IE 5.5 went haywire

System (don't laugh):
Pentium(r) 233 Mhz, 64Mb RAM, 8 Gb HDD w/ 75% available, Win95 OS.
My browser is getting worse by the day. Yesterday the input devices (keyboard, mouse curser on scroll bars, scroll wheel on mouse) were extremely slow online. Offline everything works fine. Today my homepage, msn.com, appearance changed. White background, no graphics (just red x's). All my favorite websites are corrupted similarly. Major Geeks is the only site that looks halfway normal but all the link buttons and smilies are red x's.
I ran Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware. I cleared my cache(s). I searched MG archives and ran the browser repair tool in control panel.
I can restore some graphics by right-clicking them and choosing "Show Picture" but I often get the "Error on Page" notice at the bottom of the window.
My homepage DID get changed and a bunch of garbage 'favorites' were added by some sleazy website. I normally fix any such changes in the Tools/Settings menu and by editing Favorites.
Thanks much for any suggestions. I can provide any add'l info needed very promptly.
Zimpal

 

xflat,
Thanks for your response. Housecall™ scan found 5 infected files:
1.C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\wthunk32.dll
2.C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\svcpack.exe
3.C:\WINDOWS\loader.exe
4.C:\WINDOWS\iedll.exe
5.C:\msdos.exe
I asked the scan program to delete 1 thru 4. No.2 could not be deleted (in use). I wasn't sure about deleting No.5.
I've had to deal with the 'loader' and 'iedll' crap in the past. They are described as a 'browser helper' that need some registry modifications to clean them out completely.
Nos.1 & 5 are Trojans 'THUNKER.A'
Nos.3 & 4 are Trojans 'DLoader.DZ'
No.2 is Bkdr 'Iterator.A'
I wanted to post this reply before I look for the registry fix and reboot. Again, thank you.

 

Monday 8:30 AM PST
Kumbah Yah
All fixed!
HijackThis did the trick.
If nothing else this episode forced me to back up some key files and folders. An old computer is like an attic; they both collect alot of 'stuff' that one may have forgotten but still cherishes.
In the past I have asked for help at other Computer Help communities. When I provided system information about this old clunker I received ridicule instead of help. (How could they possibly know this "clunker" is part of my home LAN that includes TWO P4 2.53 Ghz systems running XP?!!!)
Doing fixes like this is exactly what causes computer users to cross the threshold from 'beginner' to 'intermediate' or even 'advanced' status.
(going now to create my MG member profile)

 

Bumped 'cause I still have a problem. My browser appearance is back to normal. Virus scan shows all clean. Spyware all cleaned out. Registry all cleaned up (I used HijackThis and a registry cleaner utility. Cookies and temp. cache all cleared out.
While online my input devices are very slow. It seems like my browser (IE5.5) is corrupted or otherwise compromised. It varies from site to site. Offline my keyboard and mouse operate normally.
Suggestions?

 

Zimpal........Hit ALT CTRL DEL, and post what programs are running in the Task Manager. Maybe we'll notice something funky running for you.

 

Here you are...

 

Nothing looks suspicious there. You're running MSN as an ISP?
If you just got upgraded to MSN8, that could be becoming an issue. I'm thinking time to add more RAM.
Anyone else got any suggestions??????? Feel free to step in, so we can get Zimpal fixed up

 

Brian C,
My ISP is Comcast (formerly AT&T@Home) Broadband cable.
My browser is Internet Explorer Ver. 5.5 (Microsoft)
My start page is msn.com.
Your suggestion about memory is a valid thing to look into. The sluggish performance of my internet interface corresponds exactly with the virus/trojan event. Mighty big coincidence, eh? Maybe the trojan altered the memory allocation settings of my browser. Most advice I've seen recommends leaving the memory at default settings.
Please note the mouse and keyboard work normally when I'm not online.
While typing this post I do a bunch of keystrokes and the cursor slowly moves across the page. The text only appears after I stop typing and the cursor 'catches up'. Same thing when I use the scroll wheel or drag the scroll bar. It seems like all the mouse and keyboard input gets buffered and then is executed very slowly.
Thanks much for your help so far.
Zimpal

 

Humm. Yeah, God only knows what the Trojan may have did.
Is reformatting out of the question for you?

 

Ie5 Haywire

Just a thought or two
"capture" and "winampa" may well be the problems as the original progs may have been corrupted by the gremlins etc.
Knock them out of the equation ( you can always call them back in) and see where you're at then.
Robert

 

Brian C,
Reformatting is not a reasonable 'fix' for this old system. If I did I'd put Linux in this box, take it off the network, and buy another XP system.

Robert,
I tried closing the Capture and Winamp programs. It didn't help.

Please check the HijackThis screen below to see if there are any 'suspect' items I may need to delete.
BTW, thanks again. I'm just too damn stubborn to give up (yet)

 

IE5.5 And all that

Given all you have tried and the extent to which you have succeeded in partially getting back to normal iI would start looking at your computer. Heating problem perhaps? Given its age how long is it since you took off the outer case and blew all the dust out of the cranky old buggar??
Also could be RAM getting tired in its seat - while you are in there remove the RAM and plug it in again.
I totally agree that giving up is not an option so have a look at the above. Thing is when you are on net with all systems burning and turning the load on the total system is at max and this could be the breaking point for the old fellow. Apart from that I have run out of ideas for a short fix at long range - but hey - if you solve it lets all know.

Cheers
Robert

 

IE Haywire

Oh - another thing - Index.dat files in Windows/IE areas just grow and grow - this was dealt with here earlier - you should also kill them off IF YOU ARE ABLE TO DO IT SAFELY in W95. In 98se it's easy so its probably OK in 95 also. Have a look at previous posts on this but the program that will do for you is

http://www.fsm.nl/ward/ - Spider

Free - otherwise you can use DOS to find and kill them before w95 fires up.
Robert