Ram problems (Ram goes down..Ram goes up) etc..etc

[KAZZBAR]

Greeting s again boys and gals,
After the help you gave me last time (big success...not a freeze up to mention) im back again to see if anyone cane help with a new and somewhat annoying problem.
A week or so ago, I was un-lucky enough to get hijacked with the "About Blank" browser hijack (yes..I know it will teach me to visit iffey sites)!!
Dispite using, ad-Aware..Spy Bot and Hijack This, its still coming back after a day or so (im still working on it and one day will get rid of it for good).....HOWEVER... my real question is regards a problem with RAM....

My boot up and shut down times are now horribly slow and when I eventually get up and running (according to my system monitor linked to Norton's System Works) my physical memory is virtually non existant (ie- 5-10 mb) yet when I connect to the internet (dial up) half way through the connecting process BINGO !!! its back to normal again !!!
Does anybody think this is directly linked to the hijack (even after all the spyware utillities have run and suppossedly cleaned up,) or have I had some settings changed and as yet have not found out what ?

I can not see anything that gives the game away when I look at the running processes although one of the svchost.exe is heavy on virtual memory usage.

Can anyone please advise me as which direction to turn to next to try and resove the problem please ?

Regards and thanks for your time,

Andy

[KAZZBAR]

:smileygrin:
OOPS.. Forgot to mention,
Vaio fx 701
Athlon 1400+
256 Ram
20 GB
Windows XP

Sorry, forgot to put this info in the original post,

Andy.

[kee-lo_]

Sounds like a virus to me.
I would get the latest definitions from Norton and do a full scan.

[KAZZBAR]

Hi Kee lo,
Norton anti virus does not find anything, Ad aware and Hijack this find entries relating to "About Blank" and "Cool Web Search" and Spybot finds what it calls DSO exploits.
All the tools seem to clear the entries ok (all is well for a day or so, then the about blank browser hijack comes back)

The issue with the different amounts of available ram stays the same as mentioned above, regardless if I have cleaned the system or not.

I have followed all the advice on the spyware web sites as to how to remove the hijack problem, but as yet no luck.

As I have mentioned, im still more interested to know whats causing the ram issue, as im sure the spyware tools will get it the browser hijack sorted soon.
(if anyone is interested, Ad Aware seem to be ore on the ball than anyone else at the moment....new updates almost evey day)

Does this give anyone any more clues as to what is going amiss yet ?

Regards,

Andy.

[kee-lo_]

Andy,

I don't know much about this About Blank piece of Spyware, but I know a lot of them try to get online to report things back to agencies who use the info to sell you goods and services, which to me is wrong, specially as it's hidden away.

Hopefully a google search comes up with a few answers.

Try to remove as much spyware as you can.

[kee-lo_]

I had a look around, and it looks like CoolWebSearch has hijacked your VAIO

Go to this link and download CWShredder

[KAZZBAR]

Hi Kee-lo,
I did infact install the Cool Web Shredder the other day, and it reports that the system is clean !!
Even after running all the other spyware tools mentioned it still comes back a day or so later.

AND... I still can not see for the life of me what is STILL hogging all my virtual memory !!
Its still very very low on boot up and still seems to pop back again as im part way through the dial up proccess,
ITS REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES NOW !!! even when I follow the info on some of the spyware sites as to how to remove the hijacker the *arstard STILL comes back !!

Its been the best part of 10 days now and nothing seems to rid me of this dam thing (I HATE there people who have nothing better to do than cock up other peoples computers)!!

Any more advice mate ?

Regards,

Andy.

[kee-lo_]

Have you posted your Hijack this log to their forums?