helpctr.exe going nuts

deathray · Sep 5, 2007

Have a problem which has occurred the last several days. This is the best description I can give on how it manifests itself, anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it?

Running a laptop, initially it boots into windows XP which appears to be running fine. Then as you open outlook express the help file for itstarts opening without being requested. Over a matter of a few minutes the machine seems to be over taken by multiple instances (over 130) of the help files and freezes. After switching off the PC by turning off the power it is then impossible to reboot the pc for a considerable amount of time as it locks up with a continual beeping as if you were holding down a key.

After this happened the first time I was able to restart the machine some time later and opened it in safe mode at which point I did a system restore to an earlier date. The machine then rebooted and opened into windows xp normally and appeared to run normally. I carried out a virus and spybot scan. I also ran a spybot search and destroy scan. None of these found anything which would be considered 'new' or 'critical'. I then used the machine as I normally would and switched it off.

24 hrs later, returned to the machine and have now got the same problem as described above. Anyone got any ideas please?

Thankyou

TimW · Sep 6, 2007

Welcome to Majorgeeks!
We need to see the requested logs in order to get an idea as to what is happening with your computer.
The continual beeping is telling you that one of the startup post tests has failed.
A system restore would only work if the restore point is not infected.

Please follow our standard cleaning procedures which are necessary for us to provide you support. Also there are steps included for installing, running, and posting HijackThis logs as attachments.

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After doing ALL of the above you still have a problem make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps in the below link to properly use HijackThis and attach a log:

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helpctr.exe going nuts

deathray Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member