Ads playing in the background

[Verang]

I suspect I have a rootkit or something installed. Without anything open, my headphones play a radio station with ads. I can't make it quieter or louder except by moving my headphone cable (I don't even know why). Just today I tried upgrading to windows 10 to make a clean drive (put that I didn't want to save any of my files) but it didn't help either.

 

Going to run through this guide on malwarebytes later. I've tried going through other scans on other google searches, TDSSKiller being one of them but it came up clean. Also scanned with malwarebytes to no avail. 

Any suggestions if the guide doesn't end up working? Should I just format the whole drive, as it seems the recovery portion with some other partitions went through the upgrade process?

[vanished]

Everyone has a different threshold for how much effort they will put into trying to clean a system before just formatting it and reinstalling.  For me personally, it's extremely low, so I would just do it in your case, but maybe someone else has something else you can try...?

 

But I'm not surprised upgrading didn't help.  That isn't at all a wipe and wouldn't remove or clean anything.

[Verang]

That's what I was thinking too. I'll probably do a proper wipe tomorrow if the scans don't come up with anything

[EvilLemur]

if you have windows 10 you could just do a refresh which basically removes all software (and documents if you like if not you can keep it) and its the same as a fresh install.

[vanished]

if you have windows 10 you could just do a refresh which basically removes all software (and documents if you like if not you can keep it) and its the same as a fresh install.

Is it?  What exactly does it do?  Does anyone but the ones who wrote it truly know?  I think it was intended to be an easy way to get the same "reset" advantages of reinstalling when all you're looking for is the speed of a blank slate.  Honestly, I wouldn't trust anything less than a format and true reinstall to do the job, if you are going that route.

[HPWebcamAble]

Generally, virus and malware try to as silent as possible.. playing radio ads is a good indication that something is up.

 

That being said, I have no clue what else it might be.

 

 

What does Windows say is playing the sound when you hear it? (Go to Speaker in the system tray and open the mixer to see individual applications)

 

 

 

 

Is it?  What exactly does it do?  Does anyone but the ones who wrote it truly know?  I think it was intended to be an easy way to get the same "reset" advantages of reinstalling when all you're looking for is the speed of a blank slate.  Honestly, I wouldn't trust anything less than a format and true reinstall to do the job, if you are going that route.

 

I believe a refresh does NOT touch user documents or programs, it only reinstalls windows files. But I don't know for sure, I haven't ever used it.

[vanished]

I believe a refresh does NOT touch user documents or programs, it only reinstalls windows files. But I don't know for sure, I haven't ever used it.

Exactly.  It's something less than a format, which means that some files are left alone (or there is at least the chance that some files are left alone), and that means to me it can't be relied on as a way that can be counted on to totally clean a system.

[EvilLemur]

not really you can tell it to not save any documents and it what it does is wipe the system and reinstall. it saves time in having to activate you system and things of the like. which is why windows 10 actually now uses its recovery partition.

 

now when my girlfriends sister messes up her pc i do a refresh on it and just recover the documents that have been backed up and scanned clean.

[Elliott Game]

what software did u use to scan? Did you give hitman pro a try?

 

link: http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro

 

Just install it and use the free trial with a fake email, it works great for rootkits

[vanished]

not really you can tell it to not save any documents and it what it does is wipe the system and reinstall. 

How could it?  Where is it reinstalling from if it wipes itself?

[EvilLemur]

well there are 2 options one from a recovery partition that is hidden if you don't have that windows 10 keeps part of the hard drive under the windows folder reserved specifically for that which it loads into memory while it wipes the drive.

[vanished]

well there are 2 options one from a recovery partition that is hidden if you don't have that windows 10 keeps part of the hard drive under the windows folder reserved specifically for that which it loads into memory while it wipes the drive.

(If we ignore the recovery partition...)

 

If I'm not mistaken, the installer is about 3.1 GB, and the only extra partition I know of that it creates when you install is around 500 MB (see below), so I don't think it's that.  And as for the loading into memory thing, that sounds incredibly risky; if the power went out between it having wiped the old system and having installed the new one, you'd lose the ability to reinstall without getting a new media from somewhere (their website for example), so I would be surprised if they're doing that.

[EvilLemur]

yeah thats a risk lol which is why im connected to my battery backup while i do it. but if you want to be sure do a reinstall but download it from a clean pc to avoid infecting the installer.

