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General discussion

Normal Mode became Safe Mode

by bone harris Feb 17, 2009 1:38AM PST

Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn. I've got a problem, please help if you can.

Something triggered an auto shutdown of Windows the other day, so I booted into Safe Mode and fired up Malwarebytes. It found a Trojan Vundo so I got rid of it. I may have run VundoFix or ComboFix as well. I boot back into Normal Mode but Windows prompts me to sign in a Safe Mode with a normal resolution (1024x76. The USB ports work but the "theme" taskbar and start button are in Safe Mode style, the sound card doesn't function and certain programs such as iTunes do not run. I can boot into Safe Mode and it is basically the same but with a lower screen resolution.

I checked MSCONFIG and /SAFEBOOT is unchecked and everything looks normalish, unless I'm missing something. boot.ini looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

I did run System Restore to restore my computer back to a point last week, but it only solved the problem temporarily, as when I booted into Safe Mode again to run some scans to make sure everything was clean, the problem returned and System Restore failed over and over again.

Let me know if I need to be more specific or what I could try. Thanks. Indebted for life.

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RE: found a Trojan Vundo so I got rid of it

by caktus Feb 17, 2009 12:54PM PST

Are you sure? It is a sneaky little devil. Try again running Malwarebytes and VundoFix or ComboFix as well if you have them and remove or quarantine all they find. If these programs ask you to restart the computer, do so. When these programs are finished, delete all System Restore points -- right click on My Computer > left click on Properties > System Restore > place a checkmark beside Turn off System Restore on all drives > Click on Apply > remove the checkmark > click on Apply > OK. Restart the computer.

Any time malware is found and removed be sure to delete all System Restore points as well as any other backups that may be harboring a backup of the malware. most applications cannot scan restore points or compressed or encrypted files.

Post back the results.

Charlie

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