Ad-watch detects something Ad-aware can't find?

Ok, I start my computer and Ad-watch pops up with this:
Harmful process identified
(object found in memory)
object: svchost.exe
Says its a data miner by the company Search2020
Ok, thats cool. I ran Ad-aware and it didn't find anything (deep scan). Recently my computer has been rebooting on its own. Just playing a game and it reboots. Would someone be kind enough to help me out?

Windows XP
1.2 GIG processor
256 RAM

 

Google svchost.exe & see what you come up with.

 

Do a search on your hard drive, make sure you include the search hidden files and folders option.
Look for svchost it should only be found in C:\WINDOWS\system32 if there are instances elsewhere then its more than likely a rogue process

Let us know what you come up with

 

Hey Robo, I've been waiting to find out what happened to Ahfooy & didn't want to jump in but he hasn't answered yet. I found svchost.exe-3530F672.pf in my windows prefetch file. From what I've read, svchost.exe should only be in my windows system32 file. Do you know if I can safely delete this? I'm running XP Pro.

 

Hi Muskybob
thats perfectly ok to have an instance of svhost.exe in your prefetch folder, thats my bad for omitting that
I didnt really think about it as i clean out my prefetch folder every week using this app
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2495

 

Thanks for the reply General. Is that app user friendly?

 

Just a one page interface, as user friendly as you can get i have it set to the reccomended setting of monitoring boot file launch
And on my once a week clean up i flush out the folder, do this in just one click

 

It Worked!!!

Thanks, I'll try it.

Gonzo, Nada, Zilch!!! Everything that WAS in there is nowhere to be found. Thanks General!!!

 

Weird... I just typed a bunch and it just earsed everything. Anyhoo. I searched, just one svchost in system32. Google searched and followed advice for welchia worm scan/removal (nothing). Safe mode, virus scan and spyware check. Nothing. Played chess (lost). Adwatch still says theres a problem with it. Oh, I selected startup in easy clean while in safe mode. Found a couple things in red and got rid of them. Now what?

 

Well that seems a bit wierd, maybe a false positive im not too familiar with adwatch so maybe someone else can jump in

Are you still getting random reboots, if so right click My Computer and select properties,then the advanced tab, then the start up settings and uncheck the auto restart box and check the box write an event to the system log, apply and ok

Now if the system crashes you should get a Blue screen with details of your problem post back with as much info as possible

You can also check your event viewer for details of any errors
Start-run-Type eventvwr.msc-ok
Again post back with any relevant information