Sudden freezes, and bits missing

Recently, comp randomly 'freezes' for a minute or so at a time, then returns
to normal. Ctrl/Alt/Del reveals procesor usage approaching 100% at these
times. Can happen when running any application.

Second problem. When accessing control panel from 'Start', it crashes, the
desktop clears and then re-populates itself with icons. This does not happen
when accessed from double click on 'My Computer'

Third problem (maybe related). Dropdown menus no longer appear, eg when
right clicking on IE Explorer Icon to get to properties. The outline of the
drop down box appears, and if the mouse cursor is hovered over the
appropriate area, the menu options appear, and when clicked they still work.

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Recently, comp randomly 'freezes' for a minute or so at a time, then
returns to normal. Ctrl/Alt/Del reveals procesor usage approaching
100% at these times. Can happen when running any application.

Second problem. When accessing control panel from 'Start', it
crashes, the desktop clears and then re-populates itself with icons.
This does not happen when accessed from double click on 'My Computer'

Third problem (maybe related). Dropdown menus no longer appear, eg
when right clicking on IE Explorer Icon to get to properties. The
outline of the drop down box appears, and if the mouse cursor is
hovered over the appropriate area, the menu options appear, and when
clicked they still work.

This is so generic a problem, or list of problems, that I'm going to give
you the malware solution first and see if that helps. Start with this, it's
not quick nor easy, and see if you still have problems. Keep in mind that
just because you may already have some of these applications doesn't mean
that they're always right. When in doubt get a second opinion in other
words. Also pay attention to the scanning in safe mode bit.

Virus:
www.grisoft.com - AVG
www.antivir.com - AntiVir
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/index.cfm - CA eTrust

Spywa
www.lavasoft.de - AdAware
http://security.kolla.de/ - Spybot
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx -
Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta

Trojan:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ - a Squared
http://swatit.org/ Swat It

Before cleaning download this:

LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Use that should cleaning out your PC remove or damage your in-place winsock
and you can't connect to the internet.

From the virus and trojan category pick one application, they're all free,
download it and install it. Make sure that you update it. From the spyware
category pick all three, download them and update them to the latest
definitions. Reboot, press the F8 key over and over again, from the menu
select Safe mode without networking. Do your cleaning in there. Reboot to
regular mode and run the scans again. This isn't going to be quick or easy
but it might just solve your problems and it should prevent you from further
problems so long as you keep them updated and scan often. Most of them can
be enabled to update and scan automatically.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

You'll be interested to know that I have had the same kind of problem since
installing BigPond Assist. I find that since I run an older computer it will
take ages to log on. My processor is always running at 100% at these times
and the drop down windows in my scanner software have the same problem if the
computer is processing logon scripts/programs. But normally it will clear up
after a while. Definitely check for nasties, I have found none running
Norton Antivirus/Firewall, MS Antispyware, SpyBot and Ad-Aware. The control
panel question sounds more serious. Does it have the same problem for other
user logons?
Damo

"Tim" wrote:

Recently, comp randomly 'freezes' for a minute or so at a time, then returns
to normal. Ctrl/Alt/Del reveals procesor usage approaching 100% at these
times. Can happen when running any application.

Second problem. When accessing control panel from 'Start', it crashes, the
desktop clears and then re-populates itself with icons. This does not happen
when accessed from double click on 'My Computer'

Third problem (maybe related). Dropdown menus no longer appear, eg when
right clicking on IE Explorer Icon to get to properties. The outline of the
drop down box appears, and if the mouse cursor is hovered over the
appropriate area, the menu options appear, and when clicked they still work.

I will try this, thanks Galen. I am fully firewalled and so on with McAffey
Security, but have always had my suspicions that it misses spyware, as it
rarely updates the spyware definitions.

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Recently, comp randomly 'freezes' for a minute or so at a time, then
returns to normal. Ctrl/Alt/Del reveals procesor usage approaching
100% at these times. Can happen when running any application.

Second problem. When accessing control panel from 'Start', it
crashes, the desktop clears and then re-populates itself with icons.
This does not happen when accessed from double click on 'My Computer'

Third problem (maybe related). Dropdown menus no longer appear, eg
when right clicking on IE Explorer Icon to get to properties. The
outline of the drop down box appears, and if the mouse cursor is
hovered over the appropriate area, the menu options appear, and when
clicked they still work.

