Member Avatar for bobdesktop

Help please,
I use norton antivirus 2004 weekly. It recently found 19 at risk files.
All spyware, malware, adware junk. But it cant remove them. All 19 come back "delete failed" when I try to remove them from nortons screen. So I read what norton says to do. Some have a tool to remove. Net Optimizer, for instance can be removed with nortons tool. But when I run nortons tool to remove Net Opt...it says "not found on your computer" yet it shows up with every full system scan norton runs. Others tell me how to go into regedit to remove items, but when i look under the location for them, there is no listing of the item I am to delete. I also run a full assortment of spyware programs...search & destroy, adware se, and pest patrol.
Could someone please look at my HiJack log and see whats going on here?
Thanks so much.
PS...I have 2 computers on a router and an external hardrive...both computers have these 19 files.

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Brief, practical checklist for (and a note on the request from ): Norton reporting threats that fail to delete can mean locked/in-use files, items hidden in restore points, or a rootkit hiding components. Immediate containment is essential: isolate both PCs from the network and the external drive until clean to avoid reinfection. Disable System Restore temporarily so restore points cannot reintroduce the malware.

Recommended cleanup workflow (in roughly this order):

  • Boot Windows into Safe Mode (or use an up-to-date rescue environment) and run a full scan with a current anti-malware scanner such as Malwarebytes.
  • Use Autoruns from Sysinternals to inspect and remove suspicious autostart entries: Sysinternals Autoruns.
  • Check for rootkits with an offline/rescue scanner (Microsoft Defender Offline or a reputable rescue disk) and unmount/scan the external drive before reconnecting.

Quick autorun repair for the external drive (run from an elevated Command Prompt before reconnecting it to other systems):

attrib -h -s -r X:\*.* /s /d
del X:\autorun.inf

Replace X: with the external-drive letter. After that, scan the drive with the antimalware tools above.

What to post for useful diagnosis (this expands on ’s request for the HijackThis log): paste the entire HijackThis log as a code block, plus the OS and Service Pack, Norton product/version and definition date, results or logs from Malwarebytes/other scanners, and whether System Restore was disabled. An Autoruns log or a list of currently running processes (from Process Explorer) is also very helpful. Avoid manual registry edits unless instructed — incorrect deletions can break Windows.

If infections persist after these steps, backing up personal data (documents, photos — not .exe or installers), wiping the system, and doing a clean OS reinstall is often the fastest reliable cure.

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Member Avatar for jwenting

post in the correct forum and you may get help.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

I've moved the topic for you. In future could you please make effort to locate the correct section in which to post your problem.

Cheers, and welcome to Daniweb :)

Member Avatar for dlh6213

Hi Bob, welcome to DaniWeb :D

Go ahead and post your HijackThis log here in this thread and we'll have a look at it.

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