Simviation Forum - Back again (this time I'm REALLY mad)

Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 1:12am

DJ_Zephyr Offline
Colonel
MiX iT uP!
New Port Richey, FL

Gender:
Posts: 219

Those pop ups I mentioned in my last post aren't gone. They were just getting ready for a second strike.

I think the cause is a little adware/spyware program called EliteBar, along with one of it's components, PokaPoka63. Their combined job is to embed into Internet Explorer and plague unsuspecting victims with a mentally devastating barrage of POP-UPS! You don't even need to start up IE5. I use Firefox, and the pop-ups still show up in Internet Explorer windows. Sometimes I don't even start a browser at all, and the little suckers will appear while Im playing Flight Sim, Jedi Academy, or Guild Wars! This can be annoying, since the games will minimize every time a pop-up rears its ugly head.

So far, it has proved a royal pain in the ass to remove, seeing as it's STILL not gone, even after two days of firing everything I could think of at it-

ZoneAlarm Firewall...
Spybot Search & Destroy...
Ad-Aware...
RegFreeze...
A few attempts to use MSCONFIG to keep the program from starting up with Windows...
and a thorough scouring of Google and various other resources in a quest to kill this demon.

I'm working with my Dad to get it removed, but he's all the way on the other side of the state, so he can only email me his help.

I'm desperate, people. ANY help that could be granted would be welcome. Past experience with Elitebar and other spyware, professional tricks, ANYTHING... as long as it doesn't ask for my credit card number. I'm hard-pressed as it is for money, I will only spend money on this problem if it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Again, the culprits are EliteBar and its component, PokaPoka63.

Thank you in advance for ANY good tips!
DJ_Zephyr

AMD Athlon X2 4200+ dual-core- 2.2ghz per core
MSI GeForce 9400 GT- 550mhz core, 512mb VRAM
2gb DDR RAM, dual 17" monitors (one Acer panel, one KDS boat anchor)
Windows 7 Home Premium, DirectX 11, Realtek HD w/ Logitech X530 speaker set, Logitech G110 keyboard

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #1 - Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 1:41am

Webb Ex Member
I Like Flight Simulation!

Did you try Google? My search turned up hundreds of ways to remove it.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=elitebar

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #2 - Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 4:03am

the_autopilot Offline
Colonel

Gender:
Posts: 1359

Quote:

Did you try Google? My search turned up hundreds of ways to remove it.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=elitebar

Yes he did.

Quote:

and a thorough scouring of Google and various other resources in a quest to kill this demon.

For this kind of a problem, a reformat is the best thing to do. Just backup any data you need to a CD/DVD and wipe the hardrive clean. Repartition, and reinstall XP. Nothing will survive this 'anti-viral/anti-spyware technique'. This method, while not complicated, does take considerable time to perform, but it seems as if you have exhasted all other options.

Link to sig:&&Click here&&(Cannot post signature here due to current forum restrications on linked images).

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #3 - Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 9:06pm

DJ_Zephyr Offline
Colonel
MiX iT uP!
New Port Richey, FL

Gender:
Posts: 219

Nevermind! This time, I think I got it for GOOD!

It was Elitebar, as suspected, and the little sucker has a way of loading into RAM and deleting any visible files. However, if you start in Safe Mode, it can't load to RAM and is trapped on the hard drive! You can then take the DELETE KEY OF DEWM and annihilate it from the face of your comp. I deleted 5 files that I believed to be associated with EliteBar, and no problems have arisen since the purge.

I'm still weary, and if I can help it, I'm never running IE5 again. So far, tho, so good. No pop ups yet!

Thx again for the help! I'll post again if it ressurects itself!

AMD Athlon X2 4200+ dual-core- 2.2ghz per core
MSI GeForce 9400 GT- 550mhz core, 512mb VRAM
2gb DDR RAM, dual 17" monitors (one Acer panel, one KDS boat anchor)
Windows 7 Home Premium, DirectX 11, Realtek HD w/ Logitech X530 speaker set, Logitech G110 keyboard

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #4 - Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 9:45pm

the_autopilot Offline
Colonel

Gender:
Posts: 1359

Upgrade IE5 to IE6. Whether you like it or not, IE is apart of windows and so must be updated every so often to patch security holes. I seriously recommend you to upgrade to IE6.5.

Link to sig:&&Click here&&(Cannot post signature here due to current forum restrications on linked images).

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #5 - Sep 4^th, 2005 at 8:04pm

ctjoyce Offline
Colonel
Funny how my lappy runs
FSX better than your
Tower
USA

Gender:
Posts: 4022

USE FIREFOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Embarrassed

IE is a Virus funnel. I did a very simple test to proove it. Useing only the standird windows firewall, and the basic popup blocker in IE6 I browsed many porn sights (their known for their spyware / adware). After about 5 minutes of browsing I ran Webroot Spysweeper, and came up with 5 Ad / Spyware programs, and over 300 spy cookies. Preforming the same test useing FireFox gave me only 1 Ad program, and 168 spy cookies. When preformed again useing MaCafee firewall plus, Virus scan plus, Webroot SpySweeper, and the popup blockers in firefox I only showed up with 15 cookies, and no spyware; compaired to IE6's 55 Cookies and 3 ad-wares.

Its basic science guys, Use Mozilla Grin

Cheers
Cameron

CTJoyce, Modding and voiding warranties since 2003&&Sheila's Specs:ASUS Striker Extreme 680i, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.2Ghz, Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400C4 2GB, 2x eVGA 7900GT KO, Western Digital 80GB SATA & 250GB SATAIII&&Vesper's Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo T7400, 2GB DDR2-667, GeForce Go 7950GTX 512MB, 160GB Hitachi SATA 5400RPM&&Hardware FAQ, Read it and be informed&&My little corner of the world&&Once You Know You NEWEGG&&Building a computer Part 2

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #6 - Sep 4^th, 2005 at 10:36pm

Katahu Offline
Colonel

Gender:
Posts: 6920

Besides testing out Firefox, what were you doing in those porn sites. Just asking. Grin

I have Firefox as well. No pop ups, no ads.

What I have:

Norton Internet Security
Norton Anti-Virus
Zone Alarm
Spybot
Firefox
Outlook - it's currently the most effective spam blocker I have seen -

Back to top

IP Logged

Reply #7 - Sep 9^th, 2005 at 11:48am

eno Offline
Colonel
Why you shouldn't light
your farts!!
Derbyshire UK

Posts: 7802

I'm actually suspecting the windows messenger service in this case ...... it probably needs disabling.

Back to top

IP Logged