Problem at startup

[Del Murder]

My brother just got his computer but already there is a problem. It said he had a virus and now when he starts up he gets an error window saying that the WININIT.dll file is missing, then it goes to the blue screen of death with the following message:


A fatal error in IE has occurred at 0028:C0011E36 in VXD VMM(01)00010E36. Error was caused by Trojan-Spy.HTML. Smitfraud.c
I can't seem to get out of that screen, but I can still hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to the task manager. We have the recovery disc but since this seems to be a problem with IE and not windows I figured there must be a better solution than reinstalling the whole thing.

Bear in mind that we know nothing about this stuff. Thanks for any help.

[-N-]

http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?virusid=73615
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=75245

See if you can download Kaspersky to eliminate the trojans. Or at the very least, it should point out the danger files and you can go into Safe Mode to delete them manually. The second link is pretty essential to your issue, as it seems to have occured several times. I suspect it may have happened through an unprotected Internet connection or suspicious email.

If you need clarification, I think I can help. I haven't dealt with this myself.

[Yamaneko]

Since it's kind of long: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32218

It actually might be easier to just use that recovery CD considering he just got the computer and probably hasn't put a lot of stuff on it anyway.

Oh, and that blue screen is probably not an actual BSOD or else you wouldn't be able to get into the task manager.

EDIT: What he said. :D

[Samuraid]

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.desktophijack.html if you have Norton/Symantec
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=134451 if you have mcafee

It changes the desktop wallpaper to a BSOD imitation it seems. You may be able to remove it following instruction on those sites.

EDIT: Wow, I though I had first post but both of you had to steal it away. :p

[Del Murder]

Thanks for the help guys. I tried restarting in safe mode but the 'WININIT.dll is missing' window still came up and then it went into a black screen. How do I get the computer to function so I can perform the fixes that these websites are telling me to?

[Samuraid]

You should be able to boot from the windows CD and begin installing. It should detect the current windows installation and give you an option to "repair" the current installation.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341&Product=winxp

Method 2: Reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD
To reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD, follow these steps:
1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
2. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

Note Your computer must be configured to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For more information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, see your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
3. You receive the following message on the Welcome to Setup screen that appears:
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.
4. On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
5. Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.
6. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to reinstall Windows XP. After you repair Windows XP, you may have to reactivate your copy of Windows XP.

[Del Murder]

Ok, thanks we will do that. Do we still have to follow the instructions on those sites to take care of the problem after we reinstall Windows or will that take care of it?

[Del Murder]

The CD I have is the Toshiba System recovery CD. When I put it in it says that the entire hard drive will be wiped in the recovery. Does this mean that things like Windows and Office will be wiped too? It doesn't bring up the same options that the site says it would. I looked at the CD and it doesn't seem to have anything associated with Windows on it, though it did come with a Windows XP troubleshooting guide. I don't want to erase my brother's new computer if I can help it. I registered at one of those forums that you guys linked to so hopefully they can help as well.

[crono_logical]

Generally, that's what a manufacturer's Recovery CD will do, yes :p Whether Office came with the computer so is also on that recovery CD, or on another CD provided, or you have to reinstall it from elsewhere, you have to find out :p A recovery CD is not the same as the real Windows CD, which most manufacturers don't like to provide.

[Del Murder]

Yay! I was able to fix this without reinstalling anything by searching for the same problem on Google. Thanks for your help guys. :)