Virus (W98)

[tweetybird]

I used the House Call Anti-virus program. And it says I have the PE FinalDo.A, virus in many files. I am wondering if it safe to delete them, being they are uncleanable. Some of them are listed as: C:\Windows\Options\Cabs\D, C:\Windows\Options\Cabs\ P, etc. and some under D:\CPQDRV\156029\B2A\00211, with different numbers. And each time I do another scan with Housecall, there are different ones listed then before, why is that?

[TonyKlein]

I found this:

"Because the virus is polymorphic, each file that it infects creates a different file, which it attempts to send using MAPI. The virus waits 30 minutes before it sends itself. The file is encoded within a MIME email message that will have an attachment named ".exe". This email message makes use of the preview feature to allow it to run the executable when the email message is viewed"

The virus infects *.ocx, *.exe and *.scr files, and it could well be that some Windows files have already been infected.

I'don't think you have another choice though, and in order to get rid of this virus you'll have to have your antivirus delete the infected files.

[tweetybird]

I have the AVG. Anti-Virus program.I thought that is suppose to be a good one. When I run it, it says I have no viruses. So I should use the House Call Anti-virus and delete them thru there? Each time I run the housecall anti-virus, it always displays different file names, so it will take hours before it will give my computer a clean bill of health. But I suppose I have no other choice. I found the virus in Window Updates also.

[TonyKlein]

AVG is not really a top notch antivirus, although it probably is the best freeware choice.

You can do better, however (Norton, Nod32, PC-Cillin, AVP Kaspersky, PC Cillin, Dialogue Science Dr. Web, etcetera)

I think it may be best to let House Call do what it deems necessary.

[tweetybird]

Wow, that was quick, thanks. I had Norton Anti-virus 2002, but that was not working, so I unistalled it. So now I guess I will try the PC-Cillin one. How will I know if I will need to reinstall anything and how do I go about doing that?

[TonyKlein]

By reinstall you mean restore system files that may have been removed?

You could scan for altered or missing files by running <a target="_blank" href=http://www.forrestandassociates.co.uk/pcforrest/sfc.html>System File Checker</a>

However, the results aren't always easy to interpret.

You could also just opt to do nothing, hoping that nothing vital was removed.
If applications misbehave, or you start getting errors you didn't have before, we could take another look at your system.

But you may well get away with it like that.

One last thing: if you're going to install PC Cillin, first disable and uninstall AVG.

You should never have two antiviruses running simultaneously.

[tweetybird]

Yes, I guess that is what I was trying to get at. Thanks for all your help and quick responses.

[TonyKlein]

You're welcome.

Incidentally, if you suspect files are missing, you could even install Windows 98 on top of your present installation.
You won't lose any data that way.

Only thing to watch out for: if you're running Internet Explorer 6.0, you need to remove it first before you over-install Windows.

[tweetybird]

I just did another housecall anti-virus check. It said I have the HOWARD.967.A virus in D:\CPQDRV\352071\00D\004\35. file. It is noncleanable. If I delete this file, and if the virus did an override of this file, am I going to lose a major file that I need? What does this file consist of?

[TonyKlein]

I don't know.

Back up the file by copying it to somewhere safe, and then delete the one in D:\CPQDRV.