Something preventing new virus protection from working?

Question

Dell 4700C -- has had lots of problems lately, running very slow, buggy.  Decided to do a system restore back a few months, and then downloaded AOL's Safety and Security Center.  Software seemed to install fine -- including deleting my old AOL McAfee protection -- but after restart it said there was no Anti-Virus software installed.  AOL SSC gives you the option of downloading that as a stand-alone, and so I did, restarted -- but then still, won't recognize it.  Did it one more time; no luck.  I also cannot do a 'scan' for viruses and spyware using AOL SSC.   I did noticed, after restart, that there are messages above the system tray that say that Security Center is turning on protections, and then a note that says that AOL Firewall is on, and THEN one that says AOL Anti-Virus is on (!), but within seconds, when the AOL SSC systray icon starts up, I get a red X, and an indication that there's no AV protection.   AOL advised that I run McAfee's Stinger, which I did, and it did not detect any problems.  Also cleared temporary internet files, restored IE defaults, checked LAN settings, downloaded windows 5.6 engine, reinstalled software again, etc.    SOOOOooo...could something be on the system that is preventing AOL Anti-Virus?  What's the best way to find it?    I'm trying to avoid having to do a Dell PC Restore.   Thanks in advance!

joe53 · Answer

Stinger is a good tool, but detects only a limited number of infections.   I would suggest you do some online scans for a second opinion: Go here: http://www.nod32sse.com/scanners.php   ...and run Panda's free online virus scan, and ewido's free online malware scan. Both have high detection rates, and both disinfect as well. (If you have the time, run as many of the other scanners as needed (not all of them disinfect, however).   Let us know what you find, and whether you were able to delete everything found.

gillman · Answer

Thanks, Joe.  Well, it's now been scanned by three utilities:   Stinger from McAfee -- found nothing Kapersky -- found nothing (Ewido -- error when it started, and so it didn't scan; I'll try again if necessary)    Panda said it found 49 infections, but I think that was alarmist, because 43 of them just seem to be normal cookies (doubleclick, statcounter, adrevolver, atwala, etc.)  It did find three things in Windows Registry:   Spyware:spyware/virtumonde Adware:adware/wupd Spyware:spyware/media-motor   I haven't yet eliminated them.  (Panda doesn't offer that as a free service.) Note that I'm not having any 'ad pop up' problems; my only problem now is that I don't seem to be able to get AOL SSC to recognize AOL Anti-Virus.    Can anything else be causing this?  Should I run more scans?  Could any of this be due to the fact that I did a system restore right before downloading the software?   Thanks in advance!

gillman · Answer

To follow up: Did a Ewido scan, and it also found the first spyware; didn't find any others. I used Ewido to delete it.

And so now I'm back to the basic question: why won't AOL SSC recognize that AOL Virus Protection is loaded, especially after I get a message after startup that AOL Virus Protection is ON?

zbestwun2001 · Answer

Hi AOL leaves much to be desired... you will need to contact them to find out why this is happening. Sorry, ZB1

joe53 · Answer

I agree with ZB1.   You have established that you are not infected, and you are left with some buggy AOL software. I personally would never trust my system's security to anything downloaded from my ISP (let alone AOL).   I would uninstall anything from AOL, and get a free copy of either avast! or AVG-Free for my anti-virus. Both come highly recommended.

Virus & Spyware

Something preventing new virus protection from working?

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