"Virus" that blacks out the screen on certain web pages - HELP?!

[seedubya]

Win7 HP 64bit, Internet Explorer 11.

What additional tools would you recommend? I find that once a system passes a certain point of being infected that a clean installation is the best bet.

If I am going to spend 2-3 hours with a system - why not get the job DONE with a clean install as opposed to MAYBE getting it done with scans?

We wipe less than 1 in 100 virus infected machines. Our average tech time spend on each such job is around an hour. The last machine we wiped had cryptolocker and had encrypted loads of system files as well for some reason. That was about 5 weeks ago. We get about 1 in 20 jobs back with residual issues but they're usually easily resolved and returns are included in our average times.

My favourite tools are autoruns and process explorer. There are plenty of others we use but these two are what we start with and about 80% of malware can be entirely removed with them. We still do lots of scans afterwards but mostly find nothing once we've cleaned with these.

 

[TechPJC]

Get the knife into their wallet and gouge away.

What a silly thing to even say

No further comment...

 

[nlinecomputers]

How would anyone POSSIBLY get that idea!?

Edit: More laughable: It happens only on web pages and you check the drivers. LOL

The drivers was my comment and it is based on actually seeing such things happen. The guy did NOT mention what webpages he was hitting. But I've seen a system that had a faulty NIC driver that would corrupt video everytime it hit certain webpages. What aspect of the webpage triggered it I never figured out. But upgrading the NIC drivers fixed it. The techs on this forum really need to stop being such damn self righteous dicks.

 

[LordX]

I was just about to say that nline.....

When I ask people why they chose me to do work with - a lot of them say: You were the only person who was friendly, spoke to me like a normal person, and gave me confidence that you knew what you were talking about.

I always thought to myself - what the heck are other people SAYING on the phone to alienate customers.

Now it isn't so hard to understand.

Anyway - back on thread topic - the NIC drivers would be interesting if they were the issue - it was the fact that only certain pages were blocked that made me think something malicious. Worth a shot at the very least.

seedubya - "autoruns and process explorer" - are these the actual program names - links?

 

[bertie40]

Just a thought.
Have you tried installing ad blocker ?

I've seen weird browser activity, which I nailed down to some websites redirecting traffic via web analytical sites, the ones which generate stats for advertisers.

Running with ad blocker stops that redirection. Maybe that will help ?

 

[TechPJC]

edit: More laughable: It happens only on web pages and you check the drivers. Lol

the techs on this forum really need to stop being such damn self righteous dicks.

+1.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

doesnt sound like a virus to me.

try disabling hardware acceleration for video see if that makes a difference. try another windows theme as well.

 

[codegreen]

I have run: TDSSKILLER, Malwarebytes, and the user has norton on as well.

Here's something I've learned from hard experience. When I get a computer having weird internet issues, and Norton is installed, step one is always this: uninstall Norton. I'm not saying this is a magic bullet sollution for your particular problem, but I recommend you rule it out before doing anything else. Run the Norton removal tool and see if that makes a difference. Be sure you have their Norton licensing information if for some reason you intend to put Norton back on after you're done.

 

[mr m]

LordX, a few people asked if you tried a different browser...still waiting to hear your answer.

When IE11 goes black does that include the cursor?

Try uninstalling Java. If no luck update it to the latest rev.

 

[mr m]

When I get a computer having weird internet issues, and Norton is installed, step one is always this: uninstall Norton.

This plus AOL Desktop. I don't notice this that much anymore but a few years ago I'd see this type of behavior a lot.

 

[CompConfig]

I see I am not the only Norton hater on here. Lol wherever I can I remove Norton. Sorry for jumping off topic

 

[LordX]

Well the customer jumped at the chance to breathe some new life into her system with a SSD drive - so it looks like I wont be able to delve deeper into this wonderful little issue.

However, it will be nice to have some intimate time with the machine to see if anything odd happens with it when it has the new SSD in it.

PS - if you guys arn't using SSD's to drive serious cash flow into your business -then it is time to start! Any decent dual core windows 7 system with 4GB of ram is a prime candidate. Take your SSD cost - multiply x2 - add on your hours and for a couple hundred - the customer gets a super fast system that is cheaper than buying new.

