My customer’s computer was recently infected (and cleaned afterwards) by something. Running in safe mode, two programs spotted trojans & “removed” them. Now the scans are showing clean, but every time I attempt to install or update an “anti” program, it’s setup fails.
Had problems with Microsoft’s Security Essentials, too. It installed ok, but only fires-up every other boot!! When it’s down, it says it can’t find the net, but I am able to surf the net just fine.
++++++UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is more information; I am a computer tech and experienced in de-bugging infected machines. With this customer’s rig, initially, I followed standard procedures in un-installing & re-installing av programs.
This machine errored-out with every attempt to up-date the particular AV program attempted (AVG, Security Essentials, Malware Byes, spybot). Got to the point where last night I re-installed the whole OS.
The newly-installed XP was not a re-format, just a write-over. It has been fully re-installed now in ALL respects, and is otherwise working just fine. BUT … it STILL is FAILING to allow ANY AV program to be up-dated! The programs install ok; they just will not update. Depending on the program used, there is just a numerical error code without meaning that is referenced.
I know that my last, best shot is to back-up
all his stuff (taking hours) & totally wipe the drive, then re-install all over again. But what I want to know is, what is causing this? Is there anything else I can try, safe-mode or otherwise, before starting all over again?
