Os, task manager and programs not working

Computer malfunction 7-16-11:

Not positive of sequence of events.

1. Programs disappeared from the start menu

2. Task Manager disabled

3. Administrative tools --- gone.

4. Desktop icons --- gone

5. The desktop would not clear off after closing window.

6. Could not shut down computer, had to pull electric cord.


For clarification:

original unit = Shuttle, Running Win Xp SP2, 512 MG RAM

Secondary unit = GW, Running Win Xp sp2 (this is fresh install and upgrade from XP Home), 384 MG RAM,

recently added 1TB drive. Browser = Mozilla Firefox


When this problem began, on the Shuttle machine, I was in a forum and had just responded to a pm and gone back to reading a thread, briefly, as the unit did either a shutdown or reboot. Since the unit was totally unresponsive, I pulled the hard drive and put it into the GW as a slave, in order to move data files off of it and onto the 1TB.

NOTE: ALL tests have been run on the GW unit. Internet activity has been limited to basics --MajorGeeks & CNet.

Something was found and quarantined (CUZ 134).

GOAL: To have a clean machine and to run FDISK on the Slave drive, that has at least a portion of an OS on it. And to put that slave drive back into the Shuttle box, probably as the C:| drive.

I don't know what you call this, but to me it's a MAJOR HEADACHE. Please help. Logs attached.

 

For last attachment, and to say Thanks for being here.

 

Hello Tim, So nice to see you. I ran the Unhide but cannot verify everything, due to the fact that what is now D:\ was the initial victim in all of this. C:\ has a fresh install, which does have some kind of problem, just not necessarily visible at this time. Unhide did say that it had done it's magic on C:, D: and E:.

By accident I failed to mention a couple of things in earlier post, but hoped you'd spot them. Think it was Combo that got hung up on the TB, so I had to run it a second time. Is SASCore part of SAS.exe ? At any rate it could not be removed from the Task Manager long enough to run the tests. There is also a "plugin-container.exe" running that I've NOT seen before.

I'm brewing coffee and ready to clean this monster, thanks.

 

Yes, D: is to become the boot drive again, in another box. The issues with it are/were the Task Manager, Desktop Icons and the Admin Tools, all either gone on non functional. One concern was, that in moving the drive to another unit it could infect even a fresh install.

Now that I think about it, Qoobox may have been created at the first run of ComboFix, hence you would not have seen it, sorry. At any rate here is the file from it. Not sure the second file is relevant, better safe than sorry. Thanks

 

Will do, Tim but wish me luck, I'm pretty sure that I had not been able to get on the net previously with the D:, but it sounds like a plan. Will be back. Thank you.

 

Oh this is not going so well, one more thing that I had forgotten is that initially when hit, the monitor seemed to go dead/black. So when I moved the GW (Gateway) into play I used the same monitor, no problem.

First I simply unplugged the C: drive from the GW, and tried to boot to the old D: drive, no dice, it said HD not found. Booted to the CD and asked for Repair of Windows, via Recovery Console, it said to type exit and it would reboot normally for me, wrong ! Says no HD, finally remembered the jumper pins and tried booting again, nothing. Disconnected D: and put C: back in, it's fine.

Took the D: back to its original Shuttle box, hard to see w/o a monitor...........

Now what ? Am I just missing something ?

 

Hi Tim, Sorry about your time at the hospital, hope in the end it was an improvement. Emergency rooms do that well.

On the recap, Yes I can access the files on D:, but ONLY when it is slaved and in the Gateway. 2 complete units here. Wish I had a way to decipher info from a COM log, which has a portion that is part ascci and part code, when it should be only ports and ip addresses.

Is there any way to check D: while it is a slave ? On the Shuttle machine, the case fans are running, the CPU fan runs, but no lights for the CD's nor the floppy, and the monitor is getting a signal, just not the right one ? When there is no signal the monitor has a floating box that reminds one to check signal cable.

And BTW when you say that C:\ is clean, does that mean, that any found and quarantined items will be deleted at uninstall of cleaning programs ?

Thanks, glad you're back.

 

D:\ Will be slaved ASAP and re-runs started. Thanks.

 

Tim, I sure hope it's your evening to work late. lol

Anyway there may have been a problem or two, not sure. One the start menu wouldn't clear off after running Combo. I was off line for most of this. Then the naming situation came up, so resolved it, best I could be renaming old ones. Here's hoping for good news.

 

For MG Tools log.

Almost forgot, Combo said it was out of date, but would run minimally (?), anyway that was my choice. do I need to get fresh copy and do it again ?