Chrome ads destroyed Windows 7?

[66Pyrithion]

Hey guys, my parents have had these random ads in Chrome, where it would highlight a word and underline it, then if you hover over it, it would search that word for nearby  shops selling that word or something like that. They've had it for about 2 months, I've managed to get rid of it once after a lot of effort, then about a week later it came back. I was out with my friends yesterday, and when I came home, my mum told me that the computer is really slow. I asked her what happened, and she said that she googled how to get rid of those ads, and it told her to download this program (I cant remember what it's called, and I've now managed to uninstall it after waiting nearly an hour and a half for it to load up), and ever since then Windows 7 has been acting really strange. It takes around 10 minutes to log into Windows, normally it would take 5-10 seconds, and to get the start menu up, it takes around 5 minutes. I've been searching google for the past 7 hours how to fix, and nothing has helped. I tried to do the System Restore, but for some reason there have been no restore points created, even though my mum ALWAYS creates one when she installs a new program. Its really strange. I've been thinking of backing up all of their important files on an external harddrive and doing a clean install of Windows 7 but I wanted to ask here if there was anyone who has had this problem and solved it. Any tips/help would be great, if you need more info, please ask and Ill try my best to answer. Thanks in advanced.

[MLG Doge]

Go to the chrome store and install adblock

 

Scan with malwarebytes

 

Go to control panel and delete un-needed programs.

[Comessy]

Chrome Menu > Settings > Extensions > delete all extensions

[Jodomcfrodo]

10 minutes to pull up the start menu? My vote is that you're screwed and reinstall. Check task manager for cpu usageand memory usage though and end high usage suspicious tasks.

[66Pyrithion]

MLG Doge: I have Adblock installed, and I have deleted all of the programs they dont need, but I will scan with malwarebytes.

 

Comessy: My parents only have adblock installed.

 

Jodomcfrodo:  Ill have a look through, Ill try malwarebytes first, I just want to see if there is a way to "fix" this without doing a clean install of Windows. If there is none, I will do it. 

[MLG Doge]

MLG Doge: I have Adblock installed, and I have deleted all of the programs they dont need, but I will scan with malwarebytes.

 

Comessy: My parents only have adblock installed.

 

Jodomcfrodo:  Ill have a look through, Ill try malwarebytes first, I just want to see if there is a way to "fix" this without doing a clean install of Windows. If there is none, I will do it. 

Quote somebody so that they can see your reply or use  @66Pyrithion

 

Malwarebytes should sort it.

[66Pyrithion]

@MLG Doge Yeah haha sorry Ill do this from now on. I am installing it as I type this. I really hope this works. 

[66Pyrithion]

@MLG Doge I tried Malwarebytes and CCleaner, and its still just as slow as before. Thanks for giving me those tips, and if you have anything else that could help me please tell! Thanks!

[dragoon20005]

@MLG Doge I tried Malwarebytes and CCleaner, and its still just as slow as before. Thanks for giving me those tips, and if you have anything else that could help me please tell! Thanks!

from the looks of it

 

the virus or whatever it is has infected the PC really bad

 

the last resort is just reformat the PC

[66Pyrithion]

@dragoon20005 I was really hoping to avoid that. Is there a way to re-install Windows 7 without losing any files/programs? Or should I just buy an External Harddrive and back everything on it?

[dragoon20005]

@dragoon20005 I was really hoping to avoid that. Is there a way to re-install Windows 7 without losing any files/programs? Or should I just buy an External Harddrive and back everything on it?

i wil say get a HDD dock instead

 

pull out the HDD from the PC

 

use a host PC with active anti virus scanner and scan the crap out if it for any hidden boot virus

 

then do the backup

 

 

using the external drive on the infected PC will also infect the HDD

 

not a good idea

[paprikman]

Chrome sux, use w3m.

[66Pyrithion]

@dragoon20005 Ok thanks, Ill see if any local stores have any drive docks, I was thinking of hooking it up to my old laptop (has windows Vista) and scanning it there, what programs do you recommend me using for this? I've already tried Malwarebytes and CCleaner. By the way, I put in the password to log on and its been welcoming me for the past 23 minutes haha!

 

EDIT: Would upgrading to Windows 7 pro or 8/8.1 fix anything? Because I know that it has a option that you don't lose any of your files. 

[Pakonater]

@dragoon20005 Ok thanks, Ill see if any local stores have any drive docks, I was thinking of hooking it up to my old laptop (has windows Vista) and scanning it there, what programs do you recommend me using for this? I've already tried Malwarebytes and CCleaner. By the way, I put in the password to log on and its been welcoming me for the past 23 minutes haha!

 

EDIT: Would upgrading to Windows 7 pro or 8/8.1 fix anything? Because I know that it has a option that you don't lose any of your files. 

Upgrading keeps all application files. Try booting into safe-mode. Press F8 at startup. This should make windows run faster because it only loads core system files. Windows will look different don't worry. Try removing things through safe mode.

You would need to remove the drive and put it in a drive dock and copy the data to another pc. Then re-format the drive and install windows 7 again.

Had a similar issue. This was my last resort.

