Very weird administrator problem

Hello,

I just received my XPS M1530 replacement for a previous M1530, and turned it on yesterday. I downloaded and installed all basic things, such as comodo firewall, avg antivirus, etc. Now today, I am trying to disable network things such as file sharing (I am in a college dorm), but I can't. The radio buttons are grayed out for settings that impact all users on the system. Now, I know that can only mean one thing: I don't have administrator rights. I go to my user settings in control panel, and guess what..I am not an administrator. This is the account I set up, and the only one I have created (in the 1 day existence of this computer) since yesterday's Vista First-time set-up, and Vista did NOT make it an administrator computer. What the heck? This did not happen with my previous M1530, or any other system for that matter.

It gets weirder. So out of curiosity, I go to "manage other accounts" and there are 3 accounts!

1) Mine that I set up
2) RA Media Server (ADMINISTRATOR)
3) Guest


Funny thing is, on that page, it says my account is an administrator but when I click on "change the account type," the radio button for standard user is active. The same thing for RA Media Server.

Big question...WHAT IS RA MEDIA SERVER? ....... What is this thing? I did not set up anything and would not, in my right state of mind, think of giving any program access to create a user profile...

I'm currently running AVG Scan.

So:

1) What is RA Media Server and how did it make an account (which I cannot see during initial login)?
2) How can I remove RA Media Server?
3) How can I make my own account an administrator (activate the radio button for administrator in "change my account type") even though I, myself, am not logged in as an administrator? Command prompt?


This is nuts..

 

by chance, are you able to log in as Administrator? in safe mode or whatever... it should be possible. then, you will be able to change your account type.

edit: this may be interesting for you as well... http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/202026-did-i-get-hacked-something.html

 

Yeah, I saw that page. But I have UAC turned off, and I just deleted the RA Media Server user account from user control panel. I am still not administrator. I will try safe mode.

Is there anything I can do to scan my computer for what might have done that...I fear perhaps there is a trojan or some kind of virus lodged in my system. What would be the best scanner for such a thing/confirmation? I want to be absolutely sure....
AVG scan returned nothing except tracking cookies which I deleted. Any good on-demand scanners that people can vouch for with their own experiences?

 

anyone? what is a good scanner/Anti-virus/anti-malware i can use to see if whatever instated "RA Media Server" as an administrator user is still on my system somewhere?

 

Do you have a password on your account?

Is this computer logging into a domain at school, or are you logging on locally?

I am wondering if you are logging on to a domain, where you are a standard user (no domain admin is going to give you admin rights on the DOMAIN). You should still be an admin LOCALLY (it is your machine afterall), and perhaps the screw up is happening there.

Right click COMPUTER, choose MANAGE, go to LOCAL USERS AND GROUPS, choose GROUPS, click ADMINISTRATOR group, and if you are not in the box, click ADD and add your username to the LOCAL ADMINISTRATOR box (pretty sure you must have a password for this.

What version of Vista?

 

Just as a general matter, it's not a good idea to just delete any user account you find without trying to get a hold on where it came from, because there are legitimate services (e.g., with MS' .Net) that create separate machine accounts.

More specifically, when did you buy the first M1530 - the one you returned - was it before or after approximately October 8, 2008?

If you didn't have the RA account on the old one, then I'm going to guess that you bought it before that date.

What you're seeing right now is, in all probability, the required user account for the new Dell Remote Access service, which is accessed from www.dellremoteaccess.com

Furthermore, if you check under the "Services" tab (tab (4)) when you configure an M1530, you'll see an icon for "Remote Access" and you'll also see that the standard default is that you get the basic free service automatically with the XPS-M1530.

If you go to the aforementioned website, you should get a half-way decent explanation for what it does - basically, it allows you to get remote access to your laptop from anywhere in the world, so you can access the files on the laptop. It uses a web browser to do access.

So, basically, my guess is that "RA MEDIA SERVER" stands for "Remote Access MEDIA SERVER" and that you just deleted the user account that the Dell Remote Access service would have used to log onto your computer if you attempted to access it remotely via a special link you'd be given that is of the form: my.dellremoteaccess.com

Now, it's not really your fault for not knowing this, because Dell doesn't seem to have done a very good job of advertising this new service or otherwise disseminating info to the public. The only info I could find was via third-party websites reporting on what _Dell's vice president of global consumer sales and marketing, Michael Tatelman, had told them, such as this item from hexus.net.

The bottom line is - you weren't hacked and that user account is not something nefarious (as in from a hacker), it's just the special user account the _Dell Remote Access service - the basic version of which you got for free with your new M1530 - uses to access the files on your computer remotely.