other way around).  Keep in mind that I usually run a very tight ship on my PC - I don't visit fishy web sites, I never run strange executables (and if I do I always scan them with an updated Avast, something I'm going to have to rethink), don't fall for e-mail scams, never open strange attachments, etc.  Unfortunately, I do shut off my firewall most of the time because it interferes with too much normal functioning and I don't know how to configure it properly so that it doesn't. 

I subsequently went ballistic, downloading every free virus program available to be sure my system was clean (and because the free version of Spysweeper can't clean).  I got AVG, NOD32, PCTools and Spyware Doctor (free version also can't clean) to start.  I ran Avast until it said all was clear.  Then AVG picked up a quite a few Trojans/viruses and cleaned them all.  Apparently an infinite potion stacking and a relics-in-epics mod I downloaded for Titan Quest a few weeks ago were Trojans (no choice, I absolutely could not play without them lol).  I don't know if those were my only Trojan sources though - seems like I have/had too great a variety of Trojans for those to be the only ones, and they were the same one. 

I found a second csrss.exe in my task manager after a boot and my firewall said it was trying to access some site in Spain.  I promptly deleted the fake csrss.exe from my Windows directory, not touching the real one in /system32.  I also manually deleted some other fishy files I found in my task manager and researching them on google to make sure they were not legit (I could easily spot them because I keep my task manager very clean).  I also checked to make sure said files did not reappear after subsequent reboots. 

Even after manually deleting some Trojan related files and the Avast and AVG sweeps, Spydoctor and Spysweeper kept picking up trojans (ldpinch and Win32:Hackspy).  Since they found them in the registry only, I decided to just remove them from the registry manually, which I did.  Checking many times through subsequent reboots, none of the registry entries reappeared, and Spydoctor and Spysweeper gave me clean scans (free of Trojans/viruses, anyway, didn't bother with cookies).  NOD32 was useless, never picked up anything at all, ever.  I then uninstalled Spysweeper (not Spydoctor yet). 

Then, just to be safe, I decided to download a cocktail of everything else that had reasonably good reviews (except Moosoft Cleaner since my trial expired a long time ago for that):  Sunbelt Counterspy, Kaspersky AV, Avira AntiVir, BitDefender, Panda (didn't install because conflicted with AVG), Stopzilla 4.3, and maybe one or two more that I forget.  Stopzilla picked up a couple of new Trojans in registry only.  It said it wouldn't clean them in the free trial, but automatically quarantined them and when I uninstalled Stopzilla so I could manually remove them from the registry, they were gone, even after several reboots.  Sunbelt Counterspy picked up Backdoor.Genlot.DX in an actual file in Local Settings.  Aside from that all the other ones gave me clean scans except BitDefender, which I installed last. 

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THE CHASE

After I installed BitDefender, updated it, and rebooted, my endless reboot nightmare began.  The reboot occured right after the Windows XP splash screen disappears.  The Windows splash screen appeared for the expected amount of time, then when the welcome screen should appear, the screen goes black, my CD drives spin up, and the system reboots - each and every single time - in an endless loop. 

Figuring that BitDefender must be the cause of the problem (well, BitDefender and all the other virus programs I had loaded), I thought I could just boot in Safe Mode, uninstall BitDefender, and be done with it.  Unfortunately, BitDefender can't be uninstalled in Safe Mode.  Since I couldn't access the Internet at the time (I didn't set up my XPS 410 for net access yet at the time), I couldn't find instructions on how to manually remove BitDefender, so I did some creative tinkering of my own. 

First, I decided to uninstall every single one of the recently downloaded anti-virus/anti-spyware programs that I could in safe mode.  I did not try uninstalling my old favorite, Avast.  A few remained when I was done (they also couldn't be uninstalled in safe mode) - if I remember right, they were Sunbelt Counterspy and Kaspersky AV.  Did this solve it?  Nope.  The reboot problem still kept happening. 

Next, I decided to edit my startup programs with msconfig.  Usually, I disable every TSR I can get away with disabling (including Avast's) in msconfig as soon as I install a program.  I didn't bother disabling the TSR components of all my recent antivirii/antispyware when I installed those because I figured I was uninstalling most of them soon anyway, after I made sure my system was clean.  I did aggressively choose to disable/not install the TSR components of all my new antivirii/antispyware when installing/running them, but the things just up and install the TSR's anyway. 

So for my next step, I decided to disable all of these.  It didn't work, but worse, I found something terrible - msblaster.exe was listed under startup!  I recalled that this was a worm because I had it once before.  The thing about it was that it was UNCHECKED when I found it.  What kind of virus adds itself to startup unchecked?  Anyway, I did a system file search for msblaster.exe and checked the usual locations (windows directory, system directories, root) and couldn't find it.  Maybe it was left over from the last time I had msblaster (years ago I think)?  I don't think so because I use msconfig all the time and I'd remember seeing something like that every time. 

Next I finally got my XPS 410 internet up and running.  I did some research on msblaster and found out that it caused endless reboots.  However, unlike my reboots, msblaster reboots actually load up windows and then say "the system will be shutting down in 30 seconds" or something like that.  I wasn't getting anything like that.  Still, it's a possibility. 

To be sure I didn't have msblaster, I ran all the antiviruses I had left - Avast, Kaspersky, and Sunbelt Counterspy.  These all had the latest definition updates (10/12/06) so that wasn't a problem.  They all came up dry.  Keep in mind that all of my antivirus cocktail gave me clean full scans before this reboot started (except BitDefender which I never got to use, obviously).  I also double checked to see if there were any of the msblaster affiliated processes in task manager - I didn't of course, or I would have spotted them earlier since I was checking the process list every minute at this point. 

Next, I deleted the BitDefender directory manually.  I had to do this in MS DOS in a clean boot, because some file in it was loaded even in safe mode.  Didn't work. 

Next, I tried doing a startup with all services/startup programs unchecked.  Nope.  Then I tried a diagnostic startup.  Nope.  Then I tried F8 menu options.  First I tried disable reboot on system fail.  That did stop the reboots, but after the splash screen I just get a black screen and it just stays like that forever.  Manual reboot, turned it off.  I tried everything else on the F8 list.  I couldn't use System Restore because I turned it off - I don't like it because I usually like to fix problems myself, and because my old computer was slow as with tiny hard drives (40GB and 80GB) and I needed all the performance and disk space I could get. 

Next, I googled the reboot loop problem.  It seems a common solution is to boot from the Windows XP CD (yeah same one that came with my Dimension from Dell) and do a non-console repair installation.  I did just that.  This is what really did my Dimension in.  While the setup was half done, it rebooted as part of the process.  After the reboot, it displays (in DOS blue screen text) something like - "Setup restarting....................." and reboots.  This is right after the Windows splash screen exactly like before.  What's worse, when I try to run Safe Mode now, it says "setup cannot run in safe mode, rebooting" or something like that.  So, I lost Safe Mode as well.  I'm not going to try a fresh Windows XP reinstallation unless somebody recommends it. 

Why am I asking for help in resolving this instead of just reformatting?  First, I still have all my on my old PC.  Yeah I know, back up often.  I was sorta in the middle of backing up all my stuff when all this went down.  Second, I had a lot of settings/tweaks and stuff I wanted to write down to transfer to my XPS like what options I had on/off for my various apps because I don't want to spend months figuring them all out again.  Finally, I have to give my Dimension to someone else in fully working order, and I don't want to start from scratch. 

Something is causing this.  There has to be a solution.  Please help me.  Also, if you know of any other good forums where I can post this to get more coverage/better help, let me know. 

The next thing I'm going to try is uninstalling all of BitDefender manually in MS-DOS now that I can access the internet again and get the instructions.  I haven't done that yet because now my XPS 410 is having problems (different kinds) - can't install the printer to print the instructions and my DVD-RW just borked so I can't install the drivers.  I don't expect answers to those here.  I expect to have these problems resolved shortly, I just thought I would put all of this out there so potential solutions might start rolling in.  Sorry for the long post. 

Message Edited by Maverick115 on 10-15-2006 03:10 AM