I think I killed my T61 !!!

Well, I knew I should NOT have posted a thread about what to do (sell my x301 and just keep the T61) because right now, I think my T61 has a serious problem.
It all started about two days ago, when every time I would go to ANY website I would get this big red box with a "WARNING, visiting this site may harm your computer" and would not let me get into any web page at ALL.
I found out that this is called "Malware". So, I installed a program called Malwarebytes-anti malware and did a full system scan. Well, it worked, and after that I could log back on anywhere on the web again !
Well, today I get a different message, this time with a fake windows shield in the toolbar tray, saying WANING your computer is infected, and telling me that my anti-malware is turned off, and that is turned off, etc. Then I get another screen saying "Vista Smart Security" and this thing that automatically starts scanning my system.
Well, I can't (again) get into ANY web pages, or I can't even open IE this time. So, I go to click on the anti-malware icon, and it wont even let me do that. I was constantly getting pop-up galore from this "Vista Smart Security" thing (I looked that up on my other laptop, and I guess this is also a known form of malware).
So, I got sick of getting these messages, that basically holds your computer hostage, and just did a hard shut down, and upon start up, hit the blue Thinkvantage button. I am now doing a Full Systems Restore (the last time I did a backup was in June of 2009, and will take like 160 minutes).
Did I do the right thing ? Towards the end, the laptop was useless, I could not open anything without that stupid message popping up.
Also, will this problem return now that I did a full systems restore ?

Sorry for the long story, hopefully someone can be of some help, I'm totally new to this Malware thing. I've owned my T61 for two and a half years, and NEVER had anything like this happen before. And, this is my first time doing a full systems restore as well.

Mike

 

No the problem will no return. You could have installed SpyBot and try your luck with that as well. But I think you did the right thing, if problems like that start popping up your pc needs format/restore. When you start observing things like that know this: there will be much more s*** under the hood (keyloggers,trojans etc) that are much worse than the problems you see.

 

Cool, thank you ! I feel a little more at ease now ( I REALLY like my T61 )
Also, if this has anything to do with it, I've also noticed (well, for the past almost year lol) that from a cold start up, it takes my T61 almost 8-10 minutes to load to the desktop. My X301 is on the desktop within 30 seconds at most. So, whatever was bogging down my system, hopefully this will make the start-up times faster as well.
Thanks again !
Mike

 

Don't feel too bad, that is a very common form of malware. It pretends to be an important dialog box/pop-up to trick you into giving you permission to install itself onto your computer.

Do another Malwarebytes scan to see if it pops up any more warnings. If it doesn't I'd say you're in the clear for the for now (that is what the blue button is for after all).

To help prevent this, do regular scans with a good anti-virus (Microsoft Security Essentials is free) . But a simple thing to do is to have two different logins for your computer. One with administrator privileges, and one as a regular user. Most people detest not being the administrator login, but IMO for the majority of users being the administrator leads to lots of problems.

 

..go Linux.

 

Oh, come on telling people who are asking about malware help to use linux is a bit disingenuous.

I recommend malwarebtyes as well and MSE as a free antivirus program. I was expecting some hardware issue or an accidental spill .

 

Well, the Full Restore just completed, and so far so good !
I'm just downloading all of the ThinkVantage Systems updates ( I'm up to 5 of 23, and it's taking FOREVER !!! that alone is taking almost an hour lol). Afer that I have to do all of the Windows Updates (I'm not even on SP2 yet lol) and I should be good to go, I hope
Mike

 

What do you currently use for malware protection?

In my experience people seem to be more prone to getting spyware/adware/malware than worms/trojans/viruses because people understand viruses and get protection but may click on something and end up with some bogus software.

malwarebytes is good but will be used after the fact. You could also use superantispyware or spyware search and destroy.

I use malwarebytes + microsoft SE + superantispyware + good pc practices .

 

here is the fix for "vista smart security" malware.
LINK