Install adwcleaner in safe mode and run it: https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/

[66Pyrithion]

@Pakonater Ah ok. I am in safe mode and I've been on it for the past 2 days as Windows takes 40-70 minutes to log in. I have uninstalled all the unwanted programs, including all my steam games (I don't use this pc anymore, I have another account with like 80GB+ of music I have yet to moved over). Would buying a new hardrive, installing Windows on it, and then start putting all my parents files on it be worth it? or should I just buy a dock/ back all the files up, then re-install windows? As @dragoon20005 said, I have done nearly 20+ scans with various different anti virus programs, in safe mode and in normal mode (that one time I managed to actually log on) and there have been no threats found. 

[Dude]

- Uninstall or change a program

- Uninstall anything you don't recognise or anything that looks suspicious

- Restart

- Good as new

[MLG Doge]

Last try from me is Avast Security, that full scan does a boot scan (which malwarebytes does not.)

[Pakonater]

Install adwcleaner in safe mode and run it: https://toolslib.net...d/1-adwcleaner/ This was made to target ads.

If not buy a new hdd and install windows on it then copy over the specific files they need. Don't copy the core system files or program files.

[66Pyrithion]

@MLG Doge @Pakonater @dragoon20005 Thanks for the help, but I might just take it somewhere, I have no idea what I'm doing, I might break it even more, but thanks for all your help guys.

 

EDIT: I did a scan of the hardware because why not, and it says my CPU has passed, RAM has passed, HDD has passed, BUT the boot path has a warning next to it. Error code BIOHD-3. I might google it and edit here again.

 

Ok so apparently the harddrive is either failed or about to, dont want to take any chances, so I'm going to take it to a shop that can copy all the files over to another harddrive and Ill put it in my old laptop until my parents can afford a new pc. Thanks guys. One more thing, If its about to die, could I just simply put it in my pc and extract most of the important files? If there is a virus, I know my harddrive will get affected but its alright Ill just re-install ubuntu, but would that work/ be easier for everyone?

[guimauve522]

I had this virus once on my dad pc and it was a pain in the ass to get it out because even if you think you deleted if if you missed a part of it in a usb by accident then plug this usb in your pc you're infected again and the longer you wait the more word are highlighted. 

 

I know that there's a lot of different virus like this that highlight work in chrome but I remember that I had to go in the control panel and delete a programs then I had to delete a program to delete that virus. It was a long time ago so I can't tell you what it is.

 

and watchout with saving this computer files like I said up there the virus can hide in them and reinfect you pc like that so just make sure that the dude in the shop knows what he is working with! Good luck.

[TDP_Equinox]

Start with combofix and hitman pro.
Then do ADWCleaner, Adware Removal tool, and Rogue killer.

[66Pyrithion]

@guimauve522 I've gone and deleted with program and features all the stuff my parents didn't need, and I scanned about 100+ times and nothing was found. I've had to transfer some files from my pc to my parents and my pc is fine. Thanks though, Ill see what I can do with this.

 

@TDP_Equinox Its funny because ADWcleaner is the program that started all this. Not sure why but thats the program that my mum downloaded and thats when it started to become really slow. 

 

Do either of know if I could I just simply put my parents hdd in my pc(with another a backup drive so my "real" pc doesn't get messed) and extract most of the important files there? If there is a virus, I know my harddrive will get affected but its alright Ill just re-install ubuntu, would that work/ be easier for everyone? Could I just do that? I really dont want to pay heaps of money to someone who wrecks it even more if he doesn't know what he is doing, then tells us we have to pay more money for a new pc.

[TDP_Equinox]

@guimauve522 I've gone and deleted with program and features all the stuff my parents didn't need, and I scanned about 100+ times and nothing was found. I've had to transfer some files from my pc to my parents and my pc is fine. Thanks though, Ill see what I can do with this.

 

@TDP_Equinox Its funny because ADWcleaner is the program that started all this. Not sure why but thats the program that my mum downloaded and thats when it started to become really slow. 

 

Do either of know if I could I just simply put my parents hdd in my pc(with another a backup drive so my "real" pc doesn't get messed) and extract most of the important files there? If there is a virus, I know my harddrive will get affected but its alright Ill just re-install ubuntu, would that work/ be easier for everyone? Could I just do that? I really dont want to pay heaps of money to someone who wrecks it even more if he doesn't know what he is doing, then tells us we have to pay more money for a new pc.

ADWCleaner didn't "Start it all".

You don't bring your computer in to a repair shop because it's working perfectly fine; and you don't use ADWCleaner if it's perfectly fine either.

Did you run ComboFix and the other programs I told you to?

[66Pyrithion]

@TDP_Equinox I cant boot into Windows anymore which really sucks, otherwise I would of done what you said. Since nothing is working, I'll just take the harddrive out and put it in my desktop and see if it still has all the files. Hoping it does. Thanks

[TechSam]

@TDP_Equinox I cant boot into Windows anymore which really sucks, otherwise I would of done what you said. Since nothing is working, I'll just take the harddrive out and put it in my desktop and see if it still has all the files. Hoping it does. Thanks

From what i gathered its probably some kind of bad registery virus that fucks up your computer and is not picked up by most anti viruses if you want to take the risk of getting other computer infected sure but the most likely thing atm i see to fix this is DBAN the drive cause registery viruses that have gotten too deep cant be taken away. but take in mind that this all could be false as i have not seen evrything the computer does it could be just simple old drive dying