Please help - Intermittent freezing in Windows 7 - Icons, links, windows and browsers

SYSTEM

- Windows 7 64bit Home Premium edition (Up to date).
- Norton 360 (Up to date).
- 8GB memory
- Intel Core i7 processor.

Hi there, I wonder if someone could please help with a problem I am having with Windows 7.

Everything was stable and running well until only recently.

I have recently experienced repeated intrusion attempts, most of which seemed to have been successfully prevented by Norton, and I have also been receiving multiple zipped-up trojans each day via email (but these are always detected and quarantined with Norton). I called Norton tech support, and they assured me that Norton should be protecting me fine, that they could see no problems, and that the Norton software would let me know if there were. However, ever since these attacks begun, I have experienced the following problems with Windows 7.

- After start-up, sometimes only the task bar icons are active, and sometimes only the desktop icons are active. However, every now and then they both work at the same time, or are both frozen. This problem also reoccurs regularly while trying to use the PC; icons freezing, taskbar freezing, links freezing.

- Desktop icons have moved location and have become randomised. They can no longer be dropped, dragged or moved, and are permanently fixed. I tried changing this in the options, but the problem remains.

- Sometimes after opening a folder and/or a browser (Firefox or IE), for example, the folder window/browser freezes, and you cannot select anything within. Sometimes it unfreezes, but I have no idea why. Sometimes when you minimise/re-maximise the window it works again. Pressing Ctrl, Alt and Delete, and then closing some unused processes seems to temporarily unfreeze anything that is frozen.

- Drop down menus on web pages; you can click the arrow to expand the list, but you need to use the cursor keys/enter to scroll/select, the mouse won't work.

- Dragging and dropping files no longer works; either folder-to-folder, or straight into a related program. You can only open a file via navigating.

- The middle mouse wheel is permanently disabled from scrolling down web pages.

- Discovered that by ending all of the 'Processes by all users' that are not needed seems to temporarily fix the problem/lessons it, but then it reoccurs, and I have to repeat the process.

- No apparent performance issues when working/unfrozen.

- In Safe mode the problems still occur.

- Currently I can use my computer, and it seems secure, but I repeatedly experience the problems above which is frustrating.

Norton scans and Malware scans find nothing. However, looking at the Norton security history has been strange, and a couple of entries seem to have changed from an initial 'High' level of security risk to 'Info' and 'no action required'. The entries in question appeared to be network attempt related, so i blocked communication with this IP. I had also recently downloaded the evaluation copy of Malwarebytes anti-malware software, and I noticed the problems actually spiked after I had installed it. After the scan I uninstalled it, and then the Windows problems seemed to become less severe/less frequent, but unfortunately still an issue. The desktop icons moved to the new position automatically after uninstalling the program. Changing the desktop theme also doesn't affect the icon locations, but the background changes fine.

I was thinking of applying the last System Restore point, however, when I went to do this it said that no restore points had been created, and if i wanted to create one. I don't remember creating a system restore point, maybe once, however, I am certain I have run various scans in the past that had auto backed up with the system restore, and I was expecting to find these.

I was wondering if there is a way that I can look for/fix just the damaged Windows components, if that is what it is causing the problem?

Re-installing Windows from scratch is not a realistic option, I have many programs/plug-ins installed that would take an eternity to re-install and re-configure (around 3 weeks).

I have just performed a clean start-up, but the exact problem remained, so I assume the problem is within the core windows services, as opposed to a background program?

Any help would be much appreciated

Kind regards
Carla

 

Re: Please help - Intermittent freezing in Windows 7 - Icons, links, windows and brow

Hi DavidGP

Thank you for your reply.

Just to confirm I have not performed a re-install just yet, as I have been trying to isolate the cause of the problem.

Yes I think there must be Malware somewhere on my computer, and I am still receiving intrusion attempts on a regular basis, including daily emails containing zipped trojans. Very targeted it seems

Ok sure think, I will run the below initially and then create a thread on the Malware related forum as advised.

Kind regards
Carla
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