Restart, Restart, Restart

[anderson3]

My buddy has a hp with win xp on it, it haddn't been on the internet until about two weeks ago and they started haveing problems. They downloaded a free virus scanner (xpantivirus) i think is the name of it. I cant uninstall it and it has a window that is always up that says they have 2 peices of spyware, activate antivirus and clean files. I tried to use that software and didn't get anyware.
I installed the hd in my computer and scanned, found a ton of malware with my eset nod32. "64bit"

It denied me permission to clean the files that were on his hd.
I downloaded a free version of cyber defender I found on the eset website and installed it.
Now it starts up, I have time to open 2 windows and it restarts. Over and over again!
I tried to enter the bios to startup in safe mode hopeing it would alow me to uninstall the cyber defender and hopefully end the restart terror.
The bios is password protected. Nutts! Nobody knows the password!


Anybody have any Ideas?

[glc]

You don't use bios settings to start in safe mode. You press F8 to get the boot menu just before the XP splash screen appears.

They downloaded a free virus scanner (xpantivirus) i think is the name of it.

That isn't an antivirus, that *IS* a virus. Not particularly easy to get rid of, your best bet is scan with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Please review some threads in the Security forum, and I'm moving this thread there.

[pam123]

You don't need to enter the bios to start in safe mode, usually you just have to hold down the F8 key.
This may be different in an OEM computer so find the model number and download the manual from the HP site to check.

If you can clean the machine that way then all is well and good but if you can't then it's nuke and pave time.
Does he have/can he find the Restore disks?

It's possible to re-set the bios to factory defaults by pulling the battery on the motherboard ( If it comes to that the other solution would be to order a new bios chip, flashed for his computer, from these guys : http://www.badflash.com/ ) but unless he has restore disks he's still out of luck.

edit : glc beat me to it.

[l8ians]

It is a virus.To get rid of it from your computer Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and scan your computer.I had a same prpblem and this Malwarebytes helped to remove it

[anderson3]

Thank you, it looks like that is the fix if all 3 of you guys have the same plan!
Will safe mode let me start-up without the restart problem?
Or should I download it to my computer and put his hd back in my computer and go that rout?

[glc]

Try safe mode first.

[anderson3]

Deal, Thanks again!