COMPUTER EMERGENCY! HELP ME!!!

[MrBrightside919]

I'm having a computer crisis at the moment and I am in need of a lot of help...

So I turned on my laptop today and the first thing I saw when I logged in was that I had a BUFFER OVERFLOW. I had no idea what that was so I ignored it. After that, I checked my task manager and to my surprise...there were over 80 processes running, most of which I have never seen before. svchost.exe is the process that is running over 10 times...and I know that can be very bad because they can be virus processes sometimes.

At that point, I got worried.

So I went into both my virus scanners, McAfee and Malwarebytes, only to find that I apparently can't scan for anything. McAfee will open up, but nothing will appear in the window and I can't click on anything in the menu. Malwarebytes won't even load up either.

Now i'm REALLY worried. I went onto Google to look up a Processes Library, but everytime I search for something and click on the site I wanna go to, it takes me to some weird site called .com, which i'm assuming is a virus site.

I've gotten to the point where I am basically out of options. I can't search for an answer on the internet because I get sent to the virus site, I can't scan for viruses because I can't get into my Virus scanners AND I don't know which processes to stop because I can't get into the Process Library...

PLEASE HELP ME! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO DO!

 

[Neonbob]

http://fixprogramerrors.com/system.php?a=Buffer%20Overflow

Try this.

Info on possible cause:
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Analysis_of_Buffer_Overflow_Attacks.html
I don't know if this will help.
Descrip of svchost
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

 

[ExodusinFlames]

Stop using windows.
*pause for laughter*
No but seriously, you may need to do a reinstall. If you've got an issue with a masked svc, you're going to be hard pressed to find a solution, aside from accessing the individualized svchosts and determining what they are responsible for and shutting them down, one at a time until you find the busted ones.

Need a bit more info though. What version of Windows are you running? Based upon that there are certain versions that will have more svchosts running.

 

[Leorex]

What the fuck is going on with all the laptop crashes from Escapist members in the last few days..

I'm pretty sure svchost is a virus. Same with Rundlll32, if you have that.

svchost is NOT a virus.

 

[ExodusinFlames]

Neither is rundll either. Both are essential, however viruses can become embedded to them.

 

[Robin_Lyon]

QUICK! Throw a bucket of water on it! Don't think about it man, just do it! BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

 

[MrBrightside919]

What the fuck is going on with all the laptop crashes from Escapist members in the last few days..

I'm pretty sure svchost is a virus. Same with Rundlll32, if you have that.

I know SVCHOST can be a bad virus...I just don't know which process I should stop because there are so many of them.

Stop using windows.
*pause for laughter*
No but seriously, you may need to do a reinstall. If you've got an issue with a masked svc, you're going to be hard pressed to find a solution, aside from accessing the individualized svchosts and determining what they are responsible for and shutting them down, one at a time until you find the busted ones.

Need a bit more info though. What version of Windows are you running? Based upon that there are certain versions that will have more svchosts running.

I'm using Windows XP

 

[Ancientgamer]

So how is Leorex banned, but not madbird-valiant?

 

[Neonbob]

So how is Leorex banned, but not madbird-valiant?

madbird actually tried to help in his post, instead of insta-slamming the original poster.
I think that might be it.

 

[DeleteMe1112311]

Similar thing happened to my sisters laptop a couple days back. I happily grabbed a beta copy of Windows 7, backed up her files, grabbed some new award winning virus protection and wiped her machine. Once that was done, I installed the virus protection, made sure it was okay, scanned the backed up files, then put them back. The computer has been running better than ever.

 

[Ancientgamer]

So how is Leorex banned, but not madbird-valiant?

madbird actually tried to help in his post, instead of insta-slamming the original poster.
I think that might be it.

No he didn't, he was trolling. svchost and Rundlll32 are vital system processes. What he said is akin to telling the OP to delete system32.

And taking it to the geek squad is a perfectly valid answer.

 

[Neonbob]

So how is Leorex banned, but not madbird-valiant?

madbird actually tried to help in his post, instead of insta-slamming the original poster.
I think that might be it.

No he didn't, he was trolling. svchost and Rundlll32 are vital system processes. What he said is akin to telling the OP to delete system32.

And taking it to the geek squad is a perfectly valid answer.

In his defense, there are things that can screw with the processes...hatehatehatehate them.
But I wouldn't trust my judgement at this time of night.
You might be right.

 

[Fuzzykittensmith]

If you don't have any important or necessary data, formatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows (or another OS, I suppose).

If you do have necessary data on there, try using a flash drive or external hard drive to make backups. Something you should probably do first, though, is prevent the virus from spreading through the external drive. Go into Folder Options in your control panel, enable "Show Hidden Files and Folders" and disable "Hide extensions for all known file types". Before you unplug the flash drive, refresh the folder and check for an "Autorun.inf" file or something similar. If it's there, delete it. If it isn't, make sure you still check each time before you unplug your drive, it doesn't take long. Also, before you use any of the files you've backed up, make sure you scan it with an antivirus.

If you can't use that method for whatever reason and have lots of time to devote to this (or are willing to make time if the data is that important), you may want to try reinstalling Windows overtop of your current installation. Make sure you choose the option that doesn't format your hard drive, there should be three, I believe it's the third option. If that goes well, boot into Windows. Make sure you're not connected to the internet, the virus won't be active, but it can use the internet connection to start up again and screw you over. Once your in, and everything seems well, reinstall your antivirus and scan your computer. If it still doesn't find anything, I'd suggest using "Kaspersky Internet Security" in place (or addition to) your antivirus, and scanning with that. It's what I used when I had a similar problem just the other day, and it's blocked the virus from doing anything malicious. It's still there and trying to do whatever it does, but Kaspersky stops it from doing so. At this point, if you're alright still, try connecting to the internet with your antivirus on. Hopefully you'll be fine.

I think that's all I have to suggest. Good Luck.

 

[MrBrightside919]

So I still can't run Malwarebytes and i've got the laptop in safe mode scanning for viruses with McAfee.

Something else happened (I think I caused this), but I can't connect to the internet on the laptop now (it's on a wireless network). The laptop can connect to the network and everything but it can't get on the internet. I think I blocked access to something I didn't realize I was blocking...

Does anyone know why my laptop is running 80 processes at start up? I have no clue. My desktop doesn't run 80 processes at start up and it's had its fair share of viruses.

 

[FROGGEman2]

If all else fails, total reboot.