[Justin O]

Lenovo ThinkPad T61, Core 2 Duo CPU, T8100 @2.10GHz, Win XP SP2, 4GB RAM

As of this morning, my laptop was insanely slow all of the sudden. 76 processes running, 100% of CPU used all the time. The only thing that I've installed lately is TurboTax, and I believe a Window Update. I'm now using a separate computer to post this bc I can't even get the computer to boot (explorer.exe fails to initialize on Windows startup). I've booted in safe mode with networking and am running Spybot now. I watched a movie on it last night and everything worked fine.

Update: Spybot has found Win32.TDSS.rtk, Win32.Agent.jg & Win32.Agent.pz....and removed them successfully. There was one other (I should have written it down) that couldn't be removed. Upon restarting, Windows logs on but doesn't load explorer.exe (and this time had problems botting command.com) so I'm just left with my wallpaper but nothing else. I'm going to try running MBAM in safe mode next. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Justin

[Cookiegal]

You indeed have a rootkit infection and SpyBot cannot handle this one.

However, the General Security forum is only for general questions regarding security software and things of that nature but not for actually removing malware as we have qualified helpers who are the only members who are authorized to assist with those matters. You can easily identify them as they have either a gold or blue shield beside their usernames. Please refer to this excerpt from the rules:

Log Analysis/Malware Removal - In order to ensure that advice given to users is consistent and of the highest quality, those who wish to assist with security related matters must first graduate from one of the malware boot camp training universities or be approved by the administration as already being qualified. Those authorized to help with malware issues have a gold shield next to their name and authorized malware removal trainees have a blue shield next to their names. Anyone wishing to participate in a training program should contact a Moderator for more information.

I'm going to close this thread and ask you to repost in the Malware Removal & HijackThis Logs forum for the proper assistance.