Corrupted System files

Ray and I have a "computer ministry" helping older/elderly persons with
minor computer problems, upgrading, etc. We also occasionally furnish older
computers to the poor who have no other way of obtaining a "window to the
future."

We have been working with an older computer (HP 8760c, 128MB RAM, WinXP Home
Edition SP 2) that was top-of-the-line in 1999 and is still running (barely)
and still online "off and on." It has never had an antivirus program
installed. When we installed AVAST! Free a couple of days ago, it found 131
trojans, viruses, etc. All infected files were moved to the Quarantine
chest, and it now indicates that the following are system files:

C:\command.com
C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winsock.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll

We "restored" these files through AVAST and they now all indicate "no
virus". Our question is now . . . how do we get these files back into the
operating system?

When attempting to get back online, we get a "cannot display this page"
message. We then clicked the "Diagnose Connection"; there is a message about
there being a problem with the Winsock product catalog. We clicked Yes on
resetting to default values, restarted the computer, and still get the same
messages. This process has been done multiple times.

Anyone who can help . . . thank you in advance!!


--
As for us and our mouses
we will serve the Lord.

"Barb and Ray" <tincantyps@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:7B%wj.2997$pl4.1305@newssvr22.news.prodigy.ne t...

> Ray and I have a "computer ministry" helping older/elderly persons with
> minor computer problems, upgrading, etc. We also occasionally furnish
> older computers to the poor who have no other way of obtaining a "window
> to the future."
>
> We have been working with an older computer (HP 8760c, 128MB RAM, WinXP
> Home Edition SP 2) that was top-of-the-line in 1999 and is still running
> (barely) and still online "off and on." It has never had an antivirus
> program installed. When we installed AVAST! Free a couple of days ago, it
> found 131 trojans, viruses, etc.


I am hardly ever in favor of reformatting and reinstalling Windows, but when
you are talking about a computer as badly infected as that, clearly the
right thing to do is start over. I would never feel confident that just
fixing the problems would get everything.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Desktop Experience
Please reply to the newsgroup

Barb and Ray wrote:
> Ray and I have a "computer ministry" helping older/elderly persons with
> minor computer problems, upgrading, etc. We also occasionally furnish older
> computers to the poor who have no other way of obtaining a "window to the
> future."
>
> We have been working with an older computer (HP 8760c, 128MB RAM, WinXP Home
> Edition SP 2) that was top-of-the-line in 1999 and is still running (barely)
> and still online "off and on." It has never had an antivirus program
> installed. When we installed AVAST! Free a couple of days ago, it found 131
> trojans, viruses, etc. All infected files were moved to the Quarantine
> chest, and it now indicates that the following are system files:
>
> C:\command.com
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\winsock.dll
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll
>
> We "restored" these files through AVAST and they now all indicate "no
> virus". Our question is now . . . how do we get these files back into the
> operating system?
>
> When attempting to get back online, we get a "cannot display this page"
> message. We then clicked the "Diagnose Connection"; there is a message about
> there being a problem with the Winsock product catalog. We clicked Yes on
> resetting to default values, restarted the computer, and still get the same
> messages. This process has been done multiple times.
>
> Anyone who can help . . . thank you in advance!!

First try these:

Click Start, Run, type SFC /SCANNOW, click OK. If any files are damaged
or missing, they'll be replaced. You may need to reboot afterwards so
damaged files will be replaced.

(With W98 you type SFC with no switch.)

NETSH

Click Start, Run, type:

netsh winsock reset

Press Enter key

Restart the system

You can also try this software download from a working machine:

LSP-Fix
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

--
Joe =o)