Computer Maintenance

Hey, I'm new to the community and have previously run just Spybot and Ad-Aware but have noticed my year old computer starting to get bogged down. I have gone through your suggested turorial page and am still noticing some problems.

I'd say these started becoming aparent in the last month, where I may have downloaded a corrupted song off of Limewire that I accidentally clicked "yes" to continue downloading (I'm just speculating). Around that same time I was doing some file transfering with my brothers computer on the same network (I ussually keep my computer not shared on the network). As for virus protection, I have a subscription to Norton.

My symptoms include:

-random restarts (more frequent lately, I'd say maybe 3-4 a week) *this may be fixed
-when I start up windows the programs load much slower than they used too (often windows is just sitting still for 10-30 seconds without anything noticable happennig, as opposed to when it was brand new and it loaded super fast =])
-when I start up windows, I get a short error message saying Norton Anti-Virus cannot access drive C:
-when I open my folder containing my music, it takes between 5-30 seconds just to open, all other folders are near instant
-generally slower then before (I remember the computer working like brand new up to 3 months ago)

What I've done that was not in the turorial (I was able to do everything in the tutorial, however did not do the optional steps at the end):

-turned off the auto restart when the computer finds an error
-installed and scanned for viruses with AVG


Any help would be appreciated and I believe I checked to make sure I did what was asked of me before posting and if not my apologies; I'll get on it. I have Hijack This installed but have not generated a log file yet.

 

Please follow standard cleanup procedures as given below:

- Run ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal

Make sure you check version numbers and get all updates.

- Very Important: Make sure you tell us the results from running the tutorial...was anything found? Were you unable to complete any of the scans?...Were you unable to download any of the tools?...Did you do the on-line scans as suggested? etc.


After doing ALL of the above and you still have a problem, make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps below:



http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gif Download HijackThis 1.99.1

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gif Unzip the hijackthis.exe file to a folder you create named C:\Program Files\HJT

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gif Do NOT run Hijack This from the Desktop, a temp folder, or a sub-folder of C:\Documents and Settings, or choose to run it directly from the ZIP file as your backups will not be safely stored.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gifBefore running HijackThis: You must close each of the following:your web browser, e-mail client, instant messenger, and programs like notepad, wordpad, MS Word etc. And any other unnecessary running programs.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gifRun HijackThis and save your log file.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gif Post your log as an ATTACHMENT to your next post. (Do NOT copy/paste the log into your post as it will be removed).

http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/grenade.gifNeed help with HJT? See this thread: NO HIJACK THIS LOG FILES BEFORE READING THIS: HJT Tutorial & LOG File Posting

 

Thanks for taking the time to help.

When I ran the scans on your turorial page, I had a couple infected files that ended up being deleted. I believe I remember a virus being listed at one point as well, not sure if it was cleared up. I think I had a Wheater Bug that was taken care of if I remember correctly. I was able to run all the scans completely though.

My log is attached to this post, good luck =P.

 

The first thing I notice is that you’re running Norton & AVG. This is NOT recommended as running two antivirus programs will cause conflicts on your computer. You need to pick ONE and uninstall the other!

Please look in Add or Remove Programs for the following and Uninstall them if found:

Viewpoint

Now scan with HijackThis and Check the Boxes for the following:

Make sure All Browser Windows are Closed when you Click FIX.

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://hsremove.com/done.htm
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://hsremove.com/done.htm

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ViewMgr] C:\Program Files\Viewpoint\Viewpoint Manager\ViewMgr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UserFaultCheck] %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 -u
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [KernelFaultCheck] %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 -k

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {85d1f590-48f4-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66} - %windir%\bdoscandel.exe (file missing)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Uninstall BitDefender Online Scanner v8 - {85d1f590-48f4-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66} - %windir%\bdoscandel.exe (file missing)

Again, make sure All Browser Windows are Closed when you Click FIX.

NOW:
Please boot into Safe Mode with the Viewing of Hidden Files & Folders Enabled and navigate to and DELETE the following if they should remain:

C:\Program Files\Viewpoint ←–– Delete this whole folder if it exist!

NEXT:
Run CCleaner to clean up cookies and temp files.

Run full scans with Ad-Aware SE & Spybot S&D and have both programs fix what they find.
Note: Remember to get all updates before doing the scans.

Then, as an added precaution, Go to Start > Run and type: cleanmgr and then click OK. Make sure the boxes for these are checked:
Temporary Files
Temporary Internet Files
Recycle Bin

And Click OK.


Reboot to Normal Windows , Scan with HijackThis and attach the new log and tell me how things are running.

 

Hey, thanks for your help.

I've uninstalled Norton and kept AVG.
I uninstalled some other old programs I didn't use as well.

The original loading of programs when windows starts still seems slow (maybe its normal).
My C:/Music folder still takes time to open.

 

I also just got a blue screen with which said there was an error with:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

It said the technical information was:

STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000004, 0x00000003, 0x00000000, 0x85CF73DC)

 

The Stop 0xD1 messages indicates that the system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. Drivers that have used improper addresses typically cause this error.

 

Your HJT log is clean, are you having any Malware problems?

 

I don't know what Malware is, but perhaps? Where could I find out more information?

On the driver note, does that just mean I have to update my drivers?

Thanks once again, I really appreciate this.

 

Malware is short for malicious software. Something that is intended to damage or disable a computer usually pissing off the owner lol. For example a virus is considered malware because the intent of a virus is to damage/disable the computer.

How many times have you recieved the BSOD error message?

 

I think I've recieved it around ~15 times. What I still don't get as well is why my music folder takes so long top open.

 

Since this isnt malware related I recommend posting this in the Software Forum.

Good Luck!