Programs non responsive

[lilia_sergei]

Recently I have been have some problems with my computer, programs become non responsive, and stop working and I have to constantly close down the windows and reboot for everything to start responding again. Also I having some problems with my mesenger programs (msn and yahoo). People have logged out but it doesn't show that on my list, until i log out and back in again, and idle settings for people on yahoo don't work it just says idle and no longer tells me the times. When I log out and back into yahoo the time comes up how long someone has been idle but goes back to 1 minute everytime i log back out and in again.

I tried to do as many of the steps in the before posting section, my ''Spybot'' scan worked but then stopped working about half way through, I was able to get my ''Ad-Aware SE Personal'' yesterday, but today it did the same thing as ''SpyBot''. The ''AVG Anti-Spyware'' and ''Windows Detector'' worked and I did as I was instructed. I was unable to do any online scan, I tried more than once but everytime I got there the browser stopped responding.

Here is my HJT log.

Sorry if I am not very clear with my writing, English is not my first language. Thank you in advance for any help.
Sergei

[PhilliePhan]

Hi Sergei,

At quick glance, I do not see any obvious malware in your HJT Log.

You do have a great deal running at startup and perhaps that is contributing to your problem.


I would like to have a look with a different analysis tool, though:
Please go to this link and follow the instructions to scan with WinPFind by OldTimer.

Please submit the WinPFind Log and we'll take a closer look to rule out malware.


-- I imagine Judy will check in before I am able to respond again and she will likely have some suggestions for you.

Best Luck
PP

[jholland1964]

Hi lilia_sergei,
Well PP is certainly correct in his judgement, as he usually is..you have a huge amount of unnecessary programs running at Start and in this log you have posted you are showing at least 60 processes, including HJT of course, running during the scan. Honestly? I am almost surprised the HJT scan itself ran. 60 processes are entirely too many and many of these are resource hogs too.
Let's see if we can pare down some of these auto start entries and therefore cut some of these running processes too and see if this makes a difference.
Now first of all, by all means DO run the WPFind program that PP requested, this will show us if there are other items running that the HJT log cannot show us.

Now let's look at some of these unnecessary processes which were running during the scan, which tells me they probably run all the time.
Three that pop out at me immediately are these;

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine\YahooWidgetEngine.exe
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine\YahooWidgetEngine.exe
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine\YahooWidgetEngine.exe

While these may seem innocent and look good and give you information, you think you need at hand all the time...weather, digital time, stock changes, whatever, all of these things can easily be found by saving weather, time, stocks etc., websites in your favorites rather than having them running all the time as a process and while I have no idea which three you are running I will tell you that these Widgets require extra computer memory for each process to run, thus slowing other things down, which ARE necessary.

You have a huge number of security programs running in the background. While they all can make the computer more secure, running so many also takes up more computer memory. For now turn off ALL except your Norton program, which in itself IS a resource hog but since it is the PAID program here, lets turn off the others running in the background FOR NOW. Go into each individual program and turn off the option to run at start and to scan all the time in the background.

Now it is apparent to me that one reason you are using so many security programs is that you use P2P file sharing You are using a cleaner program, which itself does not contain malware, Limewire. BUT, as with all P2P sharing programs they are susceptible to various forms of malware.
AND you have Limewire set to run at Start up, this is NOT necessary, and it takes up valuable system resources. Run it manually.
Another file sharing program you have set to run at Start Up is BearShare file sharing client. Some versions of THIS program ARE known to include spyware, personally, I would uninstall this program via Add/Remove and not use it at all.
GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe>>>This program will notify you when you attempt to change the Internet Explorer search engine to something other than Google and asks if you would like to allow the change. Totally Unecessary. But to remove it you must disable the setting in the Toolbar settings and then remove the autorun entry.

You also had two instances of HP Imaging Software running in the background. This is totally unnecessary except when you are actually working with pictures. Turn it off.

Here are other auto start entries from the log that can easily be run manually and DO NOT have to auto-start;
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IS CfgWiz] C:\Program Files\Norton Internet Security\cfgwiz.exe /GUID {257BBC47-1B26-432e-9F84-188603799DD3} /MODE CfgWiz /CMDLINE "REBOOT">>> Norton Internet Security configuration wizard. NOT necessary once your installation is complete. Turn it off.

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BearShare] "C:\Program Files\BearShare\BearShare.exe" /pause

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender] "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe" -hide

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [!AVG Anti-Spyware] "C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5\avgas.exe" /minimized
O4 - Startup: LimeWire On Startup.lnk = C:\Program Files\LimeWire\LimeWire.exe

O4 - Startup: Yahoo! Widget Engine.lnk = C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine\YahooWidgetEngine.exe

O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe>>>can easily be run manually.

