Running:
Windows XP, SP2
eMachines T6212 (none of their stuff is on the computer -- I used a clean hard-drive and different XP CD than they provided)
AMD 64 3200+
Background:
(This is not a malware/spyware/trojan problem, mind you, so I think I've put it in the proper place.)
Alright, the computer was running fine just a week ago. Problem is, I was looking for a program to rip the audio off of a few DVD's (live concerts) I've got, so I decided to use Google, which led me to download.com; I discovered I didn't have a DVD /player/, so I looked at their DVD players. After downloading one of the more popular free ones and began installing it, AVG Free pops up with 'trojan detected'. Perfect. Anyhow, I deleted all applicable files, and then beefed up stuff. Long story short, I downloaded a trojan scanner (Trojan Remover, Simply Super Software - trial version), and used my spyware stuff (System Spyware Interrogator, Ad-Aware, Spybot, etc.) to remove it (I hope.)
The lingering traces of it were that the internet would connect, but wouldn't /send/ any packets. After fixing that, I decided I wasn't going to use download.com all that much. A day later, or so, AVG pops-up by saying 'Virus detected'! It was that one that infects all the .exe files. Anyhow, I did a quick Google search, and downloaded the applicable 'vcleaner' from Grisoft, booted the comptuer in safe mode, and ran it (yesterday morning.) Problem fixed, only thing that bugged me was I lost my iTunes play-count and ratings due to installing the latest version. Bah!
I've since run multiple scans with multiple programs (ones mentioned above) (no online ones, due to 56k), and the computer's clean, at least I hope. Nothing new on HijackThis!, as in the past I added programs I trusted and knew weren't spyware to the ignore list.
Oh, of note might be that I uninstalled/installed Nero again (version 5), because I wanted to see if their media-player would play DVDs.
Problem:
Apparently, all of this carnage has had an adverse affect upon the registry (who would've-thunk it?). The DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drives won't read discs. ('Hardware' of the device manager reads: HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-84282B, TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552B)
I intially had this problem, but fixed it by using the 'cdgone' registry fix from here (yay for Google including this forum's posts in its search-range!); the problem still lingers, however. I just rebooted after doing the registry fix, and the CD-Drive registers the disc in there, but soon thereafter loses its workability.
From My Computer, the DVD-RW Drive will open, but display nothing in it. The CD-Drive just pops up the window that goes: L:\ is not accessible. -- Incorrect Function.
And iTunes reports upon startup:
"Warning! -- The registry settnigs used by the iTunes drivers for importing and burning CDs and DVDs are missing. This can happen as a result of installing other CD burning software. Please reinstall iTunes."
After reinstalling (repairing) said installation, iTunes reports fine, but the CD/DVD-Drives still have the problem. I'm pretty sure the problem is in the registry: unfortunately, I havn't done any back-ups on it, nor are there any other system-restore points on the computer.
I'd rather not have to do a clean-install of Windows, and have to re-install/download all programs/updates. (It wouldn't be that bad, as there are four partitions, so information wouldn't be lost, just tedious-some. -- Besides, I imagine that there's got to be another way to solve it, for those people who would lose everything with a clean-install.)
Any ideas? A program that'd fix the registry? *shrug*
On an aside: what's relatively mind-boggling is that I can run 'Age of Empires:Age of Kings:The Conquerors with the CD in the drive. But, take it out, and the computer says I need the proper-CD in the drive! But then, when I want to run the single-player/map-editor ... it tells me to put the CD in, and restart the program. =/
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