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Question

Malware s.m.a.r.t check

Jun 5, 2012 12:23AM PDT

currently trying to get my system back. Running Windows XP 32bit. on a Dell Inspiron notebook. Safemode loads fine. I was able to download Microsoft Security Essentials. Did a quick scan and found several trojan viruses that were eliminated but did not clear up the problem.
I have myself and wife as users. was able to use here identity to get the security essentials downloaded and run. Shouldn't this also clear problems with my identity?
Larry.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Are you sure
Jun 5, 2012 4:52AM PDT

Are you sure it's malware, because SMART is also a predictive failure system for HDDs. It's just this side of useless, but that doesn't make it malware, or stop some people from getting a SMART failure warning and thinking that it's some kind of malware.

Maybe you could tell a bit more about this SMART error you're getting?

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SMART
Jun 5, 2012 5:17AM PDT

That is a tool, if this is what we are talking about, SELF MONITOR ANALYSIS REPORTING. Hopefully it means nothing, it is just doing its' thing. Supposedly, as Jimmy said it here is an issue with the HDD it will indicate a problem, if there is one.

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Malware smart check
Jun 5, 2012 6:47AM PDT

some are seek errors. when brought up in safe mode all works fine. desktop works fine. programs are there.
the screen is usually black. then there window opens and shows errors. When I got security essentials loaded and ran a quick scan it found several trojan viruses and then I deleted them. but did not solve the issue.
my next attemp will be to run malwarebytes and see what it finds.
also if I can get into system in control panel should I be able to do a restore back a few days or when the last checkpoint was created would that work?
Larry

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Malware smart check
Jun 5, 2012 11:08AM PDT

We finally got malwarebytes software to run in safe mode and it fixed the problem. now working on unhiding the files that are hidden.
little by little we think we have the problem solved. We felt almost positive on the malware when it was trying to force us to purchase something to fix the problem. they are after personal data I am convinced.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this.
I will figure out how to mark this resolved.
Larry

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That sounds like
Jun 5, 2012 11:23AM PDT

That sounds like the predictive HDD failure SMART, and it would actually be consistent with some of your other problems.

However, there's a real simple way to test this. Since you have an XP era laptop, dig out the blue drivers and utilities CD that came with the laptop, and if you tell the computer to boot from it, it should load a diagnostics program for your computer. Run that, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it tells you there's a problem with your HDD.