Rundll32 virus!!

[johnnr892]

Not sure if this is the right forum sorry if its wrong. Recently ive noticed rundll32 come up on my win98 task manager when pressing ctrl+alt+del. There is now three duplicates of this rundll32 on the taskbar. I've looked it up on the internet and it says its a virus or trojan horse. I then did a virus scan with nortan but nothing came up and then with spy sweeper and still it didnt go away. Does anyone here have experience of this virus and or knows how to get rid of it as its slowing my computer down considerably. Thanks to anyone who can help ASAP. John

[Steve]

Rundll32 isn't necessarily a virus... it is used for running dll files as an executable. It is used to display the computer properties screen and shut down/logoff the machine.

Make sure norton's virus definitions are updated and run a scan again, just to be sure.

[johnnr892]

There must be something bad about rundll32 because whenever i start the computer rundll32 performs an illegal operation and then all my other programs shut down like incd, findfast etc... Then it goes into desktop recovery. Has anyone else had this or knows how to get rid of itm, please could they tell asap thanks.

[directhex]

well you could delete rundll, but then your computer wouldn't boot up.

rundll, as kez said, is used as a "host" for dll files. for example, if something (say a system tray sound card icon) wants to run, it can either be created as a standalone exe, or a dll that is run by rundll.

the sad fact is, that whtn you start getting these errors with msdos-based windowses, there's not much you can do to stop them. there are a billion poorly documented causes of it, without much hope of recovery.

now is when you start backing up your data to do a nice clean format of the system

[johnnr892]

Do you think it would be a help to me in the future if i upgraded my system to windows xp from 98se?

[Steve]

What spec is the system?

[johnnr892]

xp 2400 @2.0ghz
512mb 2100 ram
5600xt
As Rock k7vt2 mobo
60 gb hard drive
lg 52x cd-r

I think thats it. Its just everyone seems to be on xp and 98se is seeming quite dated and mine seems to be crashing a lot recently?

[Steve]

Yeah, it's a waste having 98 on that. Get yourself a decent OS.

[directhex]

you really don't want to be running a discontinued, unsupported, msdos-based os on that spec. get xp on there!

got a shrink-wrapped xp home in a box here