WARNING: Never watch TV shows via the website TVDuck.com. You will get viruses that destroy your computer
About a week or so ago, I made the mistake of using the website www.TVDuck.com to watch episodes of True Blood online because I don’t have cable and would not be able to see the show until next year (when the DVDs are released) unless I found a site that streamed it.
I’m sure many of you out there know better than to use a site like TVDuck, but I honestly never thought my computer could be infected by viruses if I just watched streaming content and didn’t download anything. I am always very careful to never open attachments that strangers send me via email, and I never download anything from sites I don’t trust implicitly, but I didn’t think watching streaming content could ever cause me trouble.
PLEASE don’t ever make the mistake I did.
The viruses have destroyed my computer’s ability to get onto the Internet, because the viruses are preventing Norton anti-virus from getting the downloads it needs to wipe the viruses out. There is something built into the viruses that made them attack the computer’s ability to recognize the Internet connection. I’ve spent the last week on the phone for many hours with Norton support, Microsoft support, and Comcast support trying to find a solution to this. I honestly have to just give up at this point and will need to junk this computer because the viruses won’t even allow Norton to be reinstalled on the machine (after the viruses somehow deleted Norton from the computer after a scan I ran detected them and tried to remove them).
It still amazes me that talented, bright, computer-savvy people in the world waste their lives creating viruses that destroy people’s machines like this.
I have to use my boyfriend Justin’s computer now whenever he’s sleeping or not using it, or try to get time on a PC at the library or something, until I can get a new computer for Buzzquarters. It’s a huge inconvenience and expense that is all because I couldn’t wait until next year to watch True Blood’s latest season and didn’t know the dangers of using a site like TVDuck.com to watch streaming content.
It’s an expensive lesson that’s brought new challenges to my life when I least needed them, so I want anyone reading this to make sure YOU are more careful and astute than I was and you do not make the same mistake.
And, if you happen to be reading this and you’re someone who knows anything about computers, I would love to hear from you in comments regarding what I could possibly do to fix my computer. As stated, the problem is that the viruses are preventing the computer from recognizing the Internet connection, so the computer thinks it is offline. The error message I get is: “failed to query TCP/IP”. The viruses will not allow Norton to be reinstalled, and even when I use Justin’s computer to download the “Norton Power Eraser”, like Norton support told me, and save it to a thumb drive to then walk over to my computer, my PC won’t allow the Power Eraser to install.
It looks like the viruses are protecting themselves and preventing the computer from either installing the Norton products the viruses destroyed or getting to the Internet where new virus-killers can be downloaded.
If you have any clue what to do that can save me from having to buy a new computer, I’d love to hear from you in comments below.
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Try download avast on a thumbdrive and see if it will let you install it,it's free to download and it is an anti-virus maybe it just won't work with Norton.
Have you tried booting up in safe mode? That generally prevents the virus from starting up and allows you to remove them.
I also suggest this. Good luck to everyone affected.
Yes. Start in safe mode. You probably have to press F2 (function key) on a reboot or start-up. I've had a virus that was so nasty that it was still there in safe mode. So with tenacity, I kept trying to do spomething.
The next thing is what saved me twice on my last computer. Do a system restore to a date before you watched the video that gave you the virus. This will not affect any files other than system files. This is important if you have created any word docs, spreadsheets, etc. (Windows used to destroy these on a system restore. But that is no longer true.) You do not have to junk the computer . But the virus is probably so nasty that you have to get the system files back to a previous date. Good Luck.
There are apps to clean this up if you can get to them on another computer. You may have to Google a bunch of things to find them but for every virus, there is a cleaner out there somewhere.
If all else fails, turn it off. Insert the original Windows Operating System CD or DVD that came with the computer. Reboot from the CD (usually by pressing F12 during boot). Re-install the OS from scratch doing a full disk format in the process. This will return your computer to a new state. You can try coping files off to CD before you rebuild it but you rick copying the virus. If all you save are word files and stuff like that, you should be safe.
You can try a "repair" rather than re-installing the whole OS first. Reboot from the CD but choose repair rather than install and DON'T format. That might work and will be much less painful.
Most vendors supply a rebuild CD that contains all the software that originally came on your computer. You will have to reinstall everything and you will probably lose some stuff but you won't have to buy a new computer.
Or, take it to somewhere like Best Buy and have them rebuild it for you. Depending on how old your computer is, it will still be cheaper than buying a whole new system.
I just suggested elsewhere that you can first try a system restore in safe mode. It is in
Control Panel. And you just need to restore to a date just prior to watching the video that gave you the virus. It has worked like magic for me twice on my last computer. Do this before using any disc that came with the computer – much less drastic.
My new computer does not have a recovery disk but has the recovery on drive D:. I wonder how that will work!!!
Kevin – Glad you're back. I'm happy it's only a computer, and not you, that was incapacitated.
Re the computer, use the advice of the above two commenters first, then, if that doesn't work, if you're certain the computer is a loss, format the hard drive and reload your OS, and then load Avast or some other good virus program. My computer chops are a bit out of date, but I think viruses cannot affect hardwired instructions your computer came with. If you format, all programs no matter their source will be removed, and like wiping a blackboard, you'll be able to start over.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Forget Norton, the other posters are right: you need to wipe out your hard drive at the OS (operating system) level. Forget trying to save anything on your computer — that's what backups are for.
