Computer Freezes Upon Acquiring Network Address

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by sweetsarah, Dec 11, 2006.

  1. sweetsarah

    sweetsarah Private E-2

    I need someone to help me. I’m usually very good at troubleshooting my systems, but this one has me stumped and I’ve been working on it for a long time. The last thing I want to do is reformat my hard drive and start clean, which seems silly since I can pinpoint the problem, I just don’t know how to fix it.

    Here’s the story… I have a Toshiba laptop running XP, P4, plenty of RAM, etc… In the past couple of years, I’ve installed several Linksys wireless routers which were all the WRT54G and with very similar setups. All the routers I installed previous to this year, I have no problem connecting wirelessly to them. The routers I installed this year – 3 of them to be exact, my laptop deep freezes instantly upon acquiring the network address upon connection. There doesn’t seem to be an error log in event viewer or anywhere else I can find. I’m forced to cold boot. It also doesn’t matter if it’s wireless connected or if I’m connected with a network cable – same problem.

    Right now, I have one of those “freeze up” routers on my desk, and one of the older routers across the room. I’ve been trying to diagnose this stuff with some wonderful Sysinternals utilities, but no luck – the freeze happens so fast, I can’t pinpoint the process or file that may be being accessed which is causing it. I’ve also tried setting up other profiles, same problem. I’ve also killed about all the processes I can with no change, same freeze.

    So, you might think it’s a hardware issue? Here’s what I did. I’ve tried two other wireless cards, same exact problem. My friend has the same exact model laptop that I do because we bought them together. I took my hard drive out and placed into hers for testing, sure enough, same lockup problem. I’d say it’s definitely a software problem.

    PLEASE, PLEASE help me. One of these routers is at my Dad’s house and I’m traveling to see him over the holidays and I don’t want to have to reformat and reinstall all my stuff before going. You’ll see why when you look at my hijack this log. LOL I have no other problems with this computer.

    I’m in distress! My hijack log is attached. Thank you to anyone who can assist me.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You have the routers configured in your program files? (three or four of the entries in the hijack log).

    Then there are these: (which you should try to identify and fix what you think is not something you did/added):
    C:\Program Files\Atheros\ACU.exe

    C:\WINDOWS\system32\DrvMon.exe

    O2 - BHO: Nothing - {5f4c3d09-b3b9-4f88-aa82-31332fee1c08} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\hp103.tmp (file missing)
    Unnecessarily Entries found in this registry zone are potentially nasty. This application ([5f4c3d09-b3b9-4f88-aa82-31332fee1c08] - Result: 5F4C3D09-B3B9-4F88-AA82-31332FEE1C08) has been checked. Hit rate: 66,67%
    Must be fixed!
    Unnecessary (deactivated) entry that can be fixed.
    O2 - BHO: (no name) - {A913B8F9-4408-4A5E-884F-EC20BF669C38} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\vtstt.dll (file missing)
    Unnecessarily Entries found in this registry zone are potentially nasty. This application ([A913B8F9-4408-4A5E-884F-EC20BF669C38] - Result: ) has been checked. Hit rate: 0,00%
    Unknown application.
    Unnecessary (deactivated) entry that can be fixed

    O2 - BHO: - {d42ac59b-44eb-48da-8b99-e6e2bb835b29} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nmb.dll (file missing)
    Unnecessarily Entries found in this registry zone are potentially nasty. This application ([d42ac59b-44eb-48da-8b99-e6e2bb835b29] - Result: ) has been checked. Hit rate: 0,00%
    Unknown application.
    Unnecessary (deactivated) entry that can be fixed.

    O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [DrvMon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\DrvMon.exe
    Possibly nasty
    Hit rate: 0,00 % (result)
    It seems that the name of this program is the same as the name of the file. In the most cases this is the result of trojans. To be sure, you should check this file.

    O8 - Extra context menu item: Get all flash - C:\Program Files\Super Flash Player Manager\source.html
    Possibly nasty Entries shown in the menu that pops up when right-clicking into the Internet Explorer. Unknown entries should be fixed.
    To be fixed if the entry 'Get all flash ' is unknown.