This is so generic a problem, or list of problems, that I'm going to give
you the malware solution first and see if that helps. Start with this, it's
not quick nor easy, and see if you still have problems. Keep in mind that
just because you may already have some of these applications doesn't mean
that they're always right. When in doubt get a second opinion in other
words. Also pay attention to the scanning in safe mode bit.

Virus:
www.grisoft.com - AVG
www.antivir.com - AntiVir
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/index.cfm - CA eTrust

Spywa
www.lavasoft.de - AdAware
http://security.kolla.de/ - Spybot
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx -
Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta

Trojan:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ - a Squared
http://swatit.org/ Swat It

Before cleaning download this:

LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Use that should cleaning out your PC remove or damage your in-place winsock
and you can't connect to the internet.

From the virus and trojan category pick one application, they're all free,
download it and install it. Make sure that you update it. From the spyware
category pick all three, download them and update them to the latest
definitions. Reboot, press the F8 key over and over again, from the menu
select Safe mode without networking. Do your cleaning in there. Reboot to
regular mode and run the scans again. This isn't going to be quick or easy
but it might just solve your problems and it should prevent you from further
problems so long as you keep them updated and scan often. Most of them can
be enabled to update and scan automatically.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

I don't have Big Pond. See also response to Galen. I once had similar right
click problems before which were related to a version of DIVX which was
incompatible with SP2. The solution was to remove it and clean references to
DIVX from the registry. Is your version of Big Pond OK for SP2?

"Damo" wrote:

You'll be interested to know that I have had the same kind of problem since
installing BigPond Assist. I find that since I run an older computer it will
take ages to log on. My processor is always running at 100% at these times
and the drop down windows in my scanner software have the same problem if the
computer is processing logon scripts/programs. But normally it will clear up
after a while. Definitely check for nasties, I have found none running
Norton Antivirus/Firewall, MS Antispyware, SpyBot and Ad-Aware. The control
panel question sounds more serious. Does it have the same problem for other
user logons?
Damo

"Tim" wrote:

Recently, comp randomly 'freezes' for a minute or so at a time, then returns
to normal. Ctrl/Alt/Del reveals procesor usage approaching 100% at these
times. Can happen when running any application.

Second problem. When accessing control panel from 'Start', it crashes, the
desktop clears and then re-populates itself with icons. This does not happen
when accessed from double click on 'My Computer'

Third problem (maybe related). Dropdown menus no longer appear, eg when
right clicking on IE Explorer Icon to get to properties. The outline of the
drop down box appears, and if the mouse cursor is hovered over the
appropriate area, the menu options appear, and when clicked they still work.

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I will try this, thanks Galen. I am fully firewalled and so on with
McAffey Security, but have always had my suspicions that it misses
spyware, as it rarely updates the spyware definitions.

In that case I'd definately take a look for potential spyware issues. Have
you noticed any odd tasks running? Complex malware is capable of running
hidden from view or even bonding with a system file such as explorer.exe
making it hard to detect and the problems that you're relating are
potentially due to something of that sort. Another idea could be that things
have just finally become corrupted and you may simply need to run sfc
/scannow to replace any corrupted files from the system.

Are these problems suddenly occuring? McAfee recently had a problem with one
of it's updates. That could be an issue. Does the problem still occur if
McAfee is shut down? Are you doing anything specific when this happens? In
other words, can you recreate this at will?

It has also occured to me that when you're pressing the Start button (no
lie, I was recently asked where the start button was while in the Microsoft
chat) you mentioned that it's crashing. In other words explorer.exe is
forced to close and re-opens itself. Is there anything written to the event
log after this? I've usually set my PC up to run the desktop explorer as a
separate process and that's often been a great help for such things. The
additional resource usage is minimal (around 8 MB or so I think) and the
benefits are worth it. If you want to try it then this would be the method:


1.. Open the registry editor (Start Run type "regedit" without the
quotes press Enter or click okay)
2.. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer.
3.. From the Edit menu, select New-DWORD Value.
4.. Enter a name of DesktopProcess, and press Enter.
5.. Double-click the new value, set it to 1, and click OK.
6.. Restart your computer.
Keep in mind that editing the registry is considered dangerous and could
have negative results.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

Galen

I have now attempted the recommendations from your first response. There
were a couple of trojans and quite a bit of adware that McAfee had missed.
One thing I am wondering is whether McAfee actually searches comprehensively,
or only in the files for the user that is logged in. I had to re-run one of
the adware progs you suggested as each user to catch everything, even though
I am the administrator.

