Google is screwing up?

pacmania_2001 · mmm...bop Joined: 04 Apr 2001 Location: Australia

I am running IE6 and Windows XP SP1 and recently when I visit either www.google.com or www.google.com.au the display has been screwing up.

Take for example at the moment on Google Australia it is showing up like a little blue and white flag.

Does anyone know what is causing this or is getting a similar page? At first I thought it may have been a virus or a piece of spyware however I did a search using AVG and also Ad Aware and no viruses or spyware showed up.
_________________
www.videohelp.com/~pacmania

Gees · Digital Angel Joined: 07 May 2003 Location: Pal Realm

I just tried it and, no problems. Have you emptied the cache lately? I get all sorts of bizarre things happening when I forget to do it.

I read keeping it below 80 stops problems.
_________________
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
The Rogue Pixel: Pixels are like elephants. Every once in a while one of them will go nuts.

pacmania_2001 · mmm...bop Joined: 04 Apr 2001 Location: Australia

Emptied my cache, still didn't help. I am baffled to explain what is causing it.

Thanks for the help though and keep those suggestions coming.
_________________
www.videohelp.com/~pacmania

Solarjetman · Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003

It works for me as well. Could you post a screenshot maybe? Is it only google acting up? Sometimes fault video drivers can distort things such as icons. But if its only google, that is not the problem.
_________________
"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
- Frank Herbert, Dune

twodogs · less than 3 dogs Joined: 11 Dec 2002 Location: Australia

pacmania, fixed similar problem a couple of nights ago on a mates PC.

firstly, does it happen to all search engines? teoma, altavista, etc ?
secondly, from a command prompt, ping www.google.com.au You should get 216.239.53.99 . If you get 69.57.xxx.xxx etc then your DNS is screwed.

(to get to google, you can put http://216.239.53.99/ in your browser)

if all the above happens, try this:
1) Symantec Qhosts trojan removal tool: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qh ... .tool.html

but may not reveal anything

2) install MS security patch
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/techne ... 03-040.asp

3) follow steps here:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100719

i think I also deleted a directory called c:\bdgsa or something foreign that resembled that which had just appeared.

By the way, adaware, spybot and pccillin all failed to detect the trojan on my mates PC too.

pacmania_2001 · mmm...bop Joined: 04 Apr 2001 Location: Australia

Thanks for the help all.

Thought I would post my solution to it: formatting the C:

I tried the QHost removal program after reading a few other posts with the same symptoms but alas still no solution so it was just quicker to do it this way, plus it was due for a reinstall of WinXP soon anyway.
_________________
www.videohelp.com/~pacmania

BJ_M · Patron Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Location: Canada

i had this -- it was a hidden hosts file in windows help directory ... yep virus thingy ... was easy to fix .
_________________
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

pacmania_2001 · mmm...bop Joined: 04 Apr 2001 Location: Australia

@BJ_M

Did you just delete the hosts file?

What was the name of it do you know?
_________________
www.videohelp.com/~pacmania

BJ_M · Patron Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Location: Canada

yes -- i deleted all hosts files except the default one (and opened it in notepad and checked it) . i found 3 (default plus one in help directory and one in system32 - both of those directories are "higher" priority than etc directory.

this is default in (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts):

Faustus · insane. Joined: 11 Apr 2002 Location: Dallas, TX

Yeah I had that one. After all these years that one made my pratice what I preach and install AVG Antivirus.