hi i opened a video on facebook which was obviously infected and now my laptop just wont work at first a screen opened saying it was infected and then a page came on scanning the pc and telling me of all theese infections followed by another screen trying to get me to download various anti virus/spyware programes these screens would pop up every 30 seconds then my laptop started working at snails pace, now when i try to turn it on a message says application could'nt be started because theme32.dll could not be found and the pc goes onto my desktop picture and freezes,i've tried to start up in safe mode and safe mode with networking but the same theme32.dll message keeps coming up and my laptop freezes, when my pc was working to a degree i tried to system restore but it kept telling me the restore failed i have avg and ad aware and scanned with them but avg could'nt get rid of any threats and ad aware kept crashing after a minute or so,but as i say i cant even get past the start up page now, i'm really worried any ideas. thank you
what windows? try going into safemode administrator & do a system restore to before the infection. that infection is a malware not a virus. try running the adaware program in safemode. look in msconfig\startup as the malware will be listed there & uncheck the box.
If you can get to safe mode or even safe mode with command prompt you could attempt to run combofix. Its a vicious program to get rid of stuff like this. It can be found at bleeping computer with a walk through and everything. After running it you may have to some clean up after. Read the walkthrough FIRST!
thanks for replies i'm running xp home with sp3 and having trouble getting into safemode administrator when i go into advanced options menu i can only see safemode, safemode with networking and safemode with command prompt can you help. cheers
Try safemode with networking but if that does not work you will have to do safemode with command prompt. After that go back to my previous post with the combofix info.
PKOssie, administrator comes up after selecting safemode as you can select either administrator or your name.
thanks for replies i've started with safemode then pressed administrator and the screen goes black with safemode written in the four corners and a box saying failed to start because themed32.dll was not found when i press ok in this box the screen goes black with safemode written in the four corners and freezes at that. so i cant get onto system restore or run any kind of programme the laptop just sticks on this black screen. oh dear
see if can get into msconfig\startup thru the run command to see if malware is there & uncheck it, hit apply, ok then restart windows.
Have you tried safemode with command prompt? Not only does that not load the explorer shell it is just a command window. From there you can run combo fix or msconfig. Remember load combo fix on a mem key. Also with the Hirens boot cd it has mini xp. You can boot and load the reg hives and clean it up that way. It sounds like it would be the easiest way.
thanks all for your help and suggestions i've ended up giving my laptop to a friend who has had a look at all your replies and obviously took it all in because he's managed to fix my laptop and now it's running fine once again thanks very much
Hi PKOssie, out of the various things recommended, what did your friend do to fix your lap top? My friend has exactly the same problem, but looking at discussion threads on various forums it looks like a difficult one to fix.