Problems with the control panel and drop down menus appear to have cleared
up, but not sure if this is as a result of what I have done, or 'just one of
those things'.

Problem with locking up still occurs. In answer to your second response,
this occurs randomly and I have not been able to associate it with any
particular action on my part, so I can't re-create it.

It is a recent thing, so maybe McAfee is responsible - I have had problems
with it before! Have two machines and other one is fine, though.

Your comments re IE Explorer are interesting. That does do some odd things,
for example on both my machines I get a script error message every time
Messenger opens up. I wouldn't recognise an 'odd' task from a normal one, as
I don't know what most of them are doing anyway!

As for the Start button thing , I think you misunderstood me. That related
to the now apparently solved control panel thing when I accessed control
panel via the start button. Explorer didn''t crash until I opened or did
something with the control panel. Accessing control panel another way, e.g.
by double clicking 'my computer' worked fine.

Will try sfc/scannow (from Run, I assume) and see if that has any effect.

Another issue which may be related to the problem; When I log on,
everything proceeds fine up to a point and then the system hangs, giving me
a wait timer if I move the cursor into the lower task bar area. After a
while, this clears up, the desktop refreshes itself and things are back to
nornal. Maybe that is simply an example of the locking up which I can
reproduce!

Regards, Tim

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I will try this, thanks Galen. I am fully firewalled and so on with
McAffey Security, but have always had my suspicions that it misses
spyware, as it rarely updates the spyware definitions.

In that case I'd definately take a look for potential spyware issues. Have
you noticed any odd tasks running? Complex malware is capable of running
hidden from view or even bonding with a system file such as explorer.exe
making it hard to detect and the problems that you're relating are
potentially due to something of that sort. Another idea could be that things
have just finally become corrupted and you may simply need to run sfc
/scannow to replace any corrupted files from the system.

Are these problems suddenly occuring? McAfee recently had a problem with one
of it's updates. That could be an issue. Does the problem still occur if
McAfee is shut down? Are you doing anything specific when this happens? In
other words, can you recreate this at will?

It has also occured to me that when you're pressing the Start button (no
lie, I was recently asked where the start button was while in the Microsoft
chat) you mentioned that it's crashing. In other words explorer.exe is
forced to close and re-opens itself. Is there anything written to the event
log after this? I've usually set my PC up to run the desktop explorer as a
separate process and that's often been a great help for such things. The
additional resource usage is minimal (around 8 MB or so I think) and the
benefits are worth it. If you want to try it then this would be the method:


1.. Open the registry editor (Start Run type "regedit" without the
quotes press Enter or click okay)
2.. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer.
3.. From the Edit menu, select New-DWORD Value.
4.. Enter a name of DesktopProcess, and press Enter.
5.. Double-click the new value, set it to 1, and click OK.
6.. Restart your computer.
Keep in mind that editing the registry is considered dangerous and could
have negative results.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Galen

I have now attempted the recommendations from your first response.
There were a couple of trojans and quite a bit of adware that McAfee
had missed. One thing I am wondering is whether McAfee actually
searches comprehensively, or only in the files for the user that is
logged in. I had to re-run one of the adware progs you suggested as
each user to catch everything, even though I am the administrator.

Problems with the control panel and drop down menus appear to have
cleared up, but not sure if this is as a result of what I have done,
or 'just one of those things'.

Problem with locking up still occurs. In answer to your second
response, this occurs randomly and I have not been able to associate
it with any particular action on my part, so I can't re-create it.

It is a recent thing, so maybe McAfee is responsible - I have had
problems with it before! Have two machines and other one is fine,
though.

Your comments re IE Explorer are interesting. That does do some odd
things, for example on both my machines I get a script error message
every time Messenger opens up. I wouldn't recognise an 'odd' task
from a normal one, as I don't know what most of them are doing anyway!