O4 - Global Startup: GetRight - Tray Icon.lnk = C:\Program Files\GetRight\getright.exe>>>download manager for resuming downloads and choosing multiple download locations. The freeware version is/was spyware. The registered version isn't if you don't install the Aureate/Radiate software. Available via Start -> Programs

Now of course the preferred way to turn off these auto-starts is via each programs options. But, sometimes, these cannot be easy to find I know. Look in each to be certain. But if you cannot find a way to turn off the auto start option then I recommend using a very small FREE program called Mike Lin's StartupControl Panel. Extremely easy to use.
Turn off the extra backgroun portions of those security programs, turn off the auto start option of the programs I have listed here, reboot and see if things speed up. Be sure to run WPFind and post the log for PP to look over.

[lilia_sergei]

Thank You for all your help so far.

I have managed to get into the programs to turn some of them off, but mainly they all become non responsive before I can find what to turn off. I managed to download the ''WinPFind'' should I do that now or get that ''StartupControl Panel'' first? ALso I couldn't find Bearshare anywhere, I looked in Add/Remove and it was nowhere, I looked in my Program files and it wasn't there. I tried to search for it but my computer became stopped responding everytime I tried to search for it.

[jholland1964]

lilia,
Show hidden files and folders-configure Windows to show all files
Click Start.
Open My Computer.
Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
Select the View Tab.
Under the Hidden files and folders heading select Show hidden files and folders.
Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (recommended) option.
Click Yes to confirm.
Click OK.

Can you get into Safe Mode? Close out your browser. Then go to Start, Run and type in msconfig in the box that opens. When the System Configuration Utility opens go to the BOOT.INI tab, check /SAFEBOOT.
Then click OK. When you are asked to restart, then Restart the computer. The computer will then shut down and restart in Safe Mode.

You will get a box asking if you want to boot to Safe Mode, say yes. The desktop WILL look different.
This will stop most of the unnecessary things from running and you should then be able to get into most programs and stop that auto boot process of those I have noted.

While in Safe Mode also do a File and Folder search for that BearShare program, because it is there someplace.
Go to Start, Search, Files and Folders. Just type in BearShare. Make sure you also tell it to look in Hidden files and folders too. Let it search the computer and see if it is found. If it IS found, delete all folders found.

If you cannot find it, don't worry, we will.
Go back into msconfig and take the checkmark OUT of Safe Boot. Restart the computer and it should boot to Normal.
Then download the WPFind tool and run it and post the log here. Wait until we tell you to download the Startup Control Panel

[lilia_sergei]

When turning off the autostart settings after I had done it, the program always stop respond again, and I was not able to get back into the program again. Could you just look at this new HJT log and tell me which were removed and which ones I have to do in Safemode, that is if I was able to remove any. Also I was wondering if its possble to remove things from start up using the Software Explorer section, in the tools on Windows Defender, if I can't manage any other way as a last resort?

Thank You
Sergei

[jholland1964]

Basically none of them were removed. The log looks pretty much the same. Well, I will take that back, those Yahoo Widgets are gone but pretty much everything else is still there.. You really are not going to get any results unless you do it the way described. Safe Mode.
You just plain have TOO much running. You have got to turn off some of these programs. Like I said, turn off all those security programs and to be honest, if you can, turn off that Norton stuff for now. It looks to me as if it is also hogging everything.
I, myself, use Norton Anti-virus...NOTHING ELSE Norton. I don't use their security center or their anti-spy programs, just the anti-virus.
There are just some computers that cannot handle the Norton Security Center program.
The other thing I just am not sure of are all the Toshiba items running. Since I don't have a laptop computer I really am not familiar with what is really required. So I cannot advise on those.

Please follow the instructions as given and go to safe mode and do it. Trying to do all this in normal mode is really a losing battle for now.
Please DO not use any other program, including Windows Defender(turn it off and forget you have it for now) to do these steps. Just follow procedures outlined by PhilliePhan and myself.

[lilia_sergei]

Thank You for all your advices so far,

I tried to go into safemode lots of times. but everytime text was put into the box, it stopped responding, I tried both typing misconfig and copying and pasting it but it seemed to make no difference. As soon as any text was put into the space everything just stopped responding.

I tried to take things off autostart as best I could and I think I managed to do a few more aside from the widgets. I'm very sorry if its really no better, but I managed to get into a good few of the programs you mentioned and did try to take them off autostart.

Thank You for all the help so far, here is my HJT so far. It looks better to me, but I'm sorry if nothing has changed but without being able to get into Safemode this is so far the best I have been able to do.

Thanks,
Sergei

[jholland1964]

Gonna look at the log in a little while. Try going into Safe mode this way.
Shut down the computer. Reboot and tap the F8 Key. You should get a "choice" page of what boot option to choose, choose Safe Mode and click Enter.
Once you complete your work in safe mode then just reboot and the computer should boot back to normal mode.

[lilia_sergei]

I've tried that a few times now and it doesn't seem to do anything. The only plus so far is Windows loads a bit quick but aside from that the problem still doesn't seem to have changed. Sorry, and thank you for all your advices so far.

Sergei