    O16 - DPF: {7CA3D0A3-7E2E-4AAB-A75E-FAB8ECA8BD95} (Skilljam Game Player Object) - http://cashgames.skilljam.com/ssp/SSP.cab
    Possibly nasty Unknown ActiveX-Objects, or ActiveX-Objects from unknown sites should always be fixed. If the name of the ActiveX-Object or the URL contains the words 'dialer', 'casino', 'free plugin' etc, it should be fixed!
    Check if you know this site and fix it if you do not.

    O16 - DPF: {C946EF6D-296D-4907-A6E1-ED0E8E5AF024} (LycosMail Upload Control) - http://mail.lycos.com/hanmail-ax/AttachMail.cab
    Possibly nasty Unknown ActiveX-Objects, or ActiveX-Objects from unknown sites should always be fixed. If the name of the ActiveX-Object or the URL contains the words 'dialer', 'casino', 'free plugin' etc, it should be fixed!
    Check if you know this site and fix it if you do not.

    O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{E8460960-4505-40C5-BA94-E604129BDB70}: NameServer = 24.93.41.125,24.93.41.126
    Possibly nasty If this Domain does not belong to your ISP, or your firms network, these entries should be fixed. 'SearchList' entries should be fixed too.
    Do you know the IP or Domain '24.93.41.125,24.93.41.126'? If not, fix this entry.

    O20 - Winlogon Notify: vtstt - C:\WINDOWS\system32\vtstt.dll (file missing)
    Unnecessarily
    Unnecessary (deactivated) entry that can be fixed.
    O20 - Winlogon Notify: winrge32 - winrge32.dll (file missing)
    Unnecessarily
    Unnecessary (deactivated) entry that can be fixed.

    O23 - Service: SmartTrace - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Y&M\SmartTrace\SmartTrace.exe
    Unknown These entries shows all services which are not from Microsoft. Often malware is starting as a systemservice and it's not easy to detect it.
    Unknown service. (SmartTrace.exe)
    O23 - Service: Swupdtmr - Unknown owner - c:\TOSHIBA\Ivp\Swupdate\swupdtmr.exe
    Unknown These entries shows all services which are not from Microsoft. Often malware is starting as a systemservice and it's not easy to detect it.
    Unknown service. (swupdtmr.exe)

    I would suggest that you do this:
    Read and run first - Malware section
    http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
     
  3. sweetsarah

    sweetsarah Private E-2

    I appreciate the assistance. I believe the problem rests deep within Windows, perhaps with the csrss.exe policies and programming which goes well beyond my ability to diagnose - I believe it to be a needle in a haystack thing. I'd much rather reformat and do a clean install, but I figure I can squeak out a few more months or a year before upgrading to a new laptop, so I'll bandaid it for now. Perhaps I should sound-off and whine about how we've managed to make people billionaire's by purchasing such a sloppily programmed systems as Windows - then we make millionaires out of the people who create utilities to clean up after the bad programming and viruses, trojans, hijackers, etc... spawned from the holes. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the functionality when it works, but will someone at Microsoft finally take responsibility in their system. How many times in the past 15 years have you heard admins say "reboot" as a means to fix whatever is ailing Windows. Okay - done whining!

    At the moment, I am somewhat "pacified" with my result, although my situation is not totally fixed. I went through my system and cleaned up some of the hijack items, although nothing seemed to be critical and it had no impact on my ability to connect with this specific router version. I also upgraded the firmware of the router to the newest Linksys release, and still had the same issue.

    So, here's my pacification. Upon researching this issue, I ran across this incredible article about how Linksys' firmware is based on Linux components, which falls under the General Public License (GPL). This forced Linksys to open source their firmware. The bottom line is, many developers have created their own firmware that can be installed on Linksys routers which seems to have greatly increased their reliability and efficiency. So, I deleted Linksys' firmware and installed DD-WRT on the router. I'm experiencing absolutely no freezes and what seems to be a faster connection.

    Here's a link to the article:

    http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3562391

    Here's a link to changing firmwares - specific to the WRT54G Version 5:

    http://www.bitsum.com/openwiking/owbase/ow.asp?WRT54G5_CFE

    There is other information out there for the other versions of this and other routers. The only downside, for me, is that it won't prevent freeze-ups when I connect to other access points using this specific router - but aside from family, I haven't really had the need to prowl through the neighborhoods to piggyback on anyone's connection.

    So, it's definitely something in Linksys' firmware, but seemingly specific to my laptop/system's deep corruption.
     

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