As for the Start button thing , I think you misunderstood me. That
related to the now apparently solved control panel thing when I
accessed control panel via the start button. Explorer didn''t crash
until I opened or did something with the control panel. Accessing
control panel another way, e.g. by double clicking 'my computer'
worked fine.

Will try sfc/scannow (from Run, I assume) and see if that has any
effect.

Another issue which may be related to the problem; When I log on,
everything proceeds fine up to a point and then the system hangs,
giving me a wait timer if I move the cursor into the lower task bar
area. After a while, this clears up, the desktop refreshes itself
and things are back to nornal. Maybe that is simply an example of
the locking up which I can reproduce!

Regards, Tim

I'm not at all amazed that your system had been infected and as a reminder
no one application contains all the definitions for all the malware out
there... It's often good to get a second opinion and all of the tools listed
in the other post were free and reputable. The general symptoms listed by
you implied to me that malware of some type was the most likely problem.
Another issue is that removing malware isn't always going to repair a system
completely and sometimes the removal of the infected files isn't complete
which is why it's always best to do so in safe mode but that's not always
going to work these days. Malware authors are getting more and more clever
all the time it seems. I don't suppose you know the specific names of the
infections? After rebooting into normal mode (you did scan in safe mode
right?) did you scan again to make sure that your system was clean? (Don't
worry about files that are listed as infected that are contained in the
restore folders, you can clean those up later and unless you actually use
the restore option then there's no worries about them infecting you or
causing any problems.)

The tweak/regedit was not for IE (and didn't do anything to it) but is,
rather, for Windows Explorer and basically sets it to run in a separate
memory process. It's usually quite effective at making the system more
stable. It'd be most effective at preventing the explorer process from
crashing completely. After having applied this are you still crashing when
you open a control panel applet? Do you get a specific error or does it just
plain crash and give you no warning? Also, does it still give you this error
when you try to open it in safe mode? You can check for errors by typing
"eventvwr.msc" into the run box in the start menu (without the quotes of
course) and looking for system errors right after a crash.

Yes, it's Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the quotes to tell system
file checker to check the files on your hard drive against those which are
on your system. It will ask for the CD during the scan but will get any
additional files from the updated files saved on your computer after having
been to the updates site.

From the sounds of things the system is still infected or still suffering
effects from an infection. Both of those options are quite capable of being
the case. After you've checked the system files let me know if you're still
having problems and we'll see what we can do from there.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Galen

I have now attempted the recommendations from your first response.
There were a couple of trojans and quite a bit of adware that McAfee
had missed. One thing I am wondering is whether McAfee actually
searches comprehensively, or only in the files for the user that is
logged in. I had to re-run one of the adware progs you suggested as
each user to catch everything, even though I am the administrator.

Problems with the control panel and drop down menus appear to have
cleared up, but not sure if this is as a result of what I have done,
or 'just one of those things'.

Problem with locking up still occurs. In answer to your second
response, this occurs randomly and I have not been able to associate
it with any particular action on my part, so I can't re-create it.

It is a recent thing, so maybe McAfee is responsible - I have had
problems with it before! Have two machines and other one is fine,
though.

Your comments re IE Explorer are interesting. That does do some odd
things, for example on both my machines I get a script error message
every time Messenger opens up. I wouldn't recognise an 'odd' task
from a normal one, as I don't know what most of them are doing anyway!

As for the Start button thing , I think you misunderstood me. That
related to the now apparently solved control panel thing when I
accessed control panel via the start button. Explorer didn''t crash
until I opened or did something with the control panel. Accessing
control panel another way, e.g. by double clicking 'my computer'
worked fine.

Will try sfc/scannow (from Run, I assume) and see if that has any
effect.

Another issue which may be related to the problem; When I log on,
everything proceeds fine up to a point and then the system hangs,
giving me a wait timer if I move the cursor into the lower task bar
area. After a while, this clears up, the desktop refreshes itself
and things are back to nornal. Maybe that is simply an example of
the locking up which I can reproduce!

