HI IT QUESTION!!

newtez2

Im having some IT problems with my home laptop, I was advised by someone to download a program of the net called "SYSTEM DEFRGLALER" I think that’s the correct spelling,
Anyway this program has got itself latched onto my system tray and is throwing up false messages saying my hard drive is corrupts and not hard drive found and then does a scan and when that is done advises you to buy the fix on line, I cant uninstall this program as its running all the time in the back ground, its also causing by laptop to reboot randomly, this isn't good as my wife needs the lad top for work in the evenings!

Please advise

cee

start your machine in safe mode and try to uninstall.

failing that....

go to the task manager, in the processes tab, find Defraggler.exe and right click...end process tree....

then uninstall.

failing that....it gets complicated.

newtez2

thanks cee

I will try that tips, just hope it works!!
Any more ideas ladys and gents please advise!

bompington

Sounds like you've been had, was "someone" a pop-up window on a website by any chance?
I was about to give the same advice as cee just has: but it's got to be said that a lot of malware is smarter than that these days: if it doesn't work, you probably just need to get your laptop to a decent computer shop , i.e. one with at least one person who is an authentic geek.

newtez2

I may have to bring it to work then as have some right Geeks working here, just need to buy them a coffee or 2!

Buckled_Rims

There's a program called "System defraggler" I've just searched. It has a boot-time scan and defrag. I bet that's what's causing the problem.

Do as cee mentions, try and get into safe mode. agaion it's a hit and miss approach with many spyware, virus rogue progs etc.

Also try going into your START menu, run... and type "msconfig" (without quotations) and select startup tab and unselect defraggler if it's there.

stonehouse

I may have to bring it to work then as have some right Geeks working here, just need to buy them a coffee or 2!

Yes, us IT geeks love working for coffee!! Spybot Search and Destroy may well deal with it for you, otherwise you may have to get into the registry to resolve, not a good idea unless you know what you are doing. Now where is my coffee......

Pross

Failing all of the above a system restore to the last date before you installed the software should help. Managed to fix a similar problem that way recently (thanks to help off people here!).

dmch2

Defraggler is a 'proper' program but it shouldn't do random reboots. As described above you may have some mmalware using the defraggler name. Try and stop it via task manager then uninstall. let us know how you get on as modern malware can have a few tricks up its sleeve that take (slightly) more effort to get rid of.

NervexProf

A must have, free application to combat malware:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwa ... i_malware/

tonyw43

Boot your laptop into safemode with command prompt. Type rstrui.exe to launch system restore and choose a restore point prior to the day you installed the offending program. This will remove the program.

newtez2

It worked!! i did the system restore using the F8 key on start up and got into the system that alowed me to run a system restore! and it worked! no more degraggler,
PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS SOFTWARE!!! DEFRAGGLER!!

thanks guys

MattC59

You've pretty much described a virus that I picked up about 6weeks ago, it came from a bogus Java update.

Initially, it latched onto the task bar and disabled the task manager.
Then it started throwing up bogus error messages, with increasing frequency. The messages tended to be along the lines of "xxxx has detected dangerous activity on your hard drive" or "xxxx has detected a virus on your pc". Most of these messages were in convincing Windows type message boxes.
The final stage was to throw up a Windows style message, stating a critical error had occured (with what ever program was being used) and the laptop had to shut down. It gave me 30 seconds, but wouldn't let me save anything, or shut down programs.

In the end, the IT department at work had to format and rebuild the laptop. Fortunately, I'd made a back up about a week before I picked up the virus.

Unfortunately, the IT department suggested that they run a scan on the back up "just in case" and managed to delete all file folders beginning with A - M. I wasn't happy !!