Random slow-downs, freezes/crashes, blue screens.

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by futurerush, Feb 17, 2011.

  1. futurerush

    futurerush Private E-2

    For the past few months, my computer's been getting gradually slower and frustrating to use, and the occasional freeze-up will happen where the only way out of it is to hold the power button for shut down, and of course a far-and-few-between blue screens. Cleaning disks, deleting programs, removing all my personal files (word documents, pictures, music, videos, the whole shabang), have not helped. I would run one program, and the longer I spend with it, the more difficult it would become until it was impossible and I'd have to close it and work on it later. Before being sure it was just a matter of low memory, I went through the Read and Run Me First, which I've had bookmarked for years, and found at least two infections I didn't know I had. [a note about outpost, I disabled it exactly as the guide told me, but I still got permission pop-ups, so I'm not positive it took] RARM still didn't make a dent in improving my computer. I ran it a several days ago, I wanted to use my computer a while before posting to be sure. I re-enabled my magicdisk just a couple days ago, because I forgot about it. That created a log, so I'll include that just in case. I believe I'm just short on memory, and I plan to buy a new computer soon anyway, but I need this computer to last as long as possible, as is, in the meantime. I haven't had any particular errors I can think of. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary to mark the decline of my computer. The infections might have had something to do with the ones that used to be quarantined. I'll be grateful if you can find anything besides low memory.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. futurerush

    futurerush Private E-2

    attachements continued
     

    Attached Files:

  3. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Yes, you need to at a minimum double your RAM. I don't think what we are going to remove is going to fix your issue, but we will see.

    First off, you should not have BitTorrent running at start up!! It opens you computer to anyone.

    Please disable all anti-virus and anti-spyware programs while we do the following (re-enable when you are finished):

    Run C:\MGtools\analyse.exe by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator). This is really HijackThis (select Do a system scan only) and select the following lines but DO NOT CLICK FIX until you exit all browser sessions including the one you are reading in right now:
    After clicking Fix, exit HJT.

    Now copy just the bold text below to notepad (Do not include any space above the word REGEDIT). Save it as fixME.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.
    Make sure that you tell me if you receive a success message about adding the above
    to the registry. If you do not get a success message, it definitely did not work.


    Now use windows explorer to find and delete:
    C:\WINDOWS\Domino.exe
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Norton
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NortonInstaller

    Tell me what issues you are still having.
     
  4. futurerush

    futurerush Private E-2

    I didn't realize BitTorrent was running at start up. There was no icon in the taskbar/system try and it's not in the Startup folder. That's shady. I am going to delete it and use something else.

    The registry addition did get a successful message.

    The path C:\WINDOWS\Domino.exe did not exist. I did delete Domino.exe from a subfolder in WINDOWS. system32, I believe. And somewhere else.

    Sudden extreme slow-down still happens, but after spending a week on this, I haven't seen any complete freezes. It seemed to happen almost daily before. The blue-screens are spaced too far apart to know if they have stopped, like a month or more. I have a feeling that might have been fixed too, though. The slow-down is certainly caused by the lack of RAM, and mostly just effects the heaviest programs, especially ones I barely meet minimum requirements for.
     
  5. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You can go to crucial.com and have it scan your system to see how much RAM your motherboard will accommodate.

    If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

    1. We recommend you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no real time protection. They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.We recommend them for doing backup scans when you suspect a malware infection.
    2. If we had you use ComboFix, uninstall ComboFix (This uninstall will only work as written if you installed ComboFix on your Desktop like we requested.)
      • Click START then RUN and enter the below into the run box and then click OK. Note the quotes are required
      • "%userprofile%\Desktop\combofix" /uninstall
        • Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /uninstall, it must be there.
        • This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.


    3. Go back to step 6 of the READ ME and renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it.
    4. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
    5. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
    6. If running Vista, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.
    7. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
    8. Goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.
    9. If you are running Win 7, Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
      • Refer to the cleaning procedures pointed to by step 7 of the READ ME
        for your Window version and see the instructions to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
      • Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.

    10. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:


    Malware removal from a National Chain = $149
    Malware removal from MajorGeeks = $0

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