Regards, Tim

I'm not at all amazed that your system had been infected and as a reminder
no one application contains all the definitions for all the malware out
there... It's often good to get a second opinion and all of the tools listed
in the other post were free and reputable. The general symptoms listed by
you implied to me that malware of some type was the most likely problem.
Another issue is that removing malware isn't always going to repair a system
completely and sometimes the removal of the infected files isn't complete
which is why it's always best to do so in safe mode but that's not always
going to work these days. Malware authors are getting more and more clever
all the time it seems. I don't suppose you know the specific names of the
infections? After rebooting into normal mode (you did scan in safe mode
right?) did you scan again to make sure that your system was clean? (Don't
worry about files that are listed as infected that are contained in the
restore folders, you can clean those up later and unless you actually use
the restore option then there's no worries about them infecting you or
causing any problems.)

The tweak/regedit was not for IE (and didn't do anything to it) but is,
rather, for Windows Explorer and basically sets it to run in a separate
memory process. It's usually quite effective at making the system more
stable. It'd be most effective at preventing the explorer process from
crashing completely. After having applied this are you still crashing when
you open a control panel applet? Do you get a specific error or does it just
plain crash and give you no warning? Also, does it still give you this error
when you try to open it in safe mode? You can check for errors by typing
"eventvwr.msc" into the run box in the start menu (without the quotes of
course) and looking for system errors right after a crash.

Yes, it's Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the quotes to tell system
file checker to check the files on your hard drive against those which are
on your system. It will ask for the CD during the scan but will get any
additional files from the updated files saved on your computer after having
been to the updates site.

From the sounds of things the system is still infected or still suffering
effects from an infection. Both of those options are quite capable of being
the case. After you've checked the system files let me know if you're still
having problems and we'll see what we can do from there.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

I can't run sfc. All I get is a dos window for a fraction of a second, then
nothing.

One other clue. I tried an experiment and unplugged the LAN connection.
The locking up problem appeared to go away. Any thoughts?

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Galen

I have now attempted the recommendations from your first response.
There were a couple of trojans and quite a bit of adware that McAfee
had missed. One thing I am wondering is whether McAfee actually
searches comprehensively, or only in the files for the user that is
logged in. I had to re-run one of the adware progs you suggested as
each user to catch everything, even though I am the administrator.

Problems with the control panel and drop down menus appear to have
cleared up, but not sure if this is as a result of what I have done,
or 'just one of those things'.

Problem with locking up still occurs. In answer to your second
response, this occurs randomly and I have not been able to associate
it with any particular action on my part, so I can't re-create it.

It is a recent thing, so maybe McAfee is responsible - I have had
problems with it before! Have two machines and other one is fine,
though.

Your comments re IE Explorer are interesting. That does do some odd
things, for example on both my machines I get a script error message
every time Messenger opens up. I wouldn't recognise an 'odd' task
from a normal one, as I don't know what most of them are doing anyway!

As for the Start button thing , I think you misunderstood me. That
related to the now apparently solved control panel thing when I
accessed control panel via the start button. Explorer didn''t crash
until I opened or did something with the control panel. Accessing
control panel another way, e.g. by double clicking 'my computer'
worked fine.

Will try sfc/scannow (from Run, I assume) and see if that has any
effect.

Another issue which may be related to the problem; When I log on,
everything proceeds fine up to a point and then the system hangs,
giving me a wait timer if I move the cursor into the lower task bar
area. After a while, this clears up, the desktop refreshes itself
and things are back to nornal. Maybe that is simply an example of
the locking up which I can reproduce!

Regards, Tim

I'm not at all amazed that your system had been infected and as a reminder
no one application contains all the definitions for all the malware out
there... It's often good to get a second opinion and all of the tools listed
in the other post were free and reputable. The general symptoms listed by
you implied to me that malware of some type was the most likely problem.
Another issue is that removing malware isn't always going to repair a system
completely and sometimes the removal of the infected files isn't complete
which is why it's always best to do so in safe mode but that's not always
going to work these days. Malware authors are getting more and more clever
all the time it seems. I don't suppose you know the specific names of the
infections? After rebooting into normal mode (you did scan in safe mode
right?) did you scan again to make sure that your system was clean? (Don't
worry about files that are listed as infected that are contained in the
restore folders, you can clean those up later and unless you actually use
the restore option then there's no worries about them infecting you or
causing any problems.)

