SiS KHooker, DownloadWare, and Video Display Trouble?

Infopackets Gazette Reader Niel L. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

Greetings from Trinidad & Tobago! I am a subscriber to your newsletter for a while now and I enjoy it thoroughly. Unfortunately, I've been having some very strange problems with my PC which is running Windows XP, and I am hoping that you may be able to help me in solving them.

Firstly, whenever I check email and disconnect from the Internet, my PC will try to dial back up every few seconds. Earlier today I installed a diagnostic program which found the following files on my system that 'may be corrupt or cause my system to not work properly'. I suspect that some of the files are not windows files and they may be the cause of some of the problems:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:SiS KHooker HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:DownloadWare HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:zaynyzj

Secondly, oftentimes when I boot up my PC, the monitor will remain completely blank. I have to shut down and start it up a few times before I would get a proper display. Upon every boot, I can hear the windows start up sound but nothing on the screen. Any ideas? "

My Response:

Yikes! First of all, I strongly believe that you have Spyware installed on your system. You can manually remove the malware (links below) but this requires a bit of work and you may wish to use an automated Spyware removal program instead.

I highly recommend and use a program called Spy Sweeper to keep my system safe from Spyware. Unlike many Spyware removal programs, Spy Sweeper stops Spyware *before* it has a chance to install on my machine; plus, Spy Sweeper automatically updates its database to ensure enduring protection against vicious software.

With respect to the programs that are installed on your machine: I searched Google and came up with a few clues.

RE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:SiS KHooker

The 'SiS KHooker' is a HomePage Hijacker. From computing.net (response #4), I found:

" CWS Hijacker | July 9, 2003 | A new malware is being distributed that hijacks Internet Explorer start and search settings to one of several different web sites, including coolwwwsearch.com, coolwebsearch.com, youfindall.net, ok-search.com, and white-pages.ws. All of these web sites appear to have an affiliate relationship with coolwebsearch.com in which coolwebsearch pays them for for every visitor they refer. " (Source: http://www.computing.net)

Follow the instructions in the link above for manual removal, or download an automated Spyware Removal program like Spy Sweeper to remove the parasite code.

RE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:DownloadWare

According to DoxDesk.com, "DownloadWare is a [parasite program] which executes on Windows startup. If a network connection is available*, it will connect to its servers, which can direct it to download and install software from advertisers. " DownloadWare lacks security because "the software is designed to execute arbitrary code from advertisers. " (Source: www.doxdesk.com)

This probably explains why your computer made repeated attempts to connect to the Internet. Follow the instructions in the link above for manual removal, or download an automated Spyware Removal program like Spy Sweeper to remove the parasite code.

RE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Run / /:zaynyzj

I couldn't find anything on Google with respect to "zaynyzj", but it certainly sounds suspicious and it probably wouldn't hurt to remove the entry from your Windows Registry.

Disabling Automatic Dialup Connection with Windows XP

I also searched Google for "disable automatic dialup connection windows xp" and came up with a web site entitled, "Modem Issues, Auto-Connect/Disconnect & Dialup for Windows XP". For future reference, you may want to visit this page which explains how to disable programs from attempting to connect to the Internet, and a whole lot more.

RE: Secondly, oftentimes when I boot up my PC, the monitor will remain completely blank.

This is strange behavior and doubt very much that it is related to any of the previous issues. I would first suspect a hardware problem: perhaps the video cable has a short in it, or the monitor / video card is defective? On the other hand, there may be a video card driver incompatibility with Windows XP, or the problem could be Windows XP itself.