slow at startup

This is my original post for a malaware problem: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1187652&posted=1

The issues that I had at the end of that post had stopped happening for awhile but it seems to be an on and off thing. As I stated towards the end of my last post, I was getting "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." at startup sometimes. The log that I'm attaching contains the warning for that message and then the subsequent warnings that often come up after I close out of event viewer. When I close out, my computer often flashes back to windows classic setup instead of windows xp.

When the generic host warning pops up, it seems to only effect my sound because "There is a problem with the IntelliType Pro software installation" and asks me to reinstall the software when I hit the mute button. The volume buttons do nothing, not even show the usual volume level on the screen. Normal computer sounds like programs starting and warning dings still work. Restarting the computer usually works but then it didn't. I uninstalled/reinstalled the software and it worked but now it started up again. However, the "generic host process" warning had came up before this sound issue started.

At startup I also have it often stall after the dell logo comes up and before the dell.com strip and the processing and windows logo. As in it would just keep on flashing the typing dash and go no further. This may be because my external is plugged in but it didn't use to effect it before. The blinking dash, however, started awhile ago during my one of my previous infections but then went away, eventually, awhile after my computer was cleaned. More recently, I ran all the antivirus/spyware/malaware programs and my computer is clean. More on that farther down.

My startup programs also load slowly even though I ended most of the processes already, which started in my previous post after I attempted to remove the viruses. This, however, is not influenced by the external. And right now it's been taking a long time at startup during the windows icon and then when my desktop finally comes up the start taskbar is mostly blued out and then takes forever to load the icons, nevermind the startup programs. It used to at least load up most of the start taskbar except for the startup programs. In addition, now the start programs take even longer to load. Which makes no sense because I have ended nearly all of the startup programs and went through the services and ended some of them too.

I've gone through all the antivirus/antispyware programs and it's all clean. The latest catasrophe with my computer seems to be effected by my installing/running/uninstalling superantispyware. My computer was running okay yesterday morning when I ran superantispyware and then I turned shut it down and then couldn't get it to successfully startup again normally at night. It worked okay in safe mode but even then the computer was very laggy. I finally got it to load up and that's when I noticed that it's taking longer during the windows icon, etc, and the lagging/freezing.

I just ran auslogics' defrag, disk cleanup, registry cleanup which lagged/froze during the processes and may or may not have improved the speed. I haven't restarted it yet after the defrag or performed the multitasking that I was doing before. During the reboot when I performed the registry cleanup (before the defrag) it was not improved though.

Another problem was that internet explorer won't load when I click on a link. I mainly use firefox but when, for example, ccleaner wanted to update and told me to click the link, it leads me to explorer (which I really wish I could change) but then the page never comes up. The tab just says connecting but there is no processing bar.

I read the other posts and amongst the advice you recommended to install windows live onecare safety scanner. I've been told to do this before and it always comes up with I don't have authorization or my internet blockers are preventing it from downloading, which I then lower and it doesn't help at all.

I admit this is very long and probably contains way too much information, but let me know if you need anything else. There are just so many things wrong that I'm nearly considering just reinstalling everything. But please tell me you can help so I wouldn't have to.

 

Okay so since my last post, the defrag has improved startup by not taking so long during the windows logo. I realized that the sound issue and the generic host warning are not correlated since I had no sound and the warning didn't pop up. Though my computer was acting like it did (the windows classic setup). There was still a problem with the stalling/lagging/freezing.

My google search toolbar in firefox stopped working like when it did when I had the virus last time. Finally my computer told me that "The file or directory C:\Documents and Settings\Janice Wong\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\2p77buc4.default\sessionstore.js is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility." Ran chkdsk which improved the issue that I had with the taskbar taking forever to load and the google search toolbar. But not the startup programs. Is chkdsk something that should be run relatively regularly? Since it looked like it was deleting and recovering stuff that was going wrong. Not sure about the improvement in the lagging issue. Will update if there is any difference.

Also noticed that I've been getting this in my event viewer at startup since June: "The description for Event ID ( 2002 ) in Source ( EAPOL ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: The event log file is corrupt.." What does that mean?

 

Don't want to hijack this thread but.... needed to tell you this. Thanks Mark. Just learned from you a new add-on in Firefox for windows onecare live. It never used to work for me but now it does work in Firefox.

 

Chkdsk and onecarelive helped with the taskbar, startup programs, blinking dash, and the lagging etc. Even with my externals plugged in. Yay. What does chkdsk do? And I copy oma in thanking you for telling me how to get onecarelive to work. Still have no idea why it didn't work in ie, but whatever. The addon is what is letting sites to automatically open in firefox instead of explorer isn't it?

Still having the problem with the generic host and sound issue. Would appreciate it much if someone could figure that one out. And the EAPOL thing I've been getting since June(!).

Now I have this come up when I try to shut down: "dwwin.exe - DLL Initialization Failed : The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down." And "jqsnotify.exe - DLL Initialization Failed : The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down." is coming up on my event viewer. What is it and how to fix it?

 

I got rid of the dwwin.exe message and possibly the generic host warning by updating to sp3. I read somewhere that one of the issues with the generic host was a sp2 problem, who knows. However, it slowed down my startup again. Ran SFC Scannow which didn't seem to do anything. Still getting the EAPOL message. Ran onecarelive and auslogics one button checkup again. Have yet to restart since then.

 

Oops. I already updated the service pack before you responded with the scannow post. But it was in reaction to the dwwin.exe message. I googled it and it said to either reinstall Dr. Watson (which I don't even know how it installed in the 1st place), edit the registry (which is really extreme when I don't really know why or what I'm editing out), or update windows (which seemed the more sensible considering that I probably should have an updated version of it). Would it be too much to hope for that the company that makes the software I'm using makes an update that's supposed to improve the computer that wouldn't mess it up again?

In other news, it's back to faster-ish again. Still getting the EAPOL warning. And realized I've also been sometimes getting "The Pml Driver HPZ12 service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified" for awhile on startup. (The dates stop after around 2 days ago) This is rather curious, but I can't place what is causing that error. I realize it's probably my printer. But it's neither more on or off when these messages come up.

 

Ah now I remember why this message coming up is a bit curious. Got rid of it in startup programs. Gave me warning messages. Removed the file entirely from my computer because I didn't need it anyway. Or maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, it was already out of my startup programs and already stopped as a service. When I try to disable it I get this message: "Unable to open service Pml Driver HPZ12 for writing on Local Computer. Error 5: Access is denied."

 

Okay so I uninstalled and then reinstalled the whole program. Got rid of the startup programs. Attempted to disable the service. Then it still tells me access denied.

 

Okay so acting blind about the printer. But still getting the generic host 32 warning. Grrr.