The tweak/regedit was not for IE (and didn't do anything to it) but is,
rather, for Windows Explorer and basically sets it to run in a separate
memory process. It's usually quite effective at making the system more
stable. It'd be most effective at preventing the explorer process from
crashing completely. After having applied this are you still crashing when
you open a control panel applet? Do you get a specific error or does it just
plain crash and give you no warning? Also, does it still give you this error
when you try to open it in safe mode? You can check for errors by typing
"eventvwr.msc" into the run box in the start menu (without the quotes of
course) and looking for system errors right after a crash.

Yes, it's Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the quotes to tell system
file checker to check the files on your hard drive against those which are
on your system. It will ask for the CD during the scan but will get any
additional files from the updated files saved on your computer after having
been to the updates site.

From the sounds of things the system is still infected or still suffering
effects from an infection. Both of those options are quite capable of being
the case. After you've checked the system files let me know if you're still
having problems and we'll see what we can do from there.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I can't run sfc. All I get is a dos window for a fraction of a
second, then nothing.

One other clue. I tried an experiment and unplugged the LAN
connection. The locking up problem appeared to go away. Any thoughts?

Curiouser and curiouser... (I'm glad that you've not lost this thread in the
web interface by the way.)

Okay, let's start with the basics. Do you have a firewall installed and
properly configured? Here's a decent site that you can go to and check to
see how well it's configured:

Security Scan - Sygate Online Services (sos):
http://scan.sygatetech.com/

You mentioned that you unplugged the LAN and the freezing stopped. How is
the LAN connected to your computer? Is it USB? Often times people will have
problems with USB to broadband connections which is why I ask. The simple
solution at that point would be to heading down to your local department
store and grabbing a simple 10/100 Ethernet Card and tossing it into your
computer though you may wish to grab a straight cable while you're there if
you don't already own one.

Not being able to run system file check implies, to me, that there's been a
serious compromize to your system and that there's still a possibility of
you being infected with malware or even the removal process has rendered
parts of your system unusable. Seeing as you're probably on a broadband
connection (most dial-up users don't actually use a LAN to connect to the
internet though I suppose some still do. Err... Wait... I do! But I'm pretty
much unique in that and couldn't get broadband here if I wanted to yet with
the exception of satellite connections with fair usage policies I'm not
willing to subject myself to.) This leads me to a new question, can you use
the command (it's just like this) Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the
quotes in safe mode without networking? If you can then that tells us that
there's a file loaded in your system that's still preventing you from using
your system effectively. That would then mean that a trip to HijackThis
forums would be your next best bet. (Those forums don't go here, instead
look here for more information:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30 and take a gander as there's too
much to cover in here.)

Let's see what happens with that next. Sometimes after cleaning up a PC that
has been infected with malware and there's still portions of the system that
won't run (like your system file checker at this point) you need to do a
repair installation which only means that you'll lose your updates but
you'll still have your files and your applications installed. In this case
I'd recommend using HijackThis to create a log and posting it (be sure to
follow the rules for posting the logs) at the above forum. It's free and a
nice site owned by one of the MVPs and visited by many of the other MVPs.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

Another twist, I'm afraid.

I suspect my firewall may be the root cause of the problem, as I get a
windows no disk in drive warning when I try to do some things with it. While
trying to sort this problem out with McAfey help chatline, they asked me to
search for a particular file. I don't use search much, but on accessing it
from 'Start', it ran for a while then crashed explorer. It does that every
time. It appears to work Ok when I access search from a 'My Computer' icon
right click, however. So it points to soemthing odd with the 'Start' button,
the same as the control panel problem, which has now re-surfaced.

I already use ethernet.

I will try what you suggest.

Unfortunately, the repair option is not available to me. I have no disk for
windows - it is all pre-loaded in an 'invisible' disk partition, and the
bloody disk I paid extra for to re-load the software doesn't work!!

I refuse to send the machine back to Time with the expense that would incur.

May end up trotting down to PC World and getting them to check it out!

Cheers!

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I can't run sfc. All I get is a dos window for a fraction of a
second, then nothing.

One other clue. I tried an experiment and unplugged the LAN
connection. The locking up problem appeared to go away. Any thoughts?

