Paladin? MBAM & additional solutions will not work

[Ferretlaw]

5 year old VAIO laptop, windows XP.

Four days ago I installed a file and got Paladin virus. Google redirected all links and, when the address was directly input, no windows containing anti-virus information, forums or software downloads would open: "cannot find server" despite other sites working fine. Cannot access this forum or others from the laptop. Borrowing a mac to type this. Computer will only boot into safe mode, with and without networking. It has a reduced size screen (25%) so most screens cannot be totally read. Almost anything will result in the blue screen of death flashing up for a second and immediate reboot.

Tried to run Malwarebytes, but exe was missing. Downloaded randomized exe file to flash drive, added it to folder and still wouldn't work. Uninstalled, re-installed, tried again with no success. Used rkill, MBAM clean utility, reinstall, renamed exe and after 2 days got Malwarebytes to at least open. Tried to update but the computer crashed immediately following the blue-screen-of-death flash. Tried again, didn't update but clicked full scan. Counter went to 6 seconds, I glimpsed a momentary red list stating "3 objects found" before the computer crashed, blue screen flashed, reboot. Another try with clicking only the quick scan option. Same result. Spent a few hours re-doing all of the steps above, trying the same options and getting the same result.

Went to this forum answers re Malwarebytes not running. Downloaded programs to the flash drive, copied to desktop and opened in the order directed. Don't have any logs to post because nothing worked. Defogger opened but almost immediately crashed with the blue screen fanfare and reboot. No log file appeared on the desktop after the reboot. The innocuous-seeming DDS had the same result. It opened, presented its innocent message of only logging and not changing anything then crashed as soon as it started doing anything. Blue screen, reboot. GMER (the renamed file, anyway) wouldn't even open. Clicking the file resulted in an immediate blue screen flash and reboot. I've tried these attempts a couple of times now.

None of the other programs I've tried per reviewing other forum responses have worked either but I'm desperate to get Malwarebytes working because it seems to be the only thing that can deal with Paladin. rKill stopped one process in a temp file called msinits that I recall seeing on one of the Paladin info sites.

I've been directed to pinned answers that, while thorough, were already tried with nothing working. Is there some file or problem I can manually remove to thwart whatever is infesting my computer from blocking Malwarebytes?

Thank you very much for any assistance. I do plan to buy the pro version as soon as I can get the computer working again. I'm desperate to avoid reformatting the whole thing since I'll lose a ton of software (original disks were taken) but desperate to have a working computer.

[Elise]

Hello there and welcome to Malwarebytes forum!

Since it seems most security programs are having a hard time running, we can try an alternative solution.

This requires you to download an approx. 270 MB file and burn it to a CD. Let me know if you are able and/or willing to go through with this.

[Ferretlaw]

Certainly! Anything! Is it possible to do this from a mac using the pc burn settings or should I go to the library to try to use a PC there?

[Elise]

Hi again, I think this should work fine on a Mac, but you might need another Iso burner software than the one indicated in the instructions below, since that is a PC application.

I am a Mac noob, so I can't say what Mac application can burn iso's, but most CD burners should have the option to burn an iso file to a disk. If you are not sure how to do this, please let me know what application your Mac uses to burn CD's and I'll see what I can find out.

OK this file is big Print these instruction out so that you know what you are doing

Two programs to download

First

ISOBurner this will allow you to burn OTLPE ISO to a cd and make it bootable. Just install the program, from there on in it is fairly automatic. Instructions

Second

• Download OTLPE.iso and burn to a CD using ISO Burner. NOTE: This file is 292Mb in size so it may take some time to download.
  
• When downloaded double click and this will then open ISOBurner to burn the file to CD
  
• Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
  Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here
  
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
  
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
  
• When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
  
• When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
  
• Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
  
• OTL should now start. Change the following settings
  • Change Drivers to Use Safelist
    

  [*]Press Run Scan to start the scan.

  [*]When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt

  [*]Copy this file to your USB drive if you do not have internet connection on this system

  [*]Please post the contents of the OTL.txt file in your reply.

[Elise]

Hello, are you still there?