Major Computer Issues

All right, so here's the issue. This is a bit of an old (manufactured about five years ago) HP Pavilion I'm on, running on Windows XP Media Center Edition. It's still fairly fast, but lately it's been acting stranger and stranger.

About two years ago (October 2007), I updated my iTunes program to get the higher quality iTunes plus music or whatever that it kept insisting I update for, and ever since, I have been unable to use the internet for any new program I download. I have not updated any program I had before then (IE6 and Windows Live Messenger) out of fear they would no longer work, and newer programs like AIM and Avast! act as if my internet connection is nonexistent (along with iTunes of course). I have tried since updating iTunes to fix this problem, but I can't figure out what's wrong.
Secondly, I have a virus. It will run Internet Explorer in the background so that I can't see it, and sometimes I'll be able to hear ads playing but not be able to close out of them without hitting control+alt+delete, going to processes, and manually closing IEXPLORE.EXE. It will come back up again a few minutes later and periodically continue to shoot ads at me.
It will also randomly minimize windows I have up, and it doesn't allow me to use USB drives (gives me an error message -- I will update this post with the exact message later, but it has something to do with not being able to handle any more secrets on the drive or similar). My keyboard has been malfunctioning, and it's a wireless USB keyboard, so I'm afraid that the reason why it's doing so is because of the virus. On top of all that, whenever I Google search something, clicking the links it brings up redirects me to some weird ad sites, so I'm forced to copy/paste them into the address bar.
I just tried downloading Avast, but as I mentioned earlier, when I try installing it the internet issue gets in the way.
Help? ._.
EDIT: Also it may be worth noting that I don't think the internet issue and the virus are related, as I've had the internet issue much longer. The virus is pretty recent, like within the last few months... April is when it really started becoming obvious, I think. With that said, I have reason to believe it could be Conficker, as it updated in April, didn't it? Eugh...

 

Did you try scanning your computer with another program such as AVG? And definitely write down that USB error message when you can. Some viruses can disable USB ports and such, but it might not necessarily be related.

 

If you think that iTunes is causing problems, uninstall it and see if they're gone. If they don't, then iTunes is not the problem, but something else that happened the same time you had updated it.
I'm almost sure that a virus does all these things. No, wait. You have more than one kind of virus in your pc. Each virus is responsible for a different problem, for example you got a virus that redirects you to ads when you use google, and a different virus that doesn't allow USB devices. At least this is what I think, because one kind of virus can't do all these things. So the problem now is how to remove these nasty malware. Hehe, don't worry I'm sure we'll clean your pc no matter what it has.
First step is to remove the big viruses. The viruses that do the most damage.
Have you tried booting into safe mode and starting avast? (Wwhen you boot up after you see the blue HP screen start tapping the F8 key. You will get a menu that will let you boot into safe mode). In safe mode the virus isn't executed, so it'll work. When you start avast, schedule a boot time scan. Then restart your pc and let avast scan and detect some viruses. When it detects a virus, avast asks you what to do with it. First you try to repair, if it doesn't work then quarantine it. Do not delete it if it's not one of your documents, because it might be a system file. Oh, and btw, it will probably detect IEXPLORER.exe, which is infected. Quarantine it and we'll see what to do with it afterwards.
When the scan is over, boot (in normal mode) and update your antivirus. Then run again a boot scan. When this has finished too, then boot (in normal mode again). Now you should delete all the leftovers and the small malware. You can use Spybot Search&Destroy, SUPERAntiSpyware FREE and also ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite (ZoneAlarm is shareware but it has a 15-day-trial, meaning you can use it for 15 days for free).
You should use the above programs one after another, because one might detect something that another night not.
I hope I helped...

 

No, I haven't. I can google and download it, but is there a certain place I should get it from, and does it cost anything?
And okay, next time I get the error I'll write it down. I should be able to duplicate it if I plug in a USB, but I don't have one on me at the moment.

All right, I can do that. Before I uninstall iTunes though -- if I uninstall it, will I be able to keep my music? I have over five hundred songs in there x__x. I know if I plug in a foreign iPod it will erase my library, so...
I do have an external hard drive, but it isn't installed and if I back up everything on it the virus(es) will probably be transferred, so accessing it afterwards will be useless.
I'm guessing after booting in safe mode, I just restart it and it'll automatically boot normally the next time (if I don't hit F8 again)?
Also, should I download and install those programs before or after I boot in safe mode and scan with Avast, reboot, etc.?
By the way, thank you both so much for the help and sorry for bombarding you with questions. I've never done something like this before.

 

Yeah, it goes into safe mode only when you press F8.

After you have scanned with avast.

I don't know anything about iTunes. If you're so worried about the songs, then don't uninstall the program. (In my opinion iTunes doesn't 'cause any problem at all)

 

All right, thank you very much! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I made a mistake in my above post, and I thought I'd tell you in case you misunderstood (not that it really matters though):

Oh, and if you want AVG you can get it Here

 