Curiouser and curiouser... (I'm glad that you've not lost this thread in the
web interface by the way.)

Okay, let's start with the basics. Do you have a firewall installed and
properly configured? Here's a decent site that you can go to and check to
see how well it's configured:

Security Scan - Sygate Online Services (sos):
http://scan.sygatetech.com/

You mentioned that you unplugged the LAN and the freezing stopped. How is
the LAN connected to your computer? Is it USB? Often times people will have
problems with USB to broadband connections which is why I ask. The simple
solution at that point would be to heading down to your local department
store and grabbing a simple 10/100 Ethernet Card and tossing it into your
computer though you may wish to grab a straight cable while you're there if
you don't already own one.

Not being able to run system file check implies, to me, that there's been a
serious compromize to your system and that there's still a possibility of
you being infected with malware or even the removal process has rendered
parts of your system unusable. Seeing as you're probably on a broadband
connection (most dial-up users don't actually use a LAN to connect to the
internet though I suppose some still do. Err... Wait... I do! But I'm pretty
much unique in that and couldn't get broadband here if I wanted to yet with
the exception of satellite connections with fair usage policies I'm not
willing to subject myself to.) This leads me to a new question, can you use
the command (it's just like this) Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the
quotes in safe mode without networking? If you can then that tells us that
there's a file loaded in your system that's still preventing you from using
your system effectively. That would then mean that a trip to HijackThis
forums would be your next best bet. (Those forums don't go here, instead
look here for more information:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30 and take a gander as there's too
much to cover in here.)

Let's see what happens with that next. Sometimes after cleaning up a PC that
has been infected with malware and there's still portions of the system that
won't run (like your system file checker at this point) you need to do a
repair installation which only means that you'll lose your updates but
you'll still have your files and your applications installed. In this case
I'd recommend using HijackThis to create a log and posting it (be sure to
follow the rules for posting the logs) at the above forum. It's free and a
nice site owned by one of the MVPs and visited by many of the other MVPs.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

Me again!

I have subsequently got McAffey firewall sorted out and solved it's
problems. Can't run sfc at all. Search seemed ok in safe mode. When I get
a search failure it gives an IE Explorer has encountered an error warning and
crashes Windows explorer when you click OK. W Exp then recovers.

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I can't run sfc. All I get is a dos window for a fraction of a
second, then nothing.

One other clue. I tried an experiment and unplugged the LAN
connection. The locking up problem appeared to go away. Any thoughts?

Curiouser and curiouser... (I'm glad that you've not lost this thread in the
web interface by the way.)

Okay, let's start with the basics. Do you have a firewall installed and
properly configured? Here's a decent site that you can go to and check to
see how well it's configured:

Security Scan - Sygate Online Services (sos):
http://scan.sygatetech.com/

You mentioned that you unplugged the LAN and the freezing stopped. How is
the LAN connected to your computer? Is it USB? Often times people will have
problems with USB to broadband connections which is why I ask. The simple
solution at that point would be to heading down to your local department
store and grabbing a simple 10/100 Ethernet Card and tossing it into your
computer though you may wish to grab a straight cable while you're there if
you don't already own one.

Not being able to run system file check implies, to me, that there's been a
serious compromize to your system and that there's still a possibility of
you being infected with malware or even the removal process has rendered
parts of your system unusable. Seeing as you're probably on a broadband
connection (most dial-up users don't actually use a LAN to connect to the
internet though I suppose some still do. Err... Wait... I do! But I'm pretty
much unique in that and couldn't get broadband here if I wanted to yet with
the exception of satellite connections with fair usage policies I'm not
willing to subject myself to.) This leads me to a new question, can you use
the command (it's just like this) Start Run "sfc /scannow" without the
quotes in safe mode without networking? If you can then that tells us that
there's a file loaded in your system that's still preventing you from using
your system effectively. That would then mean that a trip to HijackThis
forums would be your next best bet. (Those forums don't go here, instead
look here for more information:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30 and take a gander as there's too
much to cover in here.)

