Unexpected restarts

ggjonny · May 1, 2009

Hi, since Wednesday night (29/05/09) my computer has suddenly begun to restart itself in for no apparent reason. At the time I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, a friend was on the music program Reason, which has never damaged my computer before.

By sheer coincidence my internet connection began to have problems too, with connection speeds virtually going down to 0, leaving me to have to constantly refresh the page before I get lucky.

Originally I thought it may have been the sasser worm, but after realising that I had XP SP3, I thought I should have the windows patch against it already, and after trying to install the patch anyway, it was confirmed.

I've followed the Cleaning XP thread and i've included all the logs in this post, i'd really appreciate the help, since my computer tends to break down once a month maybe and I tend to sort it out, but this has me stumped.

By the Thursday night I thought I had the problem sorted until again, my computer began to restart itself. It does not overheat, and the running speed of the computer seems fine, until all of a sudden, it cuts off and restarts, I can't quite figure out what the cause is.

I've also noticed that when I log on to my account, the bottom toolbar doesn't respond for say, 2 minutes, and any shortcut I click fails to initialize until -all of a sudden- the few programs that do run on start up (SUPERAntiSpyware and the icon showing my wireless connection) suddenly appear at the bottom right, and any programs I have clicked begin to start.

The logs required are located in this thread.

TimW · May 4, 2009

It looks like MBAM took care of the malware. SAS found a problem in a system restore file, which can be handled by just toggling system restore.

I am not seeing any other problems. The issues you mention, in this and the other thread, will best be handled in the software forum.

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

We recommed you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no real time protection. They are useful as backup scanners. They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.

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" /u

Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /u, it must be there.

This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.

Delete the C:\combofix folder from combofix (if it exists)

Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.

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.

Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.

You can delete the C:\MGtools folder and the C:\MGtools.exe file. You can also delete the C:\MGlogs.zip

If you are running Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:

Refer to the cleaning steps in the READ ME for your Window version and see the steps to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.

Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.

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

How to Protect yourself from malware!

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Unexpected restarts

ggjonny Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member