Computer SHutting Down Suddenly, Not A Power Issue

Hi. I was referred to the Software Forum by Kestrel13!. First of all, I should begin by saying that I am going blind (cataracts, left eye is completely blind, and the right one is almost), so it is hard for me to read lists. Thus I do not know if this topic has been covered here before. If it has, I apologize perhaps someone can point me at the thread I can try to read.

My thread in Malware was this: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1868984

To quote my initial letter: Hi. My computer has a problem, and I hope someone can help. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate. I reinstalled it a week or two ago, and am not sure if it has managed to acquire all of the updates (due to the problem I will discuss below).

About 6 weeks ago my computer installed an automatic update from Mozilla Firefox. (That is what the update notice said, but I wonder if it was not some sort of malware attack pretending to be Mozilla.) From that time the computer started acting strangly. (I went into Mozilla's forum, but the best I could get from anyone there was that the update might be exacerbating a malware-induced situation, but the symptoms do not ring a bell with anyone. They said that the malware should not have come from an authentic update, but, as I said, it updated itself spontaneously, without asking me to update it.)

First Firefox started freezing (screen goes white and everything stops) and/or crashing/shutting down. Then it progressed to the computer itself. The computer started shutting down without warning and for no reason. (CPU was not abnormal, and I have not added any new hardware or software, or changed any settings.)

Recently the shutting down has gotten so bad that it does not stay up long enough for me to check the MajorGeeks archives.

The first thing I thought to do was run the various virus/malware scans (I have Avast, Malwarebytes, Spybot, and Super, and also there is a McAffie quick scan, and also downloaded Dr. Web), but it shuts down before these scans can finish.

Running a Boottime scan (which Avast provides) is also impossible -- it shuts down before the scan finishes.

Entering safe mode and trying to scan is impossible, because it shuts down before any scan can run.

I thought it might be a power issue, so I replaced the power yesterday, but nothing changed.

This shutting down has already destroyed the old C drive, and an external hard drive ("My Book").

I have tried everything I can think of, but nothing works, and, as I said, I am not able to run any kind of scan. Also, I am going blind (cataracts), so it is difficult for me to read long articles. Since the replacement of the power did nothing, I am pretty sure it must be some kind of malware issue.

Can anyone suggest anything I might try? With simple instructions of what to do, please -- as I said, I am not able to see well.

I am sorry if this kind of issue has already been discussed, but I am not able to search the archives. I am composing this on an old laptop that is not able to access the internet (so I can quickly copy and paste it into a new thread). I do not have access to any other computer, and live so far out in the Styx that there are not even any places I can go to where I could rent a computer. (The maximum length of time that this machine stays up is maybe 15 minutes, but sometimes it shuts down in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes; there is no pattern, and nothing that I can see to blame the behavior on.)

Any help or suggestions would be very, very much appreciated. Thank you all for your time. Please have a good day....

-- Daniel M. Burkus

Oh, one other possible symptom: when I shut the computer down, or it shuts down itself, rather than the monitor going black, it shows patterns and colors, and a little red box moving around that says "burning". This started about the same time as the other problems.

 

Do you think it would be better just to take the hard drive out, attach it to my laptop (which is also running Windows 7 Ultimate) and reformat the thing, and start all over?

-- Daniel M. Burkus

 

IMO you are not 100% sure the drive has no evil stuff hiding, that make me say don't hook it to your laptop. What I do in these circumstances is go the drive manufacturers site and down load their program that writes -0- s to the drive. That is better than a standard format.

Phil

 

Thank you very much, Phil. The drive is a Samsung SP2504C ATA Device. The machine is shutting down repeatedly, and when it does I need to wait hours before I can turn it on and get it to stay running long enough to do anything (if I just restart, it shuts down in seconds, sometimes after booting, sometimes while booting).

Sorry, I have no idea what that kind of program might be called (looking at Samsung's site, and what I can find on the internet). Do you have a program name I can search for?

Thank you, again. Have a good day.

-- Daniel M. Burkus

 

Samsung was acquired by Seagate I would use Sea Tools from Seagate, you will need to down load it from here: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-win-master/ Read the users guide: http://www.seagate.com/files/www-co...seatools/en-us/seatools-for-windows-en-us.pdf

 

Thank you, Phil. Please have a good day.

-- Daniel M. Burkus

 

d_m_burks...

If you can keep the computer running long enough to try, maybe a chkdsk will finish. To start the chkdsk in W7:

Open the "Computer" window
Right-click on the drive in question
Select the "Tools" tab
In the Error-checking area, click <Check Now>.
Check both check boxes and click Start

good luck...

 

Hi, and thank you. After 6+ weeks of this, I finally gave up. Since I had reinstalled windows a week or so ago, there was really nothing on the hard drive that I needed to save, so.... Someone suggested Darik's Boot and Nuke, and I downloaded that and ran it this morning. After running about an hour, the computer shut down. So I started it again. And again, and again. You get the picture -- all day. And apparently each time it ate away a little bit more at whatever it was, and finally, by 8:30 PM this evening, the program was able to run to completion. Clean hard drive. So I reinstalled windows and am in the process of installing anti-virus, spybot, malwarebytes, super antispyware, cc-cleaner, and then the programs I need for my translations. The machine is running so nice now, I am almost forgetting the mess it has been in for the past while.

Phil suggested the SeaTools program, but that was not able to even set up before the machine went down. Still, it is probably a good program to keep in my bag of tricks, in case.... Anyway, he got me thinking, and that lead to Darik's Boot and Nuke, and that program appears to have saved the day.

Thank you, anyway, to the people here in Software, and those in Malware, who took the time to write and offer me some help.

Next up is my laptop -- an ASUS laptop with Japanese interface that is driving me insane. And the user manual is totally...useless. Totally. And (probably because of some ASUS bs) it cannot connect to the internet. Is this the forum where such issues are dealt with?

Anyway, that is for another day. I want to get the PC up and running first. And when I am sure it is really "cured" I will start on the ASUS. Something tells me that Darik is going to be needed there, too.

Thank you all, once again. Please have a great week, everyone!

-- Daniel M. Burkus