Let's see what happens with that next. Sometimes after cleaning up a PC that
has been infected with malware and there's still portions of the system that
won't run (like your system file checker at this point) you need to do a
repair installation which only means that you'll lose your updates but
you'll still have your files and your applications installed. In this case
I'd recommend using HijackThis to create a log and posting it (be sure to
follow the rules for posting the logs) at the above forum. It's free and a
nice site owned by one of the MVPs and visited by many of the other MVPs.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Me again!

I have subsequently got McAffey firewall sorted out and solved it's
problems. Can't run sfc at all. Search seemed ok in safe mode.
When I get a search failure it gives an IE Explorer has encountered
an error warning and crashes Windows explorer when you click OK. W
Exp then recovers.

Let's play a hunch here. When you scan with McAfee you come up clean? Have
you taken a peek at HijackThis and looked for out-of-the-ordinary files? No
worries if you don't know if they're normal or not, you can always post a
perfectly fine log at the forum I gave you a link to earlier. If your PC is
coming back clean then it might be that just some system files have either
been deleted in the process of cleaning or by the malware itself and it can
be fixed with a repair installation of the OS. This is simple and usually
goes quite well but it's still best to back up any important data before
testing it. I'd go ahead and submit your HijackThis log to the forum first
and wait a day or so to see if anyone will spot anything that could be your
problem. You could also try a free version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) in
it's trial period or use one of their beta products for free. (I'm not too
sure how well this one works but:
http://www.kaspersky.com/beta?product=161744315 is there if you want to give
it a shot.)

The alternative is a repair installation which, again, means that you'd
repair the current installation of the OS and afterwards you'd need to
download your Windows updates all over again. These are the directions for
doing so:

How to perform an inplace upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315341

You might also want to take a look at this:

XP Surviving the first day
http://www.sans.org/rr/whitepapers/windows/1298.php

And this too... g:

What to Know Before You Download and Install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/s...hattoknow.mspx

As you will probably want to get SP2 installed rather quickly it's a good
idea to make sure that you've read those first.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

OK.

One thing, though. Out of curiosity today at work, I tried the RUN sfc /
scannow and got exactly the same response as I get at home. A quick flash of
a black DOS style window.

So, either there is some mistake in the command, or alternatively there are
some administrator priviliges set up on the work machine which stop the
command working, or the commands have somehow been removed as part of the
set-up. Is it possible that my administrator settings have somehow got
screwed up here at home to give a similar effect?

FYI, I removed and reinstalled SP2 yesterday and follwed Microsoft's advice
to check for spyware, using their suggested software. It found over one
hundred!! And in the process McAfee found another virus too. None of this
has cleared up the problems, though.

I'm still fairly sure the freezing is in some way connected with internet
activity, or inactivity.

Cheers

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Tim had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Me again!

I have subsequently got McAffey firewall sorted out and solved it's
problems. Can't run sfc at all. Search seemed ok in safe mode.
When I get a search failure it gives an IE Explorer has encountered
an error warning and crashes Windows explorer when you click OK. W
Exp then recovers.

Let's play a hunch here. When you scan with McAfee you come up clean? Have
you taken a peek at HijackThis and looked for out-of-the-ordinary files? No
worries if you don't know if they're normal or not, you can always post a
perfectly fine log at the forum I gave you a link to earlier. If your PC is
coming back clean then it might be that just some system files have either
been deleted in the process of cleaning or by the malware itself and it can
be fixed with a repair installation of the OS. This is simple and usually
goes quite well but it's still best to back up any important data before
testing it. I'd go ahead and submit your HijackThis log to the forum first
and wait a day or so to see if anyone will spot anything that could be your
problem. You could also try a free version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) in
it's trial period or use one of their beta products for free. (I'm not too
sure how well this one works but:
http://www.kaspersky.com/beta?product=161744315 is there if you want to give
it a shot.)

The alternative is a repair installation which, again, means that you'd
repair the current installation of the OS and afterwards you'd need to
download your Windows updates all over again. These are the directions for
doing so:

How to perform an inplace upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315341

You might also want to take a look at this:

XP Surviving the first day
http://www.sans.org/rr/whitepapers/windows/1298.php

And this too... g:

What to Know Before You Download and Install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/s...hattoknow.mspx

As you will probably want to get SP2 installed rather quickly it's a good
idea to make sure that you've read those first.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes