I hope this is in the right forum guys! sorry if its not =/
I am currently on a different computer workstation in the house. But, about an hour ago, I was on the computer in my study room, when Norton AntiVius popped up in the corner with 'processing threats'. This was then followed by multiple other messages from my other antivirus software (AdAware, Superantispyware and Malware Bytes). At the time, I was downloading a .rar file, from a website I have used a hundred times before and that I've always known to be pretty trustworthy.
Instantly thinking that I must be downloading something ominous, I cancelled my download (which was around 2 minutes in/5% complete) and closed the windows I had up, to return to my desktop, and my anti-virus software icons. When I got there, I saw that my desktop wallpaper had now been changed from a default black appearance to a bright green wallpaper stating, in black and red text in the centre of the screen, something along the lines of 'warning! your system is infected. immediately run anti-virus software, and do not continue to use the computer until you have done so'. Thinking this to be a 'fake alert' (ive had a fakealert trojan before), I went straight to Malwarebytes and ran a quick scan. Norton was also scanning automatically.
The scan found 20 infected items.. all named 'Trojan.fakealert' and '.fakedisplay', '.displayprompt' and the like. I selected for Malwarebytes to remove the items, and pressed remove.. It said all the items had been quarantined but to complete the removal process, my computer had to be restarted. I obliged. Norton said the same thing in a pop up box in the corner of the screen - that it needed to restart to clear the infected items!
My computer restarted as normal, and came to the blue screen where you select your name/picture and it logs you in. I clicked my name/picture as always, and it said 'logging in' ...but then instead of showing my desktop loading, it just showed a black screen with the cursor, then after around 20 seconds, went back to the blue log-in screen, and said 'logging off....shutting down processes' etc. It seems norton and malwarebytes didnt do a good enough job of quaranting/removing the trojans.. and they are preventing my system from now loading :(
any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated!
[edit: Clarified subject.]
ps, my operating system is XP
-Jay