Alienware M14x Virus/ Adware Problem - A Call for help!

Dear forum

I'm requesting help on how to remove an infuriating piece of Adware or Virus that has infected a relatives Alienware M14x.

My screen is continually swamped by ads from RightCoupon or TaketheCoupon and is making life difficult on our system.

I have tried many removal problems including Avast, Anvi Smart Defender, Cloudbooster and a host of others.
I've deleted files in the registry which were Happy2Save and TakeTheCoupon. Both are well known Adware files but I'm still receiving po

I've tried removing them from the extensions in both Firefox and Chrome.

At the moment I can't do a system restore because of important data stored on the hard drive.

Can anyone provide a solution to this issue?

 

Do a clean install. It works best. Remember to be wiser when browsing the internet.

 

We do browse the internet carefully.

By clean install, are you referring to Google Chrome/ Firefox?

 

First of all System Restore only affects your system files, installed programs and registry, so if you have important data it won't be deleted. On a second note this problem is not m14x related so it's weird for you to post it here anyways lets get to your problem.

First of all you have to indeed remove all extensions from your browser. everything you don't use/need seems fishy remove it (which you already have done I see). After that, go to control panel -> (large icons ->) progams and features. You will see the list of every program installed on your computer. Go through the COMPLETE list check every single one of them and uninstall what you don't need/use and/or seems fishy. If you are not sure, about a program, google what it is and if you need it or not. Worst case scenario post it here and I will tell you. Some virus apps might be harder to remove from your computer uninstaller might not work. in that case:

I suggest you to install a fast searching program that does indexing such as "search everything". Once you have it search for the program's name/publishing company name and remove every related file (don't mistakenly remove necessary system files of windows etc.). Once you are finished with that, get yourself a decent internet security program (anti virus + firewall). Pay for it!! I'm a computer scientist and I pay for my anti virus software (Kaspersky Internet security, the one I personally really like and use). SO Make sure it's internet security, windows it's own firewall is crap. get something like Kaspersky, bitdefender, mcafee,... (note that a good internet security, such as kaspersky also has anti spyware)

Once everything is done monitor your pc's resource usages. 2 things here are the most important, CPU usage and Hard Drive (read/write) usage. Open task manager (ctrl + shift + esc). Go to the processes tab and sort on CPU. (ignore system idle processes if it's there) check if a program you don't know or want to use is using your cpu intensivly. google the process name and remove the program form your pc. If you are using windows 8/8.1 Also sort on Disk and see again if there is anything using it too much. If you are using windows 7. go to the resource monitor (type it in start and open it). Go to the disk tab, sort on Total (b/s) usage, and again see if there is anything fishy.

If all these didn't help I suggest you to reinstall your operating system (as most people call it format your pc). And use decent protection on your computer this time.
I'm using my pc for 3 years now (alienware m14x r1), not a single virus has managed to affect my pc yet.

 

Try Combofix if you have windows 7. I've been using Combofix for years on XP and W7 with 100% success rate.
ComboFix: A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix



Alienware 14 | i5-4200 | GeForce GT750m 2gb | 1920 x 1080 | 16 GB Ram | Windows 7

 

clean install of windows. that is how I do it if these things start to show up. I make sure there is no trace of it left. Basically, like purging your system with clean install of windows.

 

No matter how careful you are, all it takes is one slip up or bad webpage to get you infected. I've been using free anti virus for a few years now and haven't had any issues *knocks on wooden desk*, but there's no way to be 100% safe.

Others have suggested how to remove the virus, so I won't bother repeating what's already been said.

I'm going to suggest that after the virus is removed, you urge your family member to start doing regular backups. Not backing up (especially your important documents) is foolish IMO. Hard drive space is cheap these days, doing a monthly backup is more than reasonable for even the laziest PC user.

 

As previously adviced, an Operating System re install is the best way to go in this case, check out the tutorials below, they will come in handy:

For Windows 7: How to install Windows 7 in an Alienware Computer?

For Windows 8: Windows 8 Upgrade and Installation Instructions