My apologies for giving this a huge bump, but I wasn't able to get around to trying this out until today and I can't shoot Toshi a PM because Toshi is banned.
Two days ago, the virus issue reached critical mass when suddenly all searches on engines such as Google and Bing would come up with completely blank pages. We're painting the house among other things, so I had just been putting up with the viruses until I was comfortable with sitting down for possibly hours trying to fix this, but once I couldn't even Google things I realized I just couldn't put it off any longer. Just to be sure it wasn't because IE6 was no longer supported as a browser for these sites, I downloaded the latest version of IE8, but found that it wouldn't even connect to the web after that (probably due to the same virus hindering AIM and iTunes).
After the issue with IE8 I booted in safe mode with networking, and the things that hadn't worked before were working fine, including Avast. I scheduled a boot scan and restarted.
During the first scan, I accidentally told it to quarantine ("send to chest"?) everything at one point, so once it got into system files I aborted the scan out of fear it would screw up Windows (I didn't know at the time it would give me a warning message before quarantining a potentially important file).
I scheduled another scan after that and let it run through the whole system. On the first scan, it found twelve viruses (mostly trojans); on the second, it found ten.
There were about four of them in the first scan that I ignored because I couldn't quarantine or repair them. In the second scan, there was one that it could have but didn't because it was a Windows system file. I don't remember anything about Internet Explorer (IEXPLORE.exe) in this mess, though, although there were some temporary internet files that it caught.

Currently I am still unable to connect to the internet running Windows regularly, so I am posting this in safe mode. The files that were infected are as follows (please note I tried repairing/quarantining multiple times on some infected files):

I have yet to scan with any other programs. Can I download them in safe mode? I can't connect in normal, so if it won't download properly in safe mode I'm prettymuch screwed =/.
Also, if there are any that I can delete (Temp = temporary and thus, not needed? That's what I'm assuming, but because I'm unsure I haven't messed with them yet) please let me know, I'll do so immediately.

 

Look what you gonna do now. These files are all quarintined right? Good.
Now download malwarebytes anti-malware from HERE in safe mode. It's a portable application, so it doesn't need installation. Open the program and run a full scan.
Careful!
☆ On first scan, select and Ignore the two items, about MalwarebytesPortable.exe (otherwise launcher will be deleted) and it will be added to Ignore List. ☆

When the scan is finished, remove everything the program has found.
Reboot in normal mode and see if problems are solved.
Post back and tell me how things went.
Oh, and if you want to delete some things from avast's scan, delete the viruses from the first scan. Those viruses didn't infect system files, but the in the second scan they did. So delete from the first scan, but not from the second.

 

It's scanning right now. About telling it to ignore the launch executable(s) though, do I do that while it's scanning or do I wait for it to finish?

 

You wait for the scan to finish. It'll show you the results of the scan, then you select those two and ignore them.

 

All right~ Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes.

It's already found fifteen things >>;.

 

Yeah, this program is very useful. You should run a scan with it once in a while.

 

It didn't work. I deleted everything it found and rebooted in normal mode, and I still can't connect. I ran another boot scan with Avast! (it found three things, which I deleted) and deleted everything from the Virus Vault in AVG AntiVirus, including a bunch of infected system restore files and .dll files, but it still won't connect at all. I'm actually considering uninstalling iTunes at this point, I'd rather lose my music and have a working computer than keep them and have a crappy one... Technically speaking if I need a new one I'll have to lose them anyway, so.

I do believe, though, that something has changed -- before when trying to connect to the iTunes store, it would tell me the network connection was refused, and now it tells me that it was reset. I don't know if that makes any difference or not, but it's a change xD.

I've purchased 90% of the stuff on my iTunes from the iTunes store anyway, so most of it should show up in my purchase history if I re-download and log in later.

EDIT: Oh hurr hurr it won't let me uninstall in Safe Mode.
SCREW YOU WINDOWS.

I'll be back.

EDIT II: I uninstalled iTunes and as expected, it did absolutely nothing >>;.
I have no idea what sort of weird virus I've got on here, but it isn't being caught by anything I've downloaded. I do believe AVG caught something that was messing with iexplore.exe at one point, but I deleted everything AVG caught so I guess that wasn't the problem.

I can't reinstall Windows because my CD drive is broken (the laser broke while trying to write a DVD, or at least that's what it seems like. During the writing process there was an error and it ejected, and ever since it won't recognize anything I put in the drive) and a virus has been blocking my USB ports. I'd think that it's the same one isolating my computer from the net, but that makes absolutely no sense... What sort of virus gets spread by isolating computers it infects? =/ Maybe I'm thinking too hard...

 

Try fixing your pc in general with this.
http://www.tune-up.com/download/

 

She can't backup her files, as it's effecting her USB slots. The SD might work.

You bumped this after a month, too, but I'm going to leave it open in case she's still having the problem. If you are, system restore might be your only chance at this point. Turn on your computer, and when it displays the screen with the name of who made the computer (mine is a blue one that says HP), hit F10 I think it is? I think there's a way to get your files back after that, and it should be a last resort, but if the virus programs continue to be ineffective it might be the best bet.

 

To be perfectly honest, System Restore is only going to make it so much worse. All it does is push the virus into the registry and that is basically either a major pain to fix, or impossible. My suggestion is getting the CD repaired and reinstalling Windows. At this point, the viruses are just all over your computer and its probably going to require legitimate expert help to repair.

 

The registry files were already infected; I even had to delete several of them and there was a program I tried installing later (Visual Basic Express) which couldn't install because one of the important files was missing. The only way to fix it really would have been to buy a whole new CD/DVD drive and reinstall Windows as mentioned earlier.
We bought a new computer and we're going to send the old one off to be fixed so it can be used as a backup PC, so no worries. I've already got AVG on this new one and it runs a scan and updates daily. Even though flash drives wouldn't work on the old PC since the virus blocked them, it let me use an external hard drive (??? I have no idea why >>) so I kept most of my old files.

 

Glad to hear it. :]

So, problem *sort of* solved, topic...

_ LOCKED