On Sunday morning of 15th July, when I got up from my bed and walked straight to my personal computer (PC) desktop, and I woke the PC up from its sleep. For 4 years old of my computer as I bought in 2003, I never seen anything like this one before: the warning message appears, "You are running very low on virtual memory..." and there are dozens and dozens of pop-up windows appear all over the desktop screen. Once I knew in my mind, my computer is infected with adware, spyware or virus. So, I decide to use those tools to clean out, reboot, and I am still get the same problem few hours later. Repeat, Clean and Rinse. It keep looping and it never stops. I puzzled and I went ahead to investigate to find how malicious code got through my Anti-virus program (AV). My computer is getting worse and worse slow down, and I have to wait for 5 minutes to get window open by clicking the icon.
In few minutes, I quickly found the problem: The AV auto-updates connection is broken. That is why I can't get new info of new virus to prevent, and it got into my computer to mess around. The most important - I declare not going any login system (user/password to access email, etc) on web browser or my PC computer, the main concern is my computer infected with malicious code might read as I type the password to steal the information.
Now, here are my two options to take action: To wipe out the malicious by googling how to do so, OR format my computer. The easy and lazy answer is to format my computer because my computer is 4 years old, and never had those PC formatted before. It's going to be very long and unpleasant week to start all over again.
Monday, July 16, 2007:
- Clean out the My Documents folder to back-up: documents, images, and important files (such as projects) into secondary hard drive. Even, I saved my favorite XP themes (such as desktop background, fonts, etc.)
- Export the bookmarks from Firefox and Internet Explorer
Tuesday, July 17, 2007:
- Formatted C: drive.
- Installed Windows XP operating system.
- Reboot.
- Installed Windows Service Pack 2 (thank god it's comes from CD, not download from Windows Update)
- Reboot.
- Downloaded & Installed few critical Windows Update patches.
- Reboot.
- Downloaded & Installed huge Windows Updates, patched 81 items for 65.1 MB.
- Reboot.
- Checked remaining Windows Updates, patched another two items.
- Reboot.
- Installed AV and updated AV auto-updates.
- Downloaded & Installed Windows Defender.
- Downloaded & Installed Firefox 2.0 and AIM 5.9 with AIM middle_man plug-in.
- Installed Microsoft Office Professorial Edition 2003 and its critical updates.
- Installed Microsoft IntelliPoint to recognize my IntelliExplorer 2.0 mouse.
- Installed HP All-in-One Printer and its software to recognize to connect my printer.
- Reboot.
- Installed HP All-in-One software updates.
- Reboot.
- Installed security updates for HP All-in-One software.
- Reboot.
- Installed Canon software to recognize to connect my digital camera.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
- Downloaded and installed Google Talk.
- Downloaded and installed Google Earth. (my favorite, can't live without it)
- Installed Firefox Extensions: Colorzilla, del.icio.us Bookmarks, Firebug, Tab Mix Plus and Web Developer
- Downloaded and installed WinZip.
- Downloaded and installed WinRAR.
- Downloaded and installed Flickr Uploadr.
- Downloaded PuTTY (one of best application for telnet and SSH client)
Thursday July 19, 2007
- Installed Adobe Photoshop 7.
- Installed Macromedia MX Studio.
- Installed Sony B Recorder Gold. (for burn CD/DVD)
- Reboot.
- Installed Paintshop Pro 9.
- Installed Microsoft Publisher 2002.
Now, you get the idea the length of my spare time to start all over again.. Now, XP is running as fresh as fast as new, can you imagine that XP had forced me to boot 9 times during 3-day rebuilding my PC after I come home from my work during weekday.
In few minutes, I quickly found the problem: The AV auto-updates connection is broken. That is why I can't get new info of new virus to prevent, and it got into my computer to mess around. The most important - I declare not going any login system (user/password to access email, etc) on web browser or my PC computer, the main concern is my computer infected with malicious code might read as I type the password to steal the information.
Now, here are my two options to take action: To wipe out the malicious by googling how to do so, OR format my computer. The easy and lazy answer is to format my computer because my computer is 4 years old, and never had those PC formatted before. It's going to be very long and unpleasant week to start all over again.
Monday, July 16, 2007:
- Clean out the My Documents folder to back-up: documents, images, and important files (such as projects) into secondary hard drive. Even, I saved my favorite XP themes (such as desktop background, fonts, etc.)
- Export the bookmarks from Firefox and Internet Explorer
Tuesday, July 17, 2007:
- Formatted C: drive.
- Installed Windows XP operating system.
- Reboot.
- Installed Windows Service Pack 2 (thank god it's comes from CD, not download from Windows Update)
- Reboot.
- Downloaded & Installed few critical Windows Update patches.
- Reboot.
- Downloaded & Installed huge Windows Updates, patched 81 items for 65.1 MB.
- Reboot.
- Checked remaining Windows Updates, patched another two items.
- Reboot.
- Installed AV and updated AV auto-updates.
- Downloaded & Installed Windows Defender.
- Downloaded & Installed Firefox 2.0 and AIM 5.9 with AIM middle_man plug-in.
- Installed Microsoft Office Professorial Edition 2003 and its critical updates.
- Installed Microsoft IntelliPoint to recognize my IntelliExplorer 2.0 mouse.
- Installed HP All-in-One Printer and its software to recognize to connect my printer.
- Reboot.
- Installed HP All-in-One software updates.
- Reboot.
- Installed security updates for HP All-in-One software.
- Reboot.
- Installed Canon software to recognize to connect my digital camera.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
- Downloaded and installed Google Talk.
- Downloaded and installed Google Earth. (my favorite, can't live without it)
- Installed Firefox Extensions: Colorzilla, del.icio.us Bookmarks, Firebug, Tab Mix Plus and Web Developer
- Downloaded and installed WinZip.
- Downloaded and installed WinRAR.
- Downloaded and installed Flickr Uploadr.
- Downloaded PuTTY (one of best application for telnet and SSH client)
Thursday July 19, 2007
- Installed Adobe Photoshop 7.
- Installed Macromedia MX Studio.
- Installed Sony B Recorder Gold. (for burn CD/DVD)
- Reboot.
- Installed Paintshop Pro 9.
- Installed Microsoft Publisher 2002.
Now, you get the idea the length of my spare time to start all over again.. Now, XP is running as fresh as fast as new, can you imagine that XP had forced me to boot 9 times during 3-day rebuilding my PC after I come home from my work during weekday.
Category: journal
Posted by daveynin on July 20, 2007 2:57 PM
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hi
mine says virtual memory is low..what do i do..i've run the virus scan..no virus or anything..your assistance would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Posted by HR | July 21, 2007 3:22 AM