BSOD / Hijackthis log

I posted this thread originally in the New Welcome Center (under General Forums). I didn't realise I'd put it there until after I posted.

So I've copied my post here. Hopefully someone will be able and willing to help me. Many thanks,
Tigercub


Hi - our pc crashed a couple of days ago. We started getting intermittent BSOD. This all started only a couple of days after our son had installed and run Swift Kit (to do with the RuneScape gaming site) to play games.

Eventually I was able to restore things by trial and error (via many attempts to reinstall Winxp).

I was not able to do system restore. At one point I couldn't even get the computer to boot into Windows. I only had dos to work with.
I simply tried (in dos) to reinstall Windows xp so it would restore all my system files.

Eventually, I was able to get windows to reinstall and boot up to my desktop. At this point I got a few BSOD. (never with the same error message).

I eventually got the adsl working and quickly went to Windows Update site. I got a few updates then was told to reboot. I shut it down for the night at that point because it was so late.

I rebooted the next morning. Got a BSOD. Shut her down - unplugged the power and let her sit a while. Plugged her back in - booted and the desktop loaded with no trouble.

I tried to download more updates from WU. It said I needed something like 87 urgent updates. It downloaded the updates but would not install them.

On shut down, it indicated it wanted to install the updates. On starting her up again - Windows Update ran again (automatically). It successfully downloaded the updates, but again, failed to actually install them. The same 87 urgent updates.



Anyway, this happened once more with the updates and failure to install.
At this point, I'd rebooted her a few times and no more BSOD.
(I drank a bottle of wine and beat my head on the desk. Not really. But I felt like it)

INITIALLY (when I first started troubleshooting and trying to repair things), after successfully booting my computer into to Windows and getting my desktop working again - I noticed many of my programs were corrupted. The add/removed programs list also showed a bunch of programs which I uninstalled ages ago (e.g. AVG, DAP)
Remember, I did not 'roll back' to a last known good configuration - or use system restore (I couldn't get into windows).

I also noticed that the user account that windows booted to was an old user account name. I changed that, but thought it was very strange that it had reverted to an old user account that I deleted like two years ago!



My PC: AMD Atholon XP 2500+ 1.83GHz, 512MB RAM, NVidia GE FORCE FX 5200. I'm running WIN XP SP2.

I use Firefox and Thunderbird for internet and email.

I run Antivirpe (daily updates and scans); ZA Security Suite (daily updates and scan BUT I disabled the antivirus component since I'm using Antivirpe as my anti virus); Spywareguard & Spywareblaster (updated weekly); and Spybot (updated a couple times per week and weekly scanning).

I'm beyond trying to fix things at this point.

I'm thinking I want to just reformat the hard drive now and start over. Before doing that, though, I wonder if anyone would help me understand the Hijackthis log - to possibly find out what the heck went wrong in the first place?

As I said above the BSOD's started after my son downloaded, installed and started using Swift Kit to play on Rune Scape. I've since managed to uninstall that and he says he will simply access Rune Scape via Firefox from now on. But I don't know if Swift Kit was the problem or just a coincidence.

Before I reformat my hdd - I will take the tower apart and just clean everything inside (I know about static and I have a blower and good quality brushes to clean inside) - then reseat the hardware to make sure all is seated firmly. I also thought I'd start with the bare minimum (graphics card) and add components one by one to see if one in particular causes any problems on start up.

In the meantime, would anyone be able to tell me if there is anything in the hijackthis log that indicates what might have gone so horribly wrong?

many thanks!!

 

Thank you for your reply.

I'm afraid, being new to the forum, I had not realised about the Malware Removal thread. I will go through the steps in the next day or so (I have a minor surgery scheduled tomorrow) and post back the results following the guidelines posted in the link you provided.

Many thanks again.