WinXP Loses Focus - Locks Up

Hello,

I have a brand new Acer Aspire 5672, Core Dual, 2GB, 120GB HHD. I connect to the Internet via TimeWarner Cable using Toshiba cable modem and then a Belkin Pre-N Wireless Router, however, I use a CAT5 ethernet connection cable rather than wireless to connect.

I have carefully run every step in your required "READ ME & RUN ME FIRST Before Asking For Support" document. No problems were reported on any scanning, except, CWSShredder which found and fixed 5 items. I have attached this HIJACKTHIS Log and the Bitdefender Log. I ran Panda Activescan Twice, each time getting all zeros - no problems found, but I could not see where the link was to save a Log.

My identified problems are as follows:

Prob #1:
With multiple windows open such as (IE Explorer), Outlook, Outlook Express, etc, WindowsXP seems to randomly "lose focus" preventing me from typing in any window or using my mouse to switch to any open Window. In order to regain full control, I must perform the three finger salute CTL-ALT-DEL to open the Task Manager and then Click on the X to close the Task Manager. Actually, the first time I click on the X, the Task Manager header becomes greyed out. When I then click on the X a second time, the Task Manager closes as expected and I then have full use of all open windows, mouse, keyboard, etc. How Special!!! This anamoly (loss of focus) happens randomly and sometimes 3 to 8 times a hour. It is, as I'm sure you'll agree, very aggrevating. HELP!

Prob #2:
I use Spysweeper on three different machines running WinXP SP2. It works very well in all cases, however, on all three machines, when I try to Shut Down or Restart my computer, I am quickly presented with a Windows End Task Dialogue for Spysweeper. I wait for the progress bar to complete (about 20-30 seconds). At that point, nothing further happens, UNLESS, I click either End Now or Cancel, at which time the computer appears to shutdown normally, except I do hear a rather large beep during the shutdown process. Webroot tech support has told me to be sure I have the latest program and definition updates, which I do automatically each day. They also said to run a Spysweeper Scan from Safe Mode and if it found any malware to clean it. Then run the scan two additional times. Well, using their instructions, I find NO malware at all. Since I run Spysweeper automatically on startup with all switches enabled, I rarely, if ever see any spyware/malware in the daily scans that I perform. So... even doing as they suggest, I cannot get any of my three machines to shut down in an orderly and unattended manner. One last thing, I also uninstalled Spysweeper from all three machines and pulled new setup programs from Webroot and reinstalled fresh copies. Same aggrevating results on all three machines. Heavens-to-mergatroid, even!

Please help, if possible.

Thanks for the great website and huge community service you perform! MajorGeeks.Com Rocks!

 

This doesn't appear to be a malware problem. Your logs are clean. You may want to post about this in the Software Forum.

<< The installed version of Java on this compter is out-dated. Install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 7 available from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. Uninstall all older versions of Java on your computer, before installing the latest version of Java. >>

 

Thank you, Shadow_Puter_Dude for the prompt reply and clean bill of health re: HijackThis log. I will for sure update Sun Java per your instructions.

Time exists solely so that all one's computer challenges are not resolved all at once!

 

Thanks for your time and kind assistance, chaslang. I'll implement each suggestion and report back.

 

Questions... must I uninstall SpywareGuard and Windows Defender, or can I just remove them from Startup?

Also, I commonly receive a number of SpySweeper alerts advising that it is blocking this malware or that, particularly after initial rebooting. If I temporarily remove SpySweeper and go online to test the "lose of focus" issue, don't I run the risk of acquiring more malware?"