Limewire Acting Wierd (PLEASE HELP!!!)
 

Everytime I start up my system Limewire starts up and when I'm online it totally slows down my connection, but everytime I shut it down it just opens again in a couple of seconds. This is very irritating, I'd TOTALLY appreciate if someone could help me out here. Thanx :)

Reduce your downld bandwidth to about 80-90% & your upld bandwidth to about 75-85% & see if this makes any difference. Also disable ultrapeer capabilities. Go to Tools>Options>Downlds & Tools>Options>Uplds>Basic & Tools>Options>Speed to find these options.

Also see these hints:

* After opening LW wait 10 to 20 mins before using. Let it settle down 1st.

* Set both uplds & downlds to autoclear.

* Don't use the Resume button on all incomplete files. This can have side-fx such as affect LW's connection quality. May queue your files for much much longer. This will also stress LW & your comp. If you use Resume/Find sources then just apply it to a couple or so at one time.

* Tip: Purge the Downloads Queue!

* If still problems after applying the above then try reducing your share if you share multiple thousands of files.

I am having the same trouble dude. I tried what the other guy said but i cant find"Downloads & Tools"

Anyway they had better com out with a fix soon cuz i cant play any of my major games ( Halo, Half Life) until then. Peaves me off.
I love limewire. its a great program but when things like this happen it makes me want to uninstall it PERMANENTLY

PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY HEEELP MEEE!

Thanx Dude
 

Thank you very musch, I will try the things you said :)

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!?!?!?
 

Nothing worked, I tried reucing the bandwitdth and everything, it's just not working. I opens by itself every couple of seconds, I even tried uninstalling it and then reinstalling it but it didn't work. I'm going to cry and I feel like screaming at the same time. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I dont know what i did but i went to Tools>options and reset all options to default with a little button at the bottom and all of a sudden mine quit. After i did this it came up with that little wizard like you just installed it and i went through it and its working just fine for me now. try it. p.s. i didnt have to leave the settings at default i did put them back the way i wanted them but it is still working okay.

I have the same problem with LW popping up. I've tried lowering the dwnload and upload bandwidths and disabling the ultrapeer capabilities and even resetting to the default mode... nothing works. I restart my computer and LW pops up again. Im not even connected to the internet when it does this.. someone please HELP!!!

1. Go to LW's menu Tools>Options>Advanced>System Startup & untick option & press apply.

2. Tools>Options>Shutdown & tick Shutdown immediately & press apply.

See if this does the trick.

I tried this and still nooooooooooooo.

I thought i had LW fixed but it started up again.

Im about to the brink of uninstalling it until friggen whoever writes the friggen program friggen fixes this friggen frig butt bug.

Its beginning to friggen **** the friggen crap out of me.

Good luck kc0rkx_finch. You haven't told us anything about your set up. So are we supposed to guess. Try another program then. lol :D Forum Rules (click here)

well i had this whole long thing typed up to tell you about five seconds ago but something happened and i lost it and ive gtg but ill let you know l8ter.

And i am really really really really sorry about what i said yesterday but ive been having to do a lot of work on my dads pc and then mine starts acting up out of nowhere it gets frustrating gtg will let you know l8ter today. bye

I had this exact same problem, and after literally 24 hours of analyzing every inch of my computer, I solved the problem. I suspect that based on your descriptions of the problem (which I had as well), you are infected with a virus. It's unbelievable that none of my AntiVirus packages picked up this infection.

For me, everytime I restarted my computer, Limewire would automatically load up. Even if I closed it, it would just open back up again. On top of this, I could not even access the Task Manager in Windows XP to allow me to force a shutdown of Limewire. I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and nothing would happen.

Anyways, here are the steps that need to be taken.

1) Uninstall Limewire. You can reinstall it at the end of these steps.

2) Disable System Restore in Windows. This can be done by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, and then clicking on the System Restore tab. Then check the box Turn Off System Restore. Hit Apply, and then OK. If you are prompted to restart Windows, do so.

3) Now we need to fool the virus into allowing us to open the Task Manager. This can be done by copying the Task Manager executable file from the Windows directory. To do this, go to c:\windows\system32, select the file taskmgr.exe, right click on it, and select Copy. Go to the desktop, and click on an empty part of the desktop. Then right click on the desktop, and select Paste.

4) Double click on the taskmgr.exe file on your desktop. This should open the Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab. If you are in fact infected with a virus, you will likely (although not necessarily) see close to 100% CPU usage!! Now click on the Processes tab, followed by clicking twice on the CPU column header. What this does is order the files running on your computer based on the amount of CPU resources they are consuming in real time. If there is a process, other than System Idle Process, that is consuming close to 100% of the CPU, then it is this process (or file) that is infecting your computer. For me, and likely for a lot of you, that file will be winupdates.exe. Don't be tricked. This is not a Microsoft program. It's a virus masking itself as a legitimate file. Please remember the exact name of this process, because you will need it in a later step.

5) Click on this process to highlight it, then click the button End Process. A warning prompt should pop up. Click on Yes.

6) Now that this process is killed, we need to remove any references to it from the Registry. Once again, because this virus is blocking us from opening the Registry Editor, we need to trick the virus by copying the file to the desktop. Follow the same steps as in number 3, except this time, copy the following two files from their respective directories, and paste them on the desktop.

c:\windows\regedit.exe
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

7) Open regedit from the desktop. In the left window, click on My Computer so that it is highlighted. Now select Edit from the menu, followed by Find. In the Find box, type the name of the process that you ended from the Task Manager. If you recall, mine was winupdates. Do not include the .exe, just winupdates. Then click Find.

8) For the item that it found in the right window, click it to highlight it if it isn't highlighted already, and then right click on it, and select Delete. If a prompt pops up, select Yes or OK to confirm the delete.

9) Now, hit the F3 button once. This will find the next reference to that bad file. Follow step 8 again to delete the reference. Repeat steps 9 and 8 until the editor indicates that there are no more references to this file. Then exit the editor.

10) Finally, click on cmd.exe which you copied to the desktop. It will open the Command Prompt (which looks like DOS). Type the following commands in order, and hit Enter after each line:

cd c:\
cd program files
rd /s /q winupdates

11) Now restart your computer. Reinstall Limewire.

This should hopefully fix your problem.

Bobby Naini

Holy Cow Hes RIGHT!!!!

I kept getting this firewall alert telling me <Do you want to allow winupdates.exe to access the internet?> i suspected something fishy because it had already asked a couple of weeks ago and i have already had it automatically downloading them. So i said NO. Thank god i did. mine told me it was something like innosetup.exe trying to use winupdates.exe to do this. But theres one problem. I cant find my system32 folder!!! it has to be there but searching the hard drive cant find it and i also searched for tskmgr.exe with no luck. Where is it? i looked in the C:/windows directory but its not there.. plz help

another way io know hes right is ctrl alt del doesnt work. i cant open regesit either. this guy is right on the friggen ball!!!!!!!

It has also apparently eaten up my printer stuff because my printer suddenly disappeard evcen though the software and drivers are still there it tells me its not. also when i try to install a printer it says it cant because the <printer spooler service aint running>

I would edit these posts but for some reason my browser keeps telling me i followed an invalid link and i cant.

In C:/Windows/prefetch folder ther is a file with winupdates in the filename It has to do with this virus so DELETE IT!!

!!!!!! IT WORKED!!!!!!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dude you are a GENIUS

his whole process takes20 minutes max and that includes redownloading and installing limewire. I promise that this guy is NOT BLOWING WIND!! some of you might be a little antsy to do this but follow his directions it WORKS. NO AUTO POP LW!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!

Hi.

Just to add to the steps that I posted earlier, also do the following:

1) Go to the following directory and delete any file with winupdates in the name.

c:\windows\prefetch

2) When you're done with all of my steps, plase make sure to go back into the System Properties by right clicking on My Computer, and unchecking the Turn Off System Restore box under the System Restore tab.

For those of you who can't seem to find taskmgr.exe, cmd.exe, or regedit.exe, I would suggest you do the following if you have not already done so:

Open My Computer. Select Tools from the menu, followed by Folder Options. Click on the View tab. Make sure that there is a check mark next to the following items:

Display the Contents of System Folders
Show Hidden Files and Folder

Now, make sure there are no checkmarks beside the following:
Hide protected Operating System Files.

Also, if you are using the Search function in Windows to locate these files, make sure that you do it in the following way:

1) Click on the Start button in Windows, and then select Search.

2) Select All Files and Folder

3) Enter the file name in the first box.

4) Click on More Advanced Options.

5) Make sure that the following all have checkmarks next to them:
Search System Folders
Search Hidden Files and Folders
Search Subfolders

Then once these are checked, click on Search.

I hope this helps! :-)

Bobby Naini

Another good idea is create a restore point after you have removed the virus. Then delete all but the latest resore points. Heres how.

Creating Point
1. Start
2. All Programs
3. Accesories
4. System Tools
5. System Restore
6. Follow onscreen instructions to create a restore point

To delete all but the restore point you just made

1. Right click on C:/ in My Computer

2. Click Properties

3. Click Disk Cleanup

4. Click Tab <More Options>

5. Under System Restore Click <Clean up...>

If youve had your computer for a while and never done this it might be taking up a lot of space. My aunts had 11.9gigs of her hard drive with JUST restore points!!

Thank you man for figuring that virus crap out. That really made me mad that with all of the protection i have i still got it but you knew EXACTLY what to do. THANKS

by the way, deleting restore points is OPTIONAL
you dont have to but i would and did

To sum up all of these posts in a correct order for those who are having trouble, here is everything in sequential order.

1) Go to the following directory and delete any file with winupdates in the name.

c:\windows\prefetch

2) When you're done with all of my steps, plase make sure to go back into the System Properties by right clicking on My Computer, and unchecking the Turn Off System Restore box under the System Restore tab.

Open My Computer. Select Tools from the menu, followed by Folder Options. Click on the View tab. Make sure that there is a check mark next to the following items:

Display the Contents of System Folders
Show Hidden Files and Folder

Now, make sure there are no checkmarks beside the following:
Hide protected Operating System Files.

Also, if you are using the Search function in Windows to locate these files, make sure that you do it in the following way:

1) Click on the Start button in Windows, and then select Search.

2) Select All Files and Folder

3) Enter the file name in the first box.

4) Click on More Advanced Options.

5) Make sure that the following all have checkmarks next to them:
Search System Folders
Search Hidden Files and Folders
Search Subfolders


1) Uninstall Limewire. You can reinstall it at the end of these steps.

2) Disable System Restore in Windows. This can be done by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, and then clicking on the System Restore tab. Then check the box Turn Off System Restore. Hit Apply, and then OK. If you are prompted to restart Windows, do so.

3) Now we need to fool the virus into allowing us to open the Task Manager. This can be done by copying the Task Manager executable file from the Windows directory. To do this, go to c:\windows\system32, select the file taskmgr.exe, right click on it, and select Copy. Go to the desktop, and click on an empty part of the desktop. Then right click on the desktop, and select Paste.

4) Double click on the taskmgr.exe file on your desktop. This should open the Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab. If you are in fact infected with a virus, you will likely (although not necessarily) see close to 100% CPU usage!! Now click on the Processes tab, followed by clicking twice on the CPU column header. What this does is order the files running on your computer based on the amount of CPU resources they are consuming in real time. If there is a process, other than System Idle Process, that is consuming close to 100% of the CPU, then it is this process (or file) that is infecting your computer. For me, and likely for a lot of you, that file will be winupdates.exe. Don't be tricked. This is not a Microsoft program. It's a virus masking itself as a legitimate file. Please remember the exact name of this process, because you will need it in a later step.

5) Click on this process to highlight it, then click the button End Process. A warning prompt should pop up. Click on Yes.

6) Now that this process is killed, we need to remove any references to it from the Registry. Once again, because this virus is blocking us from opening the Registry Editor, we need to trick the virus by copying the file to the desktop. Follow the same steps as in number 3, except this time, copy the following two files from their respective directories, and paste them on the desktop.

c:\windows\regedit.exe
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

7) Open regedit from the desktop. In the left window, click on My Computer so that it is highlighted. Now select Edit from the menu, followed by Find. In the Find box, type the name of the process that you ended from the Task Manager. If you recall, mine was winupdates. Do not include the .exe, just winupdates. Then click Find.

8) For the item that it found in the right window, click it to highlight it if it isn't highlighted already, and then right click on it, and select Delete. If a prompt pops up, select Yes or OK to confirm the delete.

9) Now, hit the F3 button once. This will find the next reference to that bad file. Follow step 8 again to delete the reference. Repeat steps 9 and 8 until the editor indicates that there are no more references to this file. Then exit the editor.

10) Finally, click on cmd.exe which you copied to the desktop. It will open the Command Prompt (which looks like DOS). Type the following commands in order, and hit Enter after each line:

cd c:\
cd program files
rd /s /q winupdates

11) Now restart your computer. Reinstall Limewire

Another good idea is create a restore point after you have removed the virus. Then delete all but the latest resore points. Heres how.

Creating Point
1. Start
2. All Programs
3. Accesories
4. System Tools
5. System Restore
6. Follow onscreen instructions to create a restore point

To delete all but the last restore point you made

1. Right click on C:/ in My Computer

2. Click Properties

3. Click Disk Cleanup

4. Click Tab <More Options>

5. Under System Restore Click <Clean up...>

by the way, deleting restore points is OPTIONAL
you dont have to but i would and did

Please send a copy to ant-virus labs to help stop this virus
 

I sent an email to Kaspersky Labs antivirus yesterday about this virus and got an email back from one of their virus analysts. However, I haven't been infected and so I wasn't able to provide them with a sample of the virus.

If you'd be so kind as to help prevent others form getting this virus, please make a password-protected zip (or rar) file containing any viral files you are about to delete. The password should be "infected" and it should be mailed to NewVirus@kaspersky.com, with a subject of KLAB-571146.

It's my understanding that the major anti-virus labs have informal agreements about sharing new viruses with eachother.

If you're extra motivated to help stop this virus, there's also a web submission form at http://subwiz.trendmicro.com/SubWiz/...sp?opgWizard=7 . Presumably TrendMicro wants the winupdates file instead of the password protected zip file.

Unfortunately, it looks like Symantec/Norton Anti-Virus requires you to use Norton Anti-Virus to send in samples instead of using plain old email. If you have Norton Anti-virus, please by all means use Norton Anti-virus to send Symantec/Norton a copy of winupdates.

McAfee Anti-virus's website gives me the impression that there's no way for the average person to send them samples of suspected viruses.

this seems to be the virus everyone has. I tried follow the steps in the above post and they didn't work for me. First of all copying taskmgr.exe to my desktop didn't make a diference. By running ad-aware i was able to remove the file although it seemed to come back. These are the instruction and discription
from norton (symantec) calling it of a varient of W32.HLLW.Gaobot.BB, type:worm

http://www.brightmail.com/avcenter/v...gaobot.bc.html

This did the trick. THANK YOU!!! The virus is gone. For windows XP users, instead of looking in system32 folder, you'll find those files in your "My Computer/C/I386" directory. Maybe because of the virus, my system wouldn't let me open that directory, so I went to start/search and looked up the taskmgr, regedit and cmd applications and dragged them to my desktop while holding down CTRL. Everything else worked like a charm. You're the best Bobby.

The "AN Worm"
 

This is malware has been identified as
Worm.Win32.VB.an, the "AN Worm", sometimes called the "Zodiak Worm".

I was able to obtain a sample of this malware. I got free trial versions of both Norton Anti-virus and Kaspersky Anti-virus from Downoad.com.

