If you couldn't get in, how did you manage the bitdefender scan in the first place?
One thing you might try is removing the hard drive from your computer (if its a desktop?), hooking it up to another computer, and scanning it from there.
You can also try the UBCD (www.ubcd4win.com), boot your computer from the special CD you create, and run scans from it instead. It has helped me in the past a lot.
Cheers!
--The Comodore
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {17E194EC-5C4D-4D32-97A7-3F79EE5C8C78} - c:\windows\system32\atidemgrv.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_05\bin\npjpi150_05.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} -
look suspicious to me- especially the no name bit. They're probably just orphaned processes, so they're probably good to fix anyways. I'd recommend fixing them? Otherwise you appear clean to my- new-to-hijack-this- reading.
Also, you can try the shotgun approach: Update all your protection (Trendmicro Antivirus, Webroot SpySweepr (which your HJT log say you have) and whatever else you might have- or will download- AVG Antispyware- http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0 A-squared free- http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/ or whatever else- and run full scans.
Also, run some online scans:
CA Virus Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
CA Malware Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/pestscan/
Trend Micro HouseCall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
BitDefender Free Online Scanner http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
McAfee FreeScan http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?affid=294
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Symantec Security Check http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym
Panda ActiveScan http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/
---Under this line does not remove, only finds, threats---
Webroot Antispyware Scan: http://www.webroot.com/En_US/land-spysweeper-freescan.html
Kaspersky Free Virus Scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner (Seems to be too sensitive)
Prevex free scan: http://info.prevx.com/downloadcsi.asp
Clean out your junk files (CCleaner is useful for this: www.ccleaner.com)
Post back with results!
Good luck,
--The Comodore
Its a pretty bad idea to change the OS of any laptop, particularly those that are newer. Older ones converting to linux and such is okay, and *maybe* an upgrade install, but other than that, its always the best course of action to stay with whichever OS shipped with the machine. This is mainly because of drivers- I reinstalled a copy of windows XP on my machine (doing a repair install) and I was missing the drivers for my NIC cards! I couldn't access the internet!
Now, if you're willing to hunt down every driver for every component- particularly anything proprietary- then you *can* downgrade.
But its not a very good idea. Vista is the future of Windows, like it