"vwl.exe" Virus, Anti-virus Not Updating

Just had a heck of a time cleaning a virus on my Windows Vista laptop.

Symptoms:

- Pop-Up ads
- Norton anti-virus not live-update updating
- Ad-aware giving an error on attempts for update
- "power archiver 2010" coming up
- vwl.exe launching (and others starting with v)
- google searches going to power-search.com or redirecting otherwise
- liveupdate.symantec.com resolves to 127.0.0.1

Turns out the virus changed the DNS entries to its own DNS in the tcp/ip properties. Changing the DNS back to "obtain automatically" allowed Norton to update

Vwl.exe and other files were being added to C:\users\[user]\appdata\local\temp

After deleting all the files in \appdata\local\temp and rebooting in safemode, nothing would happen as if it was fixed. Booting in safemode with networking support though, an .exe like "602.exe" would launch, and then download vwl.exe and others back to the appdata\local\temp.

FIX:

- Was able to update antviruses, specifically Ad-Aware.
- Killed all odd processes beginning V
- Deleted all files in the \appdata\local\temp directory
- ran Ad-aware full scan in safe mode - it found lots of cookies and some other trojan files
- then (*KEY*) booted into safe mode (without networking) and went to Run->"cmd", typed "sfc /scannow"

System file checker found corrupted system files and corrected them. I think something had infected winlogon.exe which is how it would run at each startup and download all the virus files again.

So, try all these steps if you have the previous issues.

Bought a House, A/C Doesn't Come On

After buying our house, we couldn't get the air conditioning unit to turn on at all. Previous owners swore that it worked when they left.

Just paid $55 to have a guy come out and look at it. Turns out, all that was missing was the wire in the thermostat (red loop on the right):



Apparently it's common for people to do renovations on a house before selling it (like new thermostat) and not hook up the AC correctly.

So, if you bought a house and are having troubles with the A/C, check the wires in your thermostat.