Norton's 6/22/2005 virus definition library misses this malware.

Kaspersky catches it and quarantines it.

You can get a free 30-day trial from:
http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=kaspersky

Let us all know if you find any other anti-virus scanners that catch this worm. It might be a new variant, because Norton's website claims they've been able to catch this worm since October 2003.

I've submitted a sample to Norton.

TrendMicro's webserver gave me an internal error when I tried submitting it via their web form.

BobbyNaini and kc0rkx_finch, you two people saved my sanity, thankyou soooooooooooooooooo much, limewire poping up every 10 seconds was driving me insane. THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU:D

THANKS!!!
 

Man, this was well worth the reading!

I know exactly how and when my son loaded this virus on my computer, and I am ashamed to admit it. . . .but just so others don't make the same mistake, he tried to download and install a Pro version of Limewire from the Gnutella network. :(

I know this because, (due to his incessant pirating) I purchased a keystroke logger. I have now locked him out of my machine.

I seem to have my old faithful back on line now, thanks to you wonderful people! Whoooooo-Hooooooooo!

Glad i could help someone. Any more questions please pm me as i have gotten very busy and dont have time to check the forum everyday.

none of these solutions werked for me. Lime wire was trying to launch even after i THOUGHT i had deleted the program >> kept giving me some warning about Limewire tried to launch but failed. I simply went to All Programs, saw a Limewire folder, deleted that, and i havent had a problem since.

shame tho >> due to this problem, i refuse to use Limewire anymore >> i tried to install imewire again, but i kept getting the same problem.

I have to use Morpeus now, and it sux compared to Limewire. :(

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
 

Plese help me i looked in the folders that you said to look in but the only thing that even said task manager was the MMTASK.TSK and i dont have a progam to open that up with so I went just into the windows folder to see if it was there and i found an .exe file than said TASKMAN and i moved it to the desktop and double clicked on it but it does not open anything so if you could please help me i would greatly appreciate it:confused:

I did the same thing. Worked great. If yer ever in Phoenix BobbyNaini, all the beer you want is on my tab. :cool:

None of this worked for me. I had been hopeful finding these threads and seeing I wasn't the only one with this problem, but after going through these steps for the third time (even after I had gotten the worm off my system) nothing is working. Limewire still opens every few seconds on it's own, and even when uninstalled it opens a message citing an error with an invalid file.

For me there was no 'winupdates' file to be found anywhere. I followed the advice found on Symantic's website for this particular worm, and Limewire is STILL spazzing out.

Help?

There are different variations of the virus you still have the virus Get avast and do a boot scan avast is free it will ask if you want to do a boot scan after you install it select yes .

You can get avast at the link below.


http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html

Im new to the forums and only joined because of this problem

My limewire was continually restarting until i deleted it completely from the computer and followed the steps. after i opened the taskmanager, there is no winupdate.exe or anything similar, and there is nothing using lots of processing apart from the System IDle processes one. i know there is still a problem though becuase my ctrl+alt+del doesnt work at all

if anyone knows what the problem is or can speculate to what it might be please let me know

Thanks for that, Grandpa. I'll give it a shot.

LukeG74

Try the suggestion in the link from me right above yours you probably have a virus. My guess is you downloaded and opened a file with a virus in it odds are it was 851.7kb in size.

I've run the avast boot scan twice now, deleted at least six trojans (oye!) but I'm still getting limewire spazzing out.

I'm sorry to be such a bother - I used to think I was fairly decent with a computer. Should I just keep running the avast scan until it returns nothing, or is there something else I need to do with this?

Ouch you got it bad you may want to go to the Avast forum and ask what you need to do. There may be a removal tool for the particular virus you have. The link below will take you there.

Make sure you read the first 3 post they are very informative.


http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=4.0

Ok thanks for the help guys as soon as i downloaded the avast thing i got this norton antivirus message, on another account on XP, asking permission to let 'msupdates.exe' to connect to the net, i know its a different name ot the winupdates.exe, but should i block it anyway, or might it be something important?

