Real Strange XP Problem

[wjperry]

I spent about 4 hours today working on a friend’s XP Home Edition machine that is best described as “sick”, really “sick”. First I had to remove a worm (w32.pate.b as I recall) and a Trojan (PE_PARITE.A), both of which I thought would solve the problem. “THE” problem was not being able to connect to the Internet using his DSL connection through SBC. All this to no avail.

The following normal, useful and necessary XP apps will not work, Task Manager, MSCONFIG, Regedit, IPCONFIG (through ) and any commands using including ping or anything else. They all do the exact same thing, show up for probably less than a second and simply go away.

When the connection to the broadband is made, some process seizes the system and fills the outbound bandwidth with output. This virtually locks the PC down until the connection is again closed. Since none of the useful tools work, I’m at a loss to kill the beast because I have no idea what it is. The McAfee Stinger and Trend Micro SysClean both give a clean bill of health at this point.

Has anyone seen this before or have any ideas? I’m getting close to formatting the HDD and helping him start over.

[Panama Red]

Have you tried accessing msconfig, etc in Safe Mode? Maybe try this Trojan removal tool

http://www.simplysup.com/

Have you run Adaware and Spybot too? Just some ideas to try. If you can, download AVG to another computer, burn it to a disk and install it on this system and run a full scan. I'd do everything in Safe Mode to try to prevent the crap from taking over.

[wjperry]

Panama Red,
I wanted to run both the spytools but didn't have either of them with me and since the Internet wouldn't work, I couldn't download them/ I was going to get the newest copies of them tonight and have tomorrow. Also, I will check out this Trojan tool in just a minute.
How do I get into safe mode without being able to set it in msconfig?
Thanks for the help!

[Panama Red]

Press F8 on start up when you see the splash screen. Keep tapping the key and the optional boot menu will come up. You can boot to Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking.

[wjperry]

F8, got you!!
Another related question, if I decide to eliminate the existing XP and reinstall, I want to format and partition the HDD to really start clean. He has the WinXP upgrade disk and the original Win 98SE disk. When the install sees no OS on the HDD will it ask for and accept the 98SE disk as prof of previous OS?

[Panama Red]

It should. I just used an XP Pro upgrade disk on a clean hdd. It didn't see a qualified OS and I showed the 98se disk and all is well. Good luck. If you plan to reformat and partiton, you might find this an interesting read. I use it on all my XP installs.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

[wjperry]

There is no end to tweaks!! Thanks for this interesting writeup on the PageFile. I just built and placed the system in the Sig below into use two days ago. In fact that's what I'm using right now and really enjoying it!!!

[Panama Red]

Originally posted by wjperry There is no end to tweaks!! Thanks for this interesting writeup on the PageFile. I just built and placed the system in the Sig below into use two days ago. In fact that's what I'm using right now and really enjoying it!!!

I'll bet you are! That's a nice lookin' system. Did you have any trouble setting up the SATA or Raid configurations? I see a lot of requests for assistance in those areas. Gotta try a SATA hdd some time soon. Curious as to the speed differential.

[wjperry]

Panama Red
Sorry it took so long to post back to you. Thanks to folks like yourself and GLC in this forum (among others), it was really pretty easy. Used the Intel Raid utility at Boot, F'6ed to load the drivers into the install of Wwindows XP and from there it was down hill. I still have a lot of apps and files to put on this machine, some temporary until I get the new server up and running. We have five machines here in the house for just the two of us. Don't ask, that sounds pretty weird, but that's how it is. Doesn't include the Media adapter to the surround sound system.
Anyway, I sure appreciate the help you all have been. Hope to reciprocate soon!!! I will stay here and hopefully answer and help others!!!