Trojan cannot be removed

[mattaggie]

My computer at work has a Trojan on it and running extremely sluggish. The CPU stays close to 100% even when not doing anything. I have symantic anti-virus but it said that it was unable to remove or quarantaine the file. The corrupted file was a .dll (something like C:\\windows\system32 . . . .dll. So my question is, should I just put the HDD into a different PC, back up the important stuff, and start over with a clean install? If my current anti-virus cant do anything, would another program be different? This is a work computer and I need to get it up and running for tomorrow, so I dont want to waste a lot of time running spyware programs if it will be futile. I would appreciate any guidance.

[Cricket]

Do you know what trojan you have?

For trojans you need something like a-squared Free (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/). Maybe SuperAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/) will work on it too.

Might want to try running the scanners from Safe Mode too.

:) Cricket

[usnavyretired]

Yes, try superantiespyware (which is free) as Cricket suggested, you have a spyware issue, not a virus.

[mattaggie]

I ran superantispyware and it found nothing. Symantec calls it a trojan.Vundo. C:\\windows\system32\vtstt.dll. I guess I will try running it in safe mode now.

[Cricket]

Vundo? Ugh, that's a real nasty one but you can get it cleaned up (won't be easy though). Do a Google search for Vundo/Smitfraud removal or SmitFraudFix.

If you don't have the time to mess with it, then you can put the hard drive in another computer and move the important data to another hard drive and then do a reformat and reinstall of the operating system...might be easier to do than to try and clean Vundo off the system.

:) Cricket

[rjfvillarosa]

I have seen Spybot Search and Destroy remove SmitFraud but it depends on the severity of the infection.
If you intend to run scans in SafeMode make sure you have installed the scanner and it's updates in normal mode as Windows installer usually isn't functioning in SafeMode.

[mattaggie]

ran superantispyware in safe mode and it found a lot of stuff, but the trojan is still there. I will try Spybot S&D now.

[Cricket]

See if SmitFraudFix (http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php) can help you out too...it's about the only thing I've found to get rid of really stubborn Vundo/SmitFraud/Zlob infections, but sometimes it takes several runs with it to get things really clean.

:) Cricket