[HELP] My venerable PC is being consumed by MSN/IE!

Hi, new to the major geek forums and wanted to say that over all the 'other' places I had a look at, this one is the one that I registered with.

On to the issue that has been plaguing me for over a week now.

Related to MSN and Internet Explorer (7 & 8)

Whenever I start up the program MSN, and log on to check my email something sinister happens. If I click on the 'mail' button it usually opens up INTERNET EXPLORER 8, and then I can read my email. However, what now occurs is the program MSNMSGR.EXE uses up ALL of my cpu (100%). Internet Explorer 8 does NOT open, and my PC simply hangs on the 100% usage of MSN.

So I try another approach by opening Internet Explorer 8 manually (I also use FIREFOX but I check mail with IE 8), I navigate to the MSN webpage and then... pow, iexplorer.exe hangs at 100% cpu!

The problem has now spread to the BASIC operation of Internet Explorer, the program will not function normally anymore, it now just hangs at 100% cpu.

WHAT I HAVE DONE
- Uninstalled IE 8, now using IE 7. (STILL HANGS)
- Uninstalled ALL adobe flash player, still uninstalled.
- DE-FRAGGED my Hard Drive, have 19% free space, have had less and determined this is NOT the issue. (could it be?)
- Got HIJACK THIS (will post log)

Any help on this crippling matter would be appreciated! Dearly!

 

Greetings, RedSarge.

I'd strongly suggest you go through steps listed in the Malware Forum's Read & Run Me First thread, and post the requested logs in a new thread in that forum, just to make sure your machine is clean.

MSNMSGR.EXE can be a valid Microsoft file if it's located in C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\ - if this is the case, you can simply disable it from starting up.

If, however, MSNMSGR.EXE is located anywhere else, such as C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32, it could very well be malware.

 

Well msnmsgr.exe is running where it should be, in the C:\Program Files\MSN

And I have followed the steps in the link you gave me, but I might still have some sort of virus or trojan on my system. I really don't know what else it could be as I only have AVAST running for protection.

I give up.