I love being able to offer an upgrade to my customers that finally has a LARGE and noticeable impact on their computing experience. I remember when RAM was the #1 upgrade - it helped - but it was always just a little bit (depending of course).

 

[bertie40]

I feel uncomfortable selling ssd's.

I've had too many personal issues with them,reliability-wise, that I don't offer them unless asked.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I can say my experience with my personal ssd was that I had it about 3 or 4 months, didn't even use my pc all the time, shortly after that my ssd went to electronic heaven. Was glad that I'd bought the 2 year warranty. Think I used the cash toward a motherboard or video card.

 

[LordX]

I have been selling SSDs almost exclusively for 2+ years now (ever since there was that flooding in Thailand and normal HDD's were like TRIPLE the cost - you guys remember that?).

In the beginning there was CERTAINLY a learning curve. OCZ sucks - Sandisk low editions suck etc.

Todays best bets:
Kingston V300 (for normal medium end systems) I have bought upwards of 200 of these drives.
Kingston HyperX, Samsung (any model), Crucial M500 for higher end builds.

Mushkin drives are good - but only their DX (deluxe) series.

As for worrying about failures - Carbonite. Your customers should have this anyway!

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Maybe but I've been using a lot of Toshiba drives believe it or not with almost none coming back. I still make a markup and labor so why not just sell them the traditional drive that I don't have to replace again in a year vs selling the ssd and possibly having to redo my work?

Not that ssds are bad, but for me personally traditional drives are still getting the job done.

 

[LordX]

Ok - I have this computer now on my bench waiting for the SSD to arrive - I will try to get it loaded up and see if I can get a photo of what is happening.

 

[sapikest]

you guys must have rich customers in your area! theres no way any of my customers will pay 250-300 for an upgrade for their laptop. they look at it in a way that they could buy a decent laptop for around 500$ I just upgraded my own laptop to 8GB i5 with 250GB SSD Samsung, I think upgrading memory from 4 to 8 made more difference than upgrading to SSD

 

[LordX]

Yeah it is expensive - but you have to sell it right. A 2 year old Core-i5 Windows 7 laptop with a good SSD will smoke a $499 laptop from a big box store in terms of boot times and program loading (again we are talking for reg customers - not video or audio encoders who may benefit from the newer gen core i3/i5 features). PLUS the new SSD will have a 3 year manufacturers warranty with it - whereas their new system will likely only come with a 1 year unless they wanna shell out useless dollars for an extended warranty.

PLUS - if their current system fries or is dropped - the SSD can be moved to a new laptop - so their investment isn't wasted.

I don't even have to push it - when you simply lay out the above facts - it is an easy choice. Especially for customers who like their laptops!

But in the end if you wanna use standard drives - it doesn't bother me - just trying to be helpful for those who haven't made the jump yet.

Also - your ram upgrade would only make a difference if you are fully maxing your current 4GB of ram. (or of course if the new ram is significantly higher clocked/better timings etc)

PS - still haven't gotten a chance to hookup the OP system - will try to tonight and get some photos etc.

 

[FremontPC]

I sell SSD's when practical, with some manner of disk image backup.

I have an ancient OCZ in my desktop, I think I had to remove it and reconnect it once to clear up some odd problems. Never used OCZ for customer's PC's, stuck with Crucial and Samsung. One customer had a Crucial M500 that went wonky on him, I recommended Samsung and he's been happy for 3 years. The month after the Crucial went awol, there was a firmware fix for it. I applied it, tested and AOK. He sold the Crucial to his friend and no complaints from that guy since.

I've used Kingston on a couple of systems, so far, so good.

I've seen a couple of oddities, SSD on a HP netbook, did NOT like Intel RST. Uninstalled RST and all was well. Samsung EVO on an older Gateway C2D with Nvidia chipset seems a bit hamstrung compared to others. EVO ram caching won't work due to the chipset. Still, much better performance than mechanical drive it replaced.

But no backups, no SSD for YOU!