Windows won't boot - winlogon.exe in AVG Virus Vault [Wilburg]
Hi all.
My girlfriend's PC has been having problems and so I thought i'd take a look. I then realised that she didn't have any form of AntiVirus software at all. She had previously been to a PC repair shop and they neglected to reinstall her Norton AV. He PC was thus riddled with viruses etc.
I therefore downloaded AVG AntiVirus Free and immediately before I even had a chance to update the definitions etc. it found a virus (I cannot remember the name *sorry*) in "winlogon.exe". It offered me to either 'ignore' the file or to 'move it to the virus vault'. I chose the latter option and immediately the PC turned itself off.
The PC no longer boots at all. It reaches the page where the windows logo appears and then restarts the boot sequence over and over etc. It has been cycling like this for 30 minutes now.
I have tried to start it in Safe Mode (pressing F8 etc.) however it still undertakes the boot cycle explained above.
Please help. The PC has become absolutely useless!! I'd appreciate any advice available.
The laptop is running Windows XP.
Kind regards,
Wilburg
My girlfriend's PC has been having problems and so I thought i'd take a look. I then realised that she didn't have any form of AntiVirus software at all. She had previously been to a PC repair shop and they neglected to reinstall her Norton AV. He PC was thus riddled with viruses etc.
I therefore downloaded AVG AntiVirus Free and immediately before I even had a chance to update the definitions etc. it found a virus (I cannot remember the name *sorry*) in "winlogon.exe". It offered me to either 'ignore' the file or to 'move it to the virus vault'. I chose the latter option and immediately the PC turned itself off.
The PC no longer boots at all. It reaches the page where the windows logo appears and then restarts the boot sequence over and over etc. It has been cycling like this for 30 minutes now.
I have tried to start it in Safe Mode (pressing F8 etc.) however it still undertakes the boot cycle explained above.
Please help. The PC has become absolutely useless!! I'd appreciate any advice available.
The laptop is running Windows XP.
Kind regards,
Wilburg
0
Comments
1) Get an adapter to allow you to hook the laptop hard drive up to a desktop computer (approximately $15), then run a full virus scan from there. Make sure the desktop machine is fully protected before you begin or you could well end up with two infected machines.
2) Download the Ultimate Boot CD and use the tools described at the site to update the virus definitions to the latest available for whichever of the anti-virus programs contained in the UBCD package. You can then run the scan by booting from the cdrom drive.
3) Recover any data off the infected drive, zero it out, then start from scratch.
Note to SVT Swat Team: I'm leaving this here for the time being, even though it falls into the Spyware & Virus Removal category. Until Wilburg decides on a plan of attack this problem qualifies as a "Non-bootable computer" problem.