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Many thanks. I shall give this a go.

Thanks. I tried the trial version of the Kaspersky A-V which (of course) found it and deleted it but it didn’t deal with the underlying nasty as the files immediately reappeared. I assume there’s got to be a registry entry somehwere that I’ve got to find and delete. After installing the Kaspersky package both WMP and IE stopped working (They both would shut down straight away after opening) and my PC slowed to a crawl. I’ve uninstalled it now and everything seems back to normal. What I find surprising is, as this appears to be a known trojan I’ve picked up, that a major vendor like Norton doesn’t (or can’t or won’t) deal with it. Actually I think it’s quite shocking that I have to rely on the kindness of strangers to help when I pay these guys supposedly to sort out these problems for me (when I checked I found I’ve paid Symantec nearly $500 in three years for two PCs and a laptop). In ten years on the internet, this is actually the first time I’ve had a problem like this (I even never ever get any spam, my ISP – blueyonder.co.uk – must have some pretty good filters in place).

Again many thanks for your kind assistance

You’re right. Kaspersky identifies it as Backdoor.Win32.Robobot.y

Any idea I get rid of it?

I have quite a few programs which automatically update but it’s all standard legit stuff (Adobe, Norton etc) I wouldn’t have thought anything like that would deliver an unsigned unannounced exe

Thanks. I’ll use this program to take a look next time the files reappear (it happens several times a day so shouldn’t be too long).

I’m on a broadband connection and there’s no phone line connected to this PC

I’ve checked that and properties are all blank

I’ve already tried that. the .inf is just open=install.exe. I also tried examining the .exe in wordpad to see if there were any clues.

Yep. You’re right. Upon firther investigation, the noise it’s making is just the fan. The disc is not spinning. Fortunately, it’s backed up.

I’ve disconnected and reconnected all the cables inside but with no result

I’ve disconnected and reconnected all the cables inside but with no result

by “reseating its cable” do you mean opening up the box and checking everything’s plugged in securely?

by “reseating its cable” do you mean opening up the box and checking everything’s plugged in securely?

I don’t really understand BIOS setup that much but I assume this is where the problem lies. I’ve had a look and PXE does not appear anywhere. What does seem strange to me is that the Pri Master is set to disabled (Sec Master to CDROM). Surely Pri Master is the HDD? The autodetect option doesn’t come up with anything. I’ve been googling for BIOS help sites but haven’t found a useful one yet. If anyone can recommend a good one, that would be a help.

I don’t really understand BIOS setup that much but I assume this is where the problem lies. I’ve had a look and PXE does not appear anywhere. What does seem strange to me is that the Pri Master is set to disabled (Sec Master to CDROM). Surely Pri Master is the HDD? The autodetect option doesn’t come up with anything. I’ve been googling for BIOS help sites but haven’t found a useful one yet. If anyone can recommend a good one, that would be a help.

nothing’s been updated or installed recently. The PC just runs WinXP, office, acrobat, winzip, etc. i.e. nothing unusual. I don’t seem to be able to boot into safe mode (though can get into BIOS setup). The PC’s on a small home network (2 PCs, laptop), there’s no problem with anything else.