Member Avatar for nerwnas

Good afternoon

I have an Acer Aspire 8930G notebook with Windows Vista Home Premium and ever since i bought it i was using ESET internet security.About a month ago i started using Kaspersky.I connect to the internet through a wired router Netgear DG834.

About a week ago i stopped connecting to the internet and whatever i did(i changed router passing from a Dlink 524T to the Netgear and i also changed cable) i couldn't restore my internet connection.Note that the other 2 computers connected to the network don't present any problem with internet.

From the first time i scanned my computer with Kaspersky and it didn't find anything.Afterwards i scanned my system with Malwarebytez and it dicovered 9 infections,2 of which were a partner.dll and a partner.exe located in the folder programdata of partision C.

Despite the fact that i cleared the infections with MBA,nothing changed!!!Ever since i tried several things:

1) Recovering the windows from the hidden Acer partition(PQSERVICE) using the eRecovery program by Acer to the factory conditions

2) After formatting completely the hard disk and consequently erasing the acer PQSERVICE partition,i tried to install windows by the recovery CD's i created with the eRecovery program

3) Formatting the hard disk using Killdisk and installing another copy of Windows Vista,that a friend borrowed

The result is that in the first two situations MBA revealed the presence of trojan.BHO and afterwards when i was trying to scan with RootkitReveal and GMER, my system was crashing all the time with blue screen

in the third situation MBA scan was clean meanwhile GMER revealed the presence of two rootkits.After deleting these rootkits nothing changed!!

I clarify that while formatting,my notebook wasn't connected with a cable to the router and before connecting it,i was reseting the router

Could anyone please help me out??

Thank you

P.S. My network adapter is an Atheros AR8121 and whenever i put the cable in,the green light on the right side come and go and my status passes from local only to limited connectivity

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by crunchie

Dani AI

Generated

A short diagnostic read on the symptoms described by : repeated clean installs plus a persistent "limited connectivity" and a blinking link LED strongly point toward a hardware/driver/firmware or network-configuration problem rather than a Browser Helper Object that survives a full wipe. The GMER-triggered blue screens suggest a kernel-level conflict (a real rootkit is possible but rare); GMER and other kernel scanners can also crash systems when they hit buggy drivers. ’s call for Malwarebytes and a HijackThis-style log is sensible, but add network- and hardware-focused tests next so the problem can be isolated.

Troubleshooting checklist (in order of low-effort → deeper inspection):

  • Boot from a known-clean Linux Live USB and test the wired connection; if Linux gets full Internet, Windows drivers/settings are the culprit.
  • Test with a different physical NIC (USB-to-Ethernet adapter or a docking station); success with a USB NIC isolates the internal Atheros NIC as faulty.
  • Force adapter speed/duplex (try 100Mbps Full Duplex then 10Mbps) in the adapter properties to rule out negotiation issues.
  • Use a static IP + public DNS (for example 8.8.8.8) and ping both the gateway and an Internet IP to separate DHCP/DNS issues from link problems.
  • Factory-reset the router, update its firmware, change admin credentials; check router DHCP leases and ARP table for duplicates.
  • If rootkit suspicion remains after a clean OS, run offline rescue-scanner media (bootable AV rescue CD) before connecting to the network, and collect Windows minidump files for the BSODs.

Useful commands to run from a working prompt to help isolate the failure:

ipconfig /all
ping <gateway-ip>
ping 8.8.8.8
tracert 8.8.8.8
arp -a
netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset

If the hardware NIC proves faulty, replacing it or using a USB NIC is the pragmatic fix. If alternate NICs also fail or the machine still shows kernel infections after offline scans, consider firmware/BIOS issues (rare) and escalate to vendor support or a professional forensic check. Logs (MBAM/HJT), minidumps and results of the Live-USB and USB-NIC tests will be the most diagnostic follow-ups.

Member Avatar for crunchie

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html) to your desktop.

* Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
* At the end, be sure to checkmark the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
* Download the update from here if you have problems.
* Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When completed, a log will open in Notepad.
* Post the log back here.

The log can also be found here:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt
Or at C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt

Make sure that you restart the computer.

Download HijackThis Executable from here. Save it to your desktop.
Start HJT & press the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. When the scan is finished a window will pop up giving you the option of where to save it. Save it to desktop where it is easy to access. Open the log file and then go to the format Tab and make sure that wordwrap is unchecked. Copy the entire contents of the file & paste it into the body of your post. DO NOT FIX ANYTHING YET. Most of what is there is necessary for the running of your system.

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