A simple format and reinstall will not solve it.
Yes it is malware, but he will never be able to wipe it out unless he
totally resets the HD.
The old utility Fdisk would really come in handy here. He has to
wipe out all partitions, seen and unseen (that is why Fdisk) to get
rid of this monster.
Stewart
At 11:37 AM 12/23/2009, you wrote:
There's no need to send it back; it's not a hardware problem. Now I
forget - has he tried formatting the disk and reinstalling the OS?
What disks, if any, did he get with the machine (or make himself)?
It really doesn't sound like any virus I'm familiar with. I mean,
creating partitions and changing users? That right away puts a user on
notice that there's a problem - just what today's viruses try to
avoid.
>makes tons of network connections using Media Player
This may be the giveaway that it's not a virus per se, but rather
malware that was invited in at some point. Which leads back to the bcd
search results. Anyway, a format and OS reinstall is the thing to do.
He may need to order disks from Dell if he doesn't have any.
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
