Corruption, Crashes, Stop Errors, Oh My!

[doodler85]

So... my home PC is going downhill. I'm getting stop errors, corruption errors, and program crashes, which are all recent. I'm hoping this is a driver issue, but I'd very much appreciate some feedback.

Here's the history of any recent system changes, followed by system specs.

1) Uninstalled Bitdefender 10, Installed Bitdefender 2008
2) Purchased / set up new myBook 500 gb external
3) Made some changes to my backup system, has it back up to myBook and two other HDD's nightly.
4) Noticed some system slowdown
5) Came home and system activity / LED lights were on, but it would not turn on or off. Holding down the power button did not turn it off either, and I had to flip off the power supply.
6) Bitdefender 2008 is annoying. But it found a number of viruses in my email (thunderbird) archives (which I assume were old quarantined or deleted messages).
7) In the mornings I find my computer restarted w/ "serious error" pop up.
8) On startup Bitdefender's ThreatScan (or something) engine crashes, notifies that it needs to close.
9) Firefox started crashing frequently
10) Uninstalled firefox, tried to reinstall, the installer errors as corrupt 2/3 times.
11) Re-installed firefox, still crashes.
12) Try to re-download firefox via IE7, IE7 crashes.
13) Stop Error / Immediate restart.
14) Try to do bitdefender scan, it crashes, I quickly get a stop error, restart.

At this point I turned off my external drives in case this is a virus, but it's probably too late in that case. I'm also thinking there could be driver corruption, but I'm not sure which one, and I'm not sure that would explain the corruption errors. So at this point I'm contemplating a System Restore to prior to all this. What do you guys think?

System specs:

Home brew machine (built last July/Aug 07)

Q6600, 4 gb ram, XP 32 bit, EVGA 8800 GTS, 2x320 GB seagate 7200.10 SATA drives, gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R mobo, creative x-fi.

Thanks!

 

[Slowlearner]

This sort of problem is common with neglected pcs that have not been patched/updated, purged of malware/spyware, and other normal maintenance required. But then it could be the hd failing. As as first step Ii suggest the following:

The whole drive has to be scanned a couple of times. So:

1. Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools> Disk Cleanup 10 min to 30 min

2. Download Startup from : http://www.mlin.net/files/StartupCPL_EXE.zip
save in a new folder, unzip it and run it to see what programs are running
Normally only the Anti Virus should be running at idle. Uncheck (dont delete)
any programs you don't recognize.

3. Download Spybot - Search and Destroy from http://www.spybotupdates.com/files/spybotsd152.exe
Install it > Skip all intermediate steps by clicking on Next Next >>Start Using
At the Main Screen Click on Check for Updates and select their Safer-Networking Europe site - Chose Only Detection rules (there are whole bunch of these) and the Main Immunization database - Nothing else specially TCP/IP helper etc. Run Spybot - can take up to 30 min+ . When it finds all the malware - Click on Fix selected problems - it may require a re-start if malware is already loaded

3. Re-start the computer in Safe mode with networking << keep pressing the F8 key after the bios loads

4. Start Internet Explorer, go to http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner - Accept the license The low resolution graphics can make it difficult to view the full screen. Also you may need to allow temporarily Active X controls - a little bar will appear on top - right click to install

Kaspersky Online scanner will down load up dates - can take long 30 -40 min
Then click on Next- Choose Folder and and select the C drive
and run - will take anything from 1 hour to 4 hours (<<if the hard drive is large)
After it finishes - it does not clean anything - save the report on the hard drive and print it out

5. Then try to delete all the files it has listed as "suspicious" or Adware manually -specially any in the Windows\System32 sub folder. Look out for oddly named files like ahjkld.dll - Ignore any files quarantined by the Anti Virus program

6. Once that's done, Turn System Restore off Start>Right click on My Computer> Properties>System Restore>check Turn off System restore on all drives - otherwise it will bring back everything deleted/fixed in the previous steps

7. Re-start the computer normally - if everything works - Create a new Restore Point
Start >All programs> Accessories>System Tools> System Restore

Note: some spyware embed themselves in the operating system and if you try to delete them manually in Step 5, you will get an error message stating - File in use - Access Denied - write down the names of those files on a sheet of paper - You may need to boot off a Bart PE or UBCD4Ein CD to delete them.


It might also be good idea to run hd manufacturer's (Seagate/WD) diagnostics on the hd.

And as a last resort you can try a repair install on Windows - this leaves your data/program files intact - but fixes Windows issues

 

[doodler85]

Hey, thanks for the reply Slowlearner. I'm not exactly a "computer neglecter", but I'll run some scans. I have virus and malware scans going daily so I'd be surprised if that's the cause.

Once I back up my email I'm going to see if the problem could be isolated to the Anti-Virus install... then if things are still screwed up I'll run a bunch of scans. If they still find nothing, I'll go back to a restore point prior to my recent installs. If that doesn't work, then ... I imagine things will get more annoying.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The specific errors would be helpful. One other possibility that often masquerades as a bad HD is a failing PSU.

 

[Slowlearner]

Good to know that virus and malaware scan were run regularly << the IE and firefox crashes led me to suspect that. I would still look at the start up programs - are they all legit?. Run the Kaspersky's online scan anyway.

I would run a full diagnostics test on the HD using manufacturers tools - Seagate Seatools.

If the test comes out clean - back up important documents/pictures/music etc. and then try a repair install.

Report back if you run into problems.