WinXPpro Major problems!!!

[Chain777]

I'm running a dual boot WinXPpro/Win 98se system, and ran into a Major problem. I used the system in the morning to check e-mail and browse some news websites (Drudge, BBC; etc.) and had no problems.


Now, when I tried to log on later in the afternoon; things started going crazy.


First KaazaLite opened without my input, and then things got even more bizzare. I couldn't left click on anything to get a menu up or shut down a program, and trying to open anything using the start menu resulted in programs opening randomly; sometimes opening multible screens or shutting things down completely. Also, when I would try to run Norton antivirus, it would crash by opening multible screens and shutting off.
I finally was able to get to system restore, and reset to an earliar date, with the same results. I'm lucky I can even send this message, and don't know what to do at this point.

Has anyone had similar problems. It seems to be a virus, but I can't track it down. Norton deep scanned the whole system with the latest definitions and came up empty. I'm still not sure what the problem is; or if I can recover. FYI, this is running under WinXPpro. I'm too afraid to even try to open Win98se. I'm not even sure this message will make it through.



HELP!!!


Please.

 

[sparrow18]

Bless you.....(updating your interesting forum)

 

[tboneuls]

Try starting WinXP up in safe mode (by pressing F8 while it boots) and see if you can uninstall any programs that may be causing problems or abnormalities (eg, kazaa lite). Also check to see if you still have the unusual opening of random programs or windows. If it still happens in safe mode, I would try booting up to win98...if it happens in win98, then it sounds like you've got some serious problems and may need to reformat.

 

[TD77077]

Have you tried running Norton AV from a boot disk?

 

[Chain777]

I knew there probably weren't going to be any quick fix answers. Thanks for trying anyway.

I think I fixed it. Believe it or not, Zonealarm seems to have been the culprit. I use the built in firewall in XP, but got a little paranoid so I installed the latest version of Zonealarm. All seemed fine for a few days, then all hell broke loose. I've never seen a computer running any operating system go this crazy. There was just no rhyme or reason for what was happening; no right click on the mouse, programs opening faster than I could shut them down, all kinds of crazy sh*t.

Anyway, I finally was able to force the machine into a stable enough state to use system restore a second time and rolled back a little further, and that seemed to do the trick (thank god for system restore). If any of you have this feature disabled, trying to get a little boost in performance, DON'T. It's not worth the risk.

And watch out for Zonealarm if your using XP! After doing a little searching, I found I'm not the only one who's had problems with that combo. Just go to download.com and look at the negative comments about the latest version of Zonealarm (the free version).

Sitting here with fingers and toes crossed