Taskbar blinking and can't run Task Manager

Hello there. I have some really bad virus or something on my machine. Weird things started happening about a week ago. I believe it was when the cute daughter of my neighbor wanted to use my computer for a bit to use the internet because her mom, whom she was visiting, doesn't have internet.

What is happening is as soon as I boot up Windows, the taskbar goes away and then comes back up, in an endless loop. The icons on the desktop do the same. For me to open anything, I have to quickly double-click the icon when it comes up before it goes away again. A side effect of this is that my foreground window will lose focus whenever the taskbar comes back up, so I have to pause my typing until it come back into focus. The Task Manager also seems to be disabled, but it doesn't tell me that it has been disabled by the Administrator or anything. It just doesn't come up. It also keeps telling me that I have file waiting to be written to a CD, but I never put any there.

I already had Symantec AntiVirus, SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, and CCleaner before coming here. I have updated definitions on SAV and I have it set to run a full system scan every Monday at midnight. It rarely finds anything.

I compared everything in my Add/Remove Programs list, but nothing I had was on the bad list. I have the latest version of Java, and only that version. Msconfig is in normal boot. There are no items in quarantine. My CCleaner was set to have all the checkboxes checked and I didn't remember what the default settings were, so I just scanned with the settings it had. I think I have it set to view hidden and system files, but I can't get to that window because any Windows Explorer windows manage to open are closed when the taskbar goes away.

Windows XP Cleaning Procedure

I downloaded SpyBot - Search & Destroy, combofix.exe to my desktop, and MGtools.exe to C:\.

I set SUPERAntiSpyware like it said, updated it, and ran the scan. The log is attached.

I was unable to install Spybot - Search & Destroy because it gave me "Access Denied" errors when it got to the HKEY\LOCAL MACHINE... parts. I'm sorry, I didn't write the errors down. This user account has administrative rights, however, and I've always been able to install things before.

I tried to update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, but there was apparently a new version that it tried to download and install and when it did, it gave me the same error messages as Spybot. My version was updated shortly before this happened, however, so I have the 2nd newest version. I ran a scan with that and the log is attached.

I downloaded the Windows XP Recovery Console from Microsoft and dragged it onto ComboFix.exe during the time when the icons were visible. It brought up a tiny progress bar that said COMBOFIX on it. When that was done, 2 little minimized windows popped up in the lower left corner of the screen, but they were only visible when the taskbar wasn't there. They said C:\WIND... in the titlebars. They were flickering or blinking like they were rapidly opening and closing or something. Then there were 3 of them. It slowed my computer down dramatically. I left it that way for a while, thinking it was part of the process, but the tutorial for running ComboFix didn't say anything like that, so I ended up logging off and logging back on to close them because clicking on them or even holding ALT+F4 didn't do anything to them. I regretably don't have a log to attach from that.

I doubled-clicked on MGtools.exe, but all it did was bring up the same 2 flickering windows. No .log or .txt file for this one anywhere to be found either.

I now leave my poor, miserable computer in your capable hands. Thank you for your help.

 

Crap, I forgot to attach my logs in the first post.

 

Alright, I was able to get into Safe Mode and then it showed the message telling me I'm in Safe Mode and asked me Yes or No. I clicked Yes, then before I could click Start the taskbar and icons disappeared like in Normal Mode. It then brought up the dialog box asking me Yes or No again. I clicked Yes and the taskbar and icons came back, then went away again. It keeps doing that. I tried clicking on Start right as soon as it came up, but it would go away before the start menu would even open.

 

In Safe Mode?

I just pressed CTRL-SHIFT-ESC in Normal Boot and it brought up a box saying "ERROR: Virus Infection Found!" There is only an OK button. The titlebar says "Message from (my username) 8/6/2008 4:12 PM. If I click OK, there's another one behind it. No matter how many times I click it, there's another one behind it. There were a bunch of minimized windows where the taskbar used to be, but they are gone now. The taskbar is still going away and coming back, but it seems to be doing it at a much slower pace.

I'll try doing it in Safe Mode.

 

One more thing to add. When I closed my browser to reboot to Safe Mode, I saw a bunch of minimized windows behind where my browser window was. They were all stacked on each other, 6 high from left to right of my screen. The titlebars said "=^-_-^=" in them and some were disappearing and others taking their places. I'll try Safe Mode now.

 

Alright, I went into Safe Mode, ignored the dialog box and pressed CTRL-SHIFT-ESC. The same minimized windows with the =^-_-^= on them came up, only this time they filled up all of my screen behind the Yes or No box. No virus infection windows came up, though. It didn't do anything after that.

 

New update. I was able to installed Spybot - Search & Destroy and run a scan, but it didn't find anything. I was also able to update Malwarebytes, but the new scan didn't find anything, either.

 

Sorry for the delay. The only way I could get msconfig up was by downloading a copy of it and opening it from a browser "open" window. I clicked it and it did the exact same thing as when I did CTRL-SHIFT-ESC.

Now, each time my taskbar comes back up, I get an error message on the screen. The titlebar says "C:\WINDOWS\system32\DontDelete.exe" and the message says "Windows cannot find 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DontDelete.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search." It goes away with the taskbar each time also.

 

"Comes back up" meaning my taskbar goes away right when Windows starts, then comes back up about a second later, then goes away about a second later, then comes back up about a second later, etc. Each time it comes back up, that error message comes up with it, then goes away with it as well.

I was able to run msconfig fine, but when I click the Launch System Restore button, it causes the minimized windows to fill up my screen and the virus alerts to come up.

I use the Administrator account each time I've gone into Safe Mode. Same symptoms.

I do have my Windows XP CD. Am I going to have to resort to reinstalling Windows?

 

Sorry for the delay.

Okay, so I ran MGtools.exe right from the download prompt instead of saving it. It brought up those same minimized windows and I had to reboot.

I can use the "open" window in my browser to navigate to c:\windows\system32, but the file types are set to only view HTML files. If I set it to view all files, then the browser closes. If I type cmd.exe and press enter, it asks me to save it, so I click run and that brings up the little windows and virus alerts also.

I'll try that Diagnostic startup thing right now.

 

I'm sorry.

I went and entered c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe into it the address bar and ran that and it did the same thing after I clicked "run".

Nope. There's nothing starting with M and there are no zip files.

Also, I went into Diagnostic startup and my windows looked different, like Windows 98 or 2000 instead of XP, and I couldn't get on the internet like you said, but other than that, all the problems still happened the same.

 

Yes I do. Windows XP SP2.