Errors - Not Responding

I've had a few not responding errors and freezing today when trying to connect my Telus Wireless stick on my laptop. Dunno if it had anything to do with it, maybe coincidence. The laptop was working perfectly last time I had it on.

Below are what I jotted down between trying to reboot and freezing.

- "Task Host Window" appears not able to shut down.
- "Windows Explorer" not responding.
- "Failure to display security and shut down options. The logon process was unable to display security and logon options when CTRL+ALT+DELETE was pressed. If the operating system does not respond, press ESC or restart the computer by using the power switch". (This didn't always work, it would just hang).
- "Wireless information unavailable. The application will now close".
- "Avast Antivirus reports that it is turned off". (I checked the Antivirus program directly and it was indeed turned on).

Everything seems to be ok tonight, but I did have to reboot first time round to get it going.

Was this perhaps just a hiccup and work itself out?
Thanks

 

I'm guessing you have been here long enough to have all of these tools already. Sorry to say, seen an infection start like that, so quick, before you can't get anything to run, update your malware tools or follow this guide http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

When something like that starts I like to update and run Malwarebytes as fast as possible. Lately that little program has locked up the malware enough that I was able to get the computer running well enough to run all of the rest of the tools. Hasn't failed me in a good long time. When that comes back clean on a first run, I start looking elsewhere for problems while running a few more scans.

 

I reread your original post and now that it's not the middle of the night, I have an amendment.

It's completely possible that a usb device gave you a hiccup. If it doesn't turn into a chronic problem, it's probably fine.

 

Hmmm, I was hoping that the USB Wireless Internet Stick was the problem, but I'm having bootup issues again. I wasn't able to start the MalwareBytes as half the icon pictures on my desktop are blank, almost seems frozen. My cursor is displaying as busy, with the round blue ball going in circles. I also have a round blue ball going in circles on top of a thing that looks like 5 bars in the lower bottom right. (I found a similar picture on the internet to help describe what I see - I'm using my desktop at the moment and can't get anywhere with the laptop). Dunno the proper name for it, but it'll automaticaly search for any wireless connections in the area, then just show as a yellow star when not in use. But it seems stuck. I don't know if I can turn this off, maybe this is acting up? I don't use this searching device as I have a USB stick for wireless through Telus.

... after a few minutes of waiting for it to boot, I now get a black screen, but I can see my mouse and move it across the screen.

HP Wireless Assistant window just displayed... it won't let me into it to see what is is, it just wants me to press ok for the window to close...

... found HP Wireless Assistant in the programs list and it won't open for me...

 

Ctrl -Alt-Del to the taskmanager. In the processes tab, is anything getting a high CPU use number?

See if you can end all of the HP processes, they start with hp and i can't think of anything critical that starts hp but I haven't owned an hp computer in a while.

If the computer calms down after that, or if you see one process using a lot of the CPU, it should give you a direction to start looking.

 

Ok, so what I've done so far, is try to close/disable the "HP Wireless Assistant". I rebooted after some problems and now the computer has booted up and I'm able to access the internet with my laptop via Telus Stick. The "HP Wireless Assistant" automatically turned on/enabled itself again.

Attached is a pic of the Task Manager Window before I tried this round of booting up.

 

Ahhhh, nuts. I'm sorry, I didn't know about the "Show processes from all users" thingy. It's too late for me to do this now as the laptop is sitting at the computer store. Thank you so very much for your help! At least this is a learning experience for me if it happens again. Thanks for the links!