[Verang]

edited, look at post below this

[Verang]

Things I have tried are eset online scanner, roguekiller, tdsskiller, hitmanpro, malwarebytes

 

For some reason I have 6 paritions. 500MB seems to be normal since the above post had it, DIAGS is for dells diagnostics, Windows, and the 7.34GB parition I believe is normal (for recovery).

 

The ones I don't really know of are the 750MB and the 450MB

[TetraSky]

I have 5 partitions, the DIAG one is for diagnostics by dell, with the 7.34GB i'm assuming is the actual recovery partition, but there is the 500MB mentioned above with an extra 750MB and 450MB partition

Now that you have Windows 10, if you're going to format, you could delete all the DELL partitions to gain the extra disk space, because they won't be needed anymore as you can reinstall Windows 10 without needing a key, it will reactivate the moment you connect to the internet. (Using the media creation tool)

 

Well I suppose the Diag partition could always be "useful", but lets face it, does anybody ever use that over something else like Memtest or whatever other test? The rest is useless though.

[Verang]

Now that you have Windows 10, if you're going to format, you could delete all the DELL partitions to gain the extra disk space, because they won't be needed anymore as you can reinstall Windows 10 without needing a key, it will reactivate the moment you connect to the internet. (Using the media creation tool)

 

Well I suppose the Diag partition could always be "useful", but lets face it, does anybody ever use that over something else like Memtest or whatever other test? The rest is useless though.

Still going to do a few more scans/wait for replies, but if I wanted to go about repartitioning the ssd, can I get the iso for windows 10 for free and does it allow for partitioning inside the installer like how windows 7/8.1 do?

[TetraSky]

Still going to do a few more scans/wait for replies, but if I wanted to go about repartitioning the ssd, can I get the iso for windows 10 for free and does it allow for partitioning inside the installer like how windows 7/8.1 do?

Yes you can and yes it does.

You can get the ISO using the Media Creation Tool. Just make sure to choose the right version, but by default it should take the right one. maybe not the language though.

[Verang]

Yes you can and yes it does.

You can get the ISO using the Media Creation Tool. Just make sure to choose the right version, but by default it should take the right one. maybe not the language though.

 

Making the usb now. I'lll delete everything but the DIAG partition and reinstall

[TetraSky]

Making the usb now. I'lll delete everything but the DIAG partition and reinstall

Be sure to at least download your latest Ethernet Drivers before proceeding with it, and just put it on the same usb key as the windows install.

You never know if Windows will have your drivers by default, it's always good to be prepared.

 

And if there's anything you want to backup first, like your bookmarks, documents, saved games or whatever, do so.

[Verang]

So I decided to wipe the whole drive. Just got done updating and it still has the issue. It only seems to start up if it detects audio playing, then when I stop playing a video or something, it'll take 10 seconds or so for it to stop. I can't seem to find it in the audio sources though

[Verang]

Is it possible that I am just picking up interference? 

 

edit: I think it actually might be interference. That sucks...thanks for trying to help anyways guys

[Coaxialgamer]

Is it? What exactly does it do? Does anyone but the ones who wrote it truly know? I think it was intended to be an easy way to get the same "reset" advantages of reinstalling when all you're looking for is the speed of a blank slate. Honestly, I wouldn't trust anything less than a format and true reinstall to do the job, if you are going that route.

Reseting your pc will delete all software except the os. Basically like reinstalling windows, but much less hassle if you can avoid it

[GoldSrc]

Is it possible that I am just picking up interference? 

 

edit: I think it actually might be interference. That sucks...thanks for trying to help anyways guys

 

It could be interference of some sort, but that's pretty weird, do you have some shielding problems with your case/wires?, or are you really close to a radio station?

[vanished]

Reseting your pc will delete all software except the os. Basically like reinstalling windows, but much less hassle if you can avoid it

Well, if it leaves the OS then it's not really like reinstalling then, is it?  In fact, it's completely unlike reinstalling

 

But When I said "what exactly does it do?" I mean I want to know exactly what it does.  Like, I want a complete list of all files and directories that are affected, I want to know what it does with which registry keys, etc. etc. things only a developer could answer so it was a rhetorical question intended mainly to show that we really can't say for sure what it is doing and thus that a true reinstall should be assumed to be more reliable (at least until we have an answer to the question )