Help my computer is under siege!

Question

I have a Dimension Desktop 2400.  Currently I use the AT&T Security Suite.  On Friday night the computer was slow and I ran a scan and no problem was found.  By Saturday morning, everything changed.  The taskbar is gone, the computer time has changed, all the printers have been removed.  If I try to go into Outlook Explorer the screen turns white and then clicks right back to my desktop.  The spyware and antivirus will not load up, only the firewall.  Help, my computer is unable to be used.  I am not very computer literate so please make this simple.

ky331 · Answer

are you saying you can't run anything on your machine?   or just that you can't run your AT&T Security Suite's anti-virus / anti-spyware modules?   assuming you can still run other programs on your machine, i suggest you run a diagnostic tool which may help reveal what's actually happening on your system:   Preliminary note:  When attempting the following directions, if you can't access the internet or perform the indicated download of HiJackThis (HJT) on your 'infected' machine, you should download it onto another 'good' machine (a friend's, or one at work?), then transfer it via floppy (it's a tiny file) [or memory stick, or CD-R/W] to the infected machine, run the installer (and then) program files on the infected machine, and finally transfer the generated log over to the good machine, to post your log online. . Download the latest version of Trend Micro's HiJackThis (HJT) [version 2.0.2]   installer   from http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/threat_analytics/HJTInstall.exe . Save it to your Desktop. . Double-click on the     HJTInstall.exe    file you just downloaded, and click on the   Install   button, to install HJT in the suggested/default folder, C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis . ( As part of the installation, a shortcut to the HJT   program  will be placed on your Desktop, and another shortcut in your START menu [for easy-access to using HJT in the future --- you only need to run the  program  again, but not the  installer ] ). . After installation, HJT will automatically open and start running.   [If this is your   first time  running HJT, please read and accept the EULA (End-User License Agreement)] . Click on  Do a System Scan and Save a LogFile   This will automatically open NotePad   Copy the entire file from NotePad:  EDIT/SelectAll, EDIT/Copy   Then go to the forum dedicated for HiJack This logs (**NOT** back here), and  PASTE the results there:   http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_hijack   Be sure to include a detailed description of any problems/errors/warnings you are encountering.   Also, please indicate the steps you've already taken, if any, in terms of running anti-malware scanners or malware removal tools.  When you submit your HJT log, please make sure the box under your text which shows 'Automatically convert carriage returns to HTML line breaks' is checked, or your log may not format correctly... it should consist of separate/readable lines, not one large 'jumble'.   Hopefully, one of the HJT experts will get to it as quickly as possible.   WARNING:  HiJack This is a VERY POWERFUL tool.  While it's  completely safe  for you to download, generate, and post your log (as described above), you should *NOT* attempt to do anything else (in particular, do NOT use it to delete/fix any entries) until you are advised to do so by a forum expert!!   Improper use of this tool can severely damage your system.

Virus & Spyware

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