Doesn't matter do the boot scan

Ok so i ran the Boot Scan with the Avast thing, and it did find and delete one file, but after coming back onto the computer i found that Ctrl+Alt+del still doesnt work, ialso got a warning from norton about something with 'ash' in the title attempting to access the internet, and it recommended i block always, which i did.

I then found i couldnt even connect onto the internet at all with the avast icons in my toolbars, i had to deactiviate it to get it to work.

So now that i have run the boot scan, is there somethin else for me to do?

You need to run the boot scan again and your Norton is corrupted and you need to uninstall it. After you get rid of the virus you can re install it. The (ash) is Avast virus updater and needs permission to update its virus data base. I have gone through the same thing you are before. I ended up reformatting my hard drive and re installing windows.

This usually is not necessary but I reformat regularly any way so I just did it I run my OS on C drive and everything else on other drives so when I reformat and re install I do not loose anything.

You may want to check out the link below it has allot of information about the viruses on the p2p network.

http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=41432

Thanks for the help!

, ill run another boot scan today, and uninstall norton first.

before i do though, will tere be any problems re instaling Norton from disk? with registered CD Keys im a bit reluctant to uninstall the product.

finally when i run another boot scan, should i delete or repair the files that are dodgy?

thanks again for all who have helped

If you have you CD key you will have no problem, Repair the files if they can not be repaired quarantine them, It is not wise to delete Them though unlikely it could remove something your computer needs to operate.

Alright. After spending two days searching the net and scanning my computer. I have deleted no less than THIRTY SIX THOUSAND infected objects.

Whatever worm (worms, really) I was attacked with put thousands of "movies" on my comp in zip archives. Thank goodness I wasn't stupid enough to unzip any of them once I finally found where they'd been hidden.

(Like a lot of people I made the mistake of having Norton on my comp. Fat lot of good that did me.)

I strongly suggest Ewido Security Suite. It saved my life - if not my sanity, because two days of running nearly non-stop virus scans will turn anyone batty.

Thanks Bobbie for the great help, i DID have the virus winupdates, and your Step by Step help was the easiest ever! Norton had not found it. however I tried AGV and it found all those zip files associated with that.

Easiest fix ever with help like yours. Bravo

Steve

Hey sorry its me again

yeah how do you safely uninstall Norton Antivirus 2005?

there seems to be no proper uninstall system so how should i best go about it?

OMG!! I'm so angry. I did all that, I found winsupdates, deleted it. But idk wat other viruses I have on my stupid computer. I use adaware, and it found almost 400 things at one time, i deleted all of it, and jsut for security i ran it again, right wen if finished scanning, and it found 10 more. And it keeps doing that. When I restart my computer, my anti virus program tells me dat it finds 10 viruses. Always the same folder, and it only deletes 5 of them, the rest, it just tells me are infected. Its found in C:\WINDOWS\system32\tpygvtl. If I try to delete it manually with a program called Delete Dr. or Sure Delete, it says it cant delete it. I also turned off my system restore because on the ad-aware page it said that might be a reason that things I have deleted have come back. But that doesn't work. I'm going crazy, I left for just a few hours and left my brother alone with the computer, and he sends it all to hell. If anyone can help me please oh god help!

1. WARNING: Viruses on network you should be aware of!

2. Your Java might be corrupt or not behaving well with your system. See point 1 here: Fixes for Limewire

3. Uninstall LW by going to the Start menu>Programs>LW>Uninstall. Then reinstall LW from here using the "OFFLINE" installer: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml

HELP!!!
Ok ive gone through the steps provided to eliminate the virus.
However, I didn't do the bit at the start about deleting the WINUPDATE file(s) because i couldnt find one.
'I am now up to the step where i have to end the task System Idle Process. I click end process, then click yes, but then a message comes up saying i cant end it!!?!?!?!? How do I end it now?

you're not supposed to end system idle process. i dont think