The following is a fix for the Yahoo Messenger 81003004 error.
Open Internet Explorer (yep! it's caused by a problem with the settings of Internet Explorer. Go to File> then uncheck the Work Offline option. Visit any website on Internet Explorer. Close Internet Explorer.
Log-in to you Yahoo Messenger account.
That's it!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
How to remove viruses, trojans, and malware
First of all, I protect the PC with ESET's SmartSecurity / Nod32, which is probably the best virus scanner and firewall out there.
In some cases, where the user of the computer mistakenly chooses Allow for threats that should be Denied by the firewall, the virus gets in. Also, viruses, trojans, and malware may enter the system through a USB and by directly double clicking or opening applications that are actually threats/.
In such cases, I use the following methods to clean all the threats.
If the virus scanner fails or doesn't load anymore:
Download, install, and run ComboFix. This should remove several threats.
Download SDFix. Run the installer. Restart your Computer and press F8 and choose to run Windows in Safe Mode. Again, do this in Safe Mode, it won't be effective otherwise. Run the installer. It should extract the contents to a folder called SDFix in your system drive, for example, C:\SDFix or D:\SDFix. Go to that folder and double click on RunThis.bat.
SDFix and Combofix should solve Almanahe, Alman, and Jamban viruses, as well as other viruses, trojans, and malware. Such viruses disable your Task Manager, Folder Options, and cause other problems as well.
Now, since the root cause is gone, to restore your task manager, Folder Options, and other problems, download and install RRT. Run it, check all checkboxes, and remove the restrictions.
If additional problems persist, your computer may be infected with other viruses. Luckily, you now have your Task Manger and Folder Options back.
Moving on to other problems... Download HiJackThis , install, then Run. Look through the list of services that appear on HiJackThis and disable the ones that look suspicious. This may require some experience, research, and searching on Google for which processes are harmful or not. If you see something like RedTube, Kagwang, then disable those immediately. Looking at the services running on a clean machine may give you an idea.
Another option that can reach the same effect as HiJackThis is by restarting your computer, pressing F8, choosing to run Windows in SafeMode, then going to Start > Run > and typing MSCONFIG. Go to the Services tab, and disable suspicious processes. In some cases though, the Safe Mode option no longer works.
Now there's this virus that causes RPC Server Errors, can't copy or paste, missing taskbar, can't open Internet Explorer or any other browser, and can't install programs. One of the tough ones actually. What I did for this was to reinstall the Windows (no reformat required), if you're worrying about important files you don't want to remove from your computer. You'll just reformat windows, choose the Upgrade option, and you're done.
In one particular case, I was met with the problem of the Windows Installer hanging up at the Preparing Installation stage. So what I did was to download the rpcss.dll file on the internet on another machine, then transfer it on the Windows\System32 folder and had the service running again. Since copy paste was out of the question, I did a bit of a work around by using WinRAR or Winzip and zipping the file on one location and extracting it to Windows\System32 folder. Doing this will restore the TaskBar, allow installations, allow copy paste, and solve a host of other problems.
With major virus scanners such as ESET, Kaspersky, Avast, AVG, and AVIRA not working well at all, I resorted to Dr.Web Scanner for Windows, which pretty much removed a lot of viruses and malware that the major virus scanners could no longer detect. It seems that using a less popular software has it's advantages--makers of viruses haven't come up with anything to disable them yet.
In some cases, where the user of the computer mistakenly chooses Allow for threats that should be Denied by the firewall, the virus gets in. Also, viruses, trojans, and malware may enter the system through a USB and by directly double clicking or opening applications that are actually threats/.
In such cases, I use the following methods to clean all the threats.
If the virus scanner fails or doesn't load anymore:
Download, install, and run ComboFix. This should remove several threats.
Download SDFix. Run the installer. Restart your Computer and press F8 and choose to run Windows in Safe Mode. Again, do this in Safe Mode, it won't be effective otherwise. Run the installer. It should extract the contents to a folder called SDFix in your system drive, for example, C:\SDFix or D:\SDFix. Go to that folder and double click on RunThis.bat.
SDFix and Combofix should solve Almanahe, Alman, and Jamban viruses, as well as other viruses, trojans, and malware. Such viruses disable your Task Manager, Folder Options, and cause other problems as well.
Now, since the root cause is gone, to restore your task manager, Folder Options, and other problems, download and install RRT. Run it, check all checkboxes, and remove the restrictions.
If additional problems persist, your computer may be infected with other viruses. Luckily, you now have your Task Manger and Folder Options back.
Moving on to other problems... Download HiJackThis , install, then Run. Look through the list of services that appear on HiJackThis and disable the ones that look suspicious. This may require some experience, research, and searching on Google for which processes are harmful or not. If you see something like RedTube, Kagwang, then disable those immediately. Looking at the services running on a clean machine may give you an idea.
Another option that can reach the same effect as HiJackThis is by restarting your computer, pressing F8, choosing to run Windows in SafeMode, then going to Start > Run > and typing MSCONFIG. Go to the Services tab, and disable suspicious processes. In some cases though, the Safe Mode option no longer works.
Now there's this virus that causes RPC Server Errors, can't copy or paste, missing taskbar, can't open Internet Explorer or any other browser, and can't install programs. One of the tough ones actually. What I did for this was to reinstall the Windows (no reformat required), if you're worrying about important files you don't want to remove from your computer. You'll just reformat windows, choose the Upgrade option, and you're done.
In one particular case, I was met with the problem of the Windows Installer hanging up at the Preparing Installation stage. So what I did was to download the rpcss.dll file on the internet on another machine, then transfer it on the Windows\System32 folder and had the service running again. Since copy paste was out of the question, I did a bit of a work around by using WinRAR or Winzip and zipping the file on one location and extracting it to Windows\System32 folder. Doing this will restore the TaskBar, allow installations, allow copy paste, and solve a host of other problems.
With major virus scanners such as ESET, Kaspersky, Avast, AVG, and AVIRA not working well at all, I resorted to Dr.Web Scanner for Windows, which pretty much removed a lot of viruses and malware that the major virus scanners could no longer detect. It seems that using a less popular software has it's advantages--makers of viruses haven't come up with anything to disable them yet.
Fix for Windows Genuine Advantage
Tried the following steps and it worked. Just for experimental purposes...
original source: http://exempt.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/how-to-disabling-windows-genuine-advantage-wgatrayexe/
1. Restart your computer, hit F8 before windows loading screen to go into the safe mode menu.
2. Select Safe mode (not with networking, and not with command prompt)
3. Once your in windows, goto START>RUN> type "regedit" (without the qoutation marks) and hit ENTER.
4. Goto EDIT, select FIND
5. Search for wgatray.exe, delete any reference found, (after it finds it the initial first time, just hit F3 to continue the search. Continue to delete anything it stops on.
6. Scroll all the way back up inthe registry editor, and select My Computer (one click. not two) and start a new FIND, this time were looking for Wgalogon, again, delete any references found.
7. Lastly, again, click on My computer, and start a new FIND, searching for LegitCheckControl.dll , again delete any references found.
8. Reboot and your finished, if not, you may have missed a registry entry.
BTW you should be able to continue to download Windows update (when set to automatically download an install).
This is for informative purposes only.
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