No! No! No!
Don't wipe out anything!
Use your other available machine, go to Microsoft support, read the several methods of safe restart and recovery (for your OS version) several times each, and call a friend. This is a case for RTFM (read the f'n manual), taking a breath, and getting a buddy to help.
(I'm more unix & Mac than PC)
Kevin, I am not sure if this will help you, but i-yogi has been very good for me. It's not free, though. Thank you for posting this information.
I highly recommend geekpolice. They will walk you through disinfecting your machine and installation of antivirus/firewall freeware. They run a forum website, so you will be doing your own system cleanse with one of the techs' guidance, over a period of days. I think it took me 5 days to go through communicating/disinfecting and installation, but it was well worth it and I learned a lot. They do this for free, but request donations if they've helped you.
Hope this helps. Good stuff starts around post 10. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/42533-failed…
I've also had similar experience. The virus/malware that invades your system when you go to one of these sites to watch a show is enough to warn me never to go to them again! I am always astonished by the waste of talent by these people to invent things to destroy the lives of others. It is just baffling.
As a matter of routine, I always conduct an updated Malaware scan, and anti-virus scan even when I do not detect any problems. Are these fool proof? No, but I feel better taking some actions than taking no actions. I only go to safe sites (i.e. Amazon.com) to stream video. But that doesn't mean that other "news" sites that stream news video are safe. I am battle weary on this issue. Best of luck Kevin. Thanks for spreading the message about virus. And welcome back!
Kevin, does your computer have more than one user set up to log in? If so, you should be able to log in as the other user (I got bit like this once, so I always have more than one user account) , and let Norton or some other cleanup utility fix things up.
Hi Kevin,
If you're on a Mac, take it to the Genius Bar at your nearest Apple Store and see if they can help you. Even on a Mac, you should be able to start up from an external drive, emergency Norton CD or another computer and sweep your computer with a copy of antivirus software.
Kevin,
I do this for a living. If you'd like some help, please email me and I'll walk you through some things. The posters above are right – there's no need to get rid of the computer. It's just Windows that's broken.
All you need is a few free tools and a lot of patience, and you'll have your computer back. Depending on what you have (sounds like a Hijacker and a Trojan), you may even be able to salvage your data.
If you can (or knows someone who can) I would pop out the main drive and replace it with a new one before doing the OS reinstall. Then, once you have a good virus program in place, and have the OS updated, you can take the old infected drive and reconnect it, having the fresh OS/virus program scan the drive and wipe the infection. That way you have minimal loss of data.
First thing: System Restore in Safe Mode. Set the Restore Point to before the virus download. You'll lose downloads since that point but it is vital to clear the virus out of your system.
This works for most viruses. If the virus can't be beat with System Restore, try the other alternatives given above in order of severity.
EXACTLY! This is how we got rid of a miserable lingering virus. I was scrolling through ready to write something like this, but ZS got here first and best!
I just want to say what a cool bunch of people read this website & jump in to help Kevin with his computer problem! Honestly does it not just go to show all of us what a simply fantastic community we are!
I am smiling just thinking of all of us out here…meeting at Hillbuzz with all our differences, yet coming together.
Makes me proud again to be American!
Cool beans!
Kim
p.s. Kevin watch Trueblood (my fav) on HBO Go…if you know someone with an ipad & they have HBO you can borrow ipad & watch HBO programs for free on this app.
Just have them download HBO Go and you have all the programs at your fingertips.
I also like East Bound & Down, Boardwalk Empire & Game of Thrones!
Yea, ok I like HBO…but some of the other stuff is waaaay over the top liberal junk…
Agree with the others – system restore.
Next time, for prevention, don't login with an account that has admin rights. I also use Sandboxie. It is free. Not an antivirus, there is a video demo on YouTube.
Kevin,
I had this problem a few months ago and my adorable husband fixed it within an hour. He went to another computer and found the virus name. He then went to find the fix for it and was able to download it from the other computer on a memory stick. He downloaded maleware bytes also and he was able to fix it from the memory stick he downloaded. The computer worked fine until we tried to get on the internet and it would take you only a site stating your computer was hacked and you had to pay to get it fixed. Let me know if this helps as he is here with me to answer any questions you might have.
Excellent suggestions. You are not going to need to get a new computer to rid yourself of the problem. After you have cleaned out the problem, do get a highly rated anti virus. Whatever you had did not do the job. I had attempted a variety of "Free" AV from AVG, Avast, and Malware bytes. I was still getting caught by the fakeAV. The -paid- version of Malware bytes contains a black list of web sites finally stopped the infections.
As an aside – Norton (and McAfee) are just god-awful programs. When you get back up and running, ditch that and get either Avast or AVG as your anti-virus program. Both are free (for home users) and work much better than the commercial ones.
I've been using Avast for years now and never had a problem, with either viruses or with the anti-virus program grabbing and holding 99% of the CPU (which McAfee does quite a bit on my work machine).