lsass.exe is killing me

[magreen]

I tried posting this inside another thread, and got no responses. So I'll try starting my own thread.

It just started happening a few weeks ago. Whenever I open an internet explorer window, lsass.exe jumps to 100% usage, and I have a dual core machine. (It has about 13 threads acc. to Windows Task Manager). Also, whenever I click Reply or Quote or Edit or New Topic in the forums here to pop up a window, the computer freezes for about 10-20 seconds as lsass.exe uses 100% cpu usage. Same with any web site that pops up a window when I click something -- I get about a 30 second freeze of the whole computer as lsass.exe uses 100%.

This is driving me absolutely nuts. I have Vista Home Premium SP1 with all the updates.

I searched on Google and found tons of people with this problem and zero solutions.

I had AVG Free 8.0. I updated to 8.5. Didn't help. Ran full scan. Computer is clean.
I had IE 7. Updated to IE8. Didn't help.

Have Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition, ran full scan of computer. Computer is clean.

I thought maybe Ad-Aware caused the problem, since I just installed it a couple weeks ago. I uninstalled it, but nothing's changed.

Somebody please help me. My computer is damn near unusable.

UPDATE 4/19/09: the computer is suddenly all better. No signs of the lsass.exe problem. I did absolutely nothing to fix it. This is really mysterious. I'll keep the OP updated with the status.

 

[C1]

Seems to me a similar problem occurred with lsass for me. I think that it was a bit more serious, but doing an OS repair fixed everything fine. (One day something involving lsass just went bananas.) So if the solution search for a specific fix becomes too time consuming then just doing the repair should take care of it.

 

[techmanc]

Try installing and running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware in safe mode and see if it finds anything.


http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

 

[magreen]

This is interesting... suddenly the computer is working fine. No more lsass.exe problems at the moment. I didn't do anything at all to fix it. Mystery of mysteries.

I'll keep you posted if it comes back intermittently or if it's really gone.

 

[MadRat]

Lsass.exe is frequently used by malware writers since the release of Vista because you can call up any dll inside the %systemroot%\system32 path containing a trojan using the rundll32 executable at start up and 100% of the antivirus software out there ignores it. Sad reality.

Double check your add/remove programs applet in the control panel and make sure Virusremover2008 or Virusremover2009 isn't in your list of installed apps.

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: techmanc
Try installing and running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware in safe mode and see if it finds anything.


http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Thanks for the tip. I installed it and ran it. It came up clean. I didn't run it in safe mode though, since the instructions on their site said you just install it and run it, and didn't mention anything about safe mode. You think safe mode might turn something up when running as administrator didn't?

Originally posted by: MadRat
Lsass.exe is frequently used by malware writers since the release of Vista because you can call up any dll inside the %systemroot%\system32 path containing a trojan using the rundll32 executable at start up and 100% of the antivirus software out there ignores it. Sad reality.

Double check your add/remove programs applet in the control panel and make sure Virusremover2008 or Virusremover2009 isn't in your list of installed apps.

No sign of virusremover or anything like that in my programs list under Control Panel -> Programs and Features. Thanks.

Anyways, the computer is working fine for me right now... weird, it got better as suddenly as it got sick.

 

[thegpfury]

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago. I added more memory (went from 1gb to 4gb) and the problem disappeared. The whole thing was very odd.

What are your specs? I had 1gb of ram and one of those 45 watt amd dual cores running vista x64.

 

[bsobel]

100% of the antivirus software out there ignores it. Sad reality.

Not true

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: thegpfury
I had a similar issue a few weeks ago. I added more memory (went from 1gb to 4gb) and the problem disappeared. The whole thing was very odd.

What are your specs? I had 1gb of ram and one of those 45 watt amd dual cores running vista x64.

I already have 4gb and have had for a year at least. It's a dell dimension e521, x2 3600+, 4gb 1.8V ddr2-800 ram, windows vista home premium sp1, hd2600xt graphics card.

 

[thegpfury]

Weird...

 

[taltamir]

windows update installs and runs a micro anti virus program that is targeted at very specific viruses as a monthly "windows update". my guess is that a virus was piggybacking the lsass and windows update took it out...
go to eset.com and get a free online anti virus scan.

 

[magreen]

But I have windows update set to not install automatically. I don't believe I told it to update new updates on the 19th when it was miraculously healed. But I'll check the update history.