Couple Questions.

[Hilikus]

Hello,

Okay first, more immediate one:

Yesterday I shut down my laptop like any other day (Toshiba running windows XP, home edition, whole thing bought brand new in fall of 2004), and the next time I started it up, all the sound and audio had a strange echo to it, as if it were being played through a sewer pipe -- It's driving me up the wall.
I've talked to a couple people over the phone about it, and they believe it is either spyware or just have no idea at all.
I've already checked through all the speaker/sound/audio settings and everything appears to be normal from what I saw.

Anyone heard of it? Know how to fix it?

Second question:

I contracted a Trogian a couple months ago (trojan horse dropper.agent.bmh, but I think AVG calls all Trogian Horses that), and thus far, all those "Trogian removal" programs and people's advice have turned out to be BS as far as getting it off my computer.

The file path for the Trogian is Program Files -> Setup -> Setup.exe, and also indicates that back up copy is affected as well.

I have found two things I haven't tried yet.

This one:
"Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your
software
FireWall
or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or
Double-click
on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's
web
site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend,
McAfee,
Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the
PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each
scanner
you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the
scanners
in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file.
http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm

Additional Instructions:
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm"

And the process outlined Right Here

Would one of these work? Has anyone tried them before? If so, was it successful? Has anyone tried other things that were, indeed successful?

Thankyou in advance, I'd really appreciate any replies.

 

[CompMan]

I think it is your speaker.

 

[Kage]

1) Go into your volume control, and check that Microphone is muted first of all.

Also Check any sound features your sound card may have, like for instance echo effects in a seperate program that might of somehow turned on.

(You may have to enter the Control Panel to find a specific program that does this)

Most onboard sound cards do have a program like this, so I won't be surprised if a Reverb effect has been applied to the audio somehow.

2) As for the trogan, try downloading AVG Antivirus, and SpyBot Search and Destroy.
They are both free, and will make sure your computer gets cleaned as best as possible

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
http://www.safer-networking.org/

These should clean your computer up well. I advise you download the available updates, and then scan.

Programs that suggest they clean on the internet, usually have trojans/spyware programs themselves, so avoid them. Always stick with what you know works.

I hope this helps.

 

[Hilikus]

Thanks tons Kage, I'll start rooting around for other settings that would be causing the echo.

I've always had AVG, but I'll get the other program too and try that (AVG's done a great job so far besides that Trogian, heh)

We'll see how this works... and thanks for the info on the Torgian removal software, it's good to know.

 

[Kage]

It might be that your problem is spyware related, bringing up pop-ups, about threats that don't exist.
Spybot will clear that up in no time though

Download it, Update it (should do this automatically if you set to), and then Immunise the updates so their in the scanning system. Then scan

Have you got a firewall? If not, Zone Alarm Firewall (Don't select to download the Trial of the full version. Simply download the Free one) is a nice free one that does the job for me, and countless others. Without a Firewall, your a sitting duck to any hacker, etc.
You shouldn't trust the free windows one that comes with SP2 of Windows XP. Thats just there in emergencies, just incase your proper one goes down:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
(That should be working...but it seems to be down at the moment)

 

[joelbeveridge]

Kill 2 birds with one stone. Reformat and start again. Kills virus and solves sound issue.