possible virus please help

my friend kay has told me that their home pc has been hit. the screen has gone black with coloured worms all over it. they have sound but nothing else.
her husband had been downloading games from a US site earlier.



sorry thing are sketchy but she has only told me bits at work today.

has anybody got any ideas?

could someone point me to an older thread for answers?

can i download something to disk to help them out?

they have both nortn av and zone alarm but still got infected.

thanks
wen

 

If the screen is black and they can't do anything, the best bet would either be to boot up in safe mode and, if possible, uninstall any recently installed applications. Or if that is not possible or does not work, they can try restoring a previous registry.

To do either they must first access the "startup menu"

For Win98 or WinME to start in safe mode, press and hold the ctrl key as soon as the computer begins to boot. Choose safe mode from the start menu.

To restore a previous registry, choose the "command prompt" option from the startup menu. At the c:\> prompt enter:

scanreg /restore

use the arrow keys to select a started registry before the problem begin. One dated the day of the installs will probably be suficient.

In WinME a system restore can be done from safe mode.

An online virus scan can be done from this site once internet connectivity has been reestablished:

http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall/

 

will print out your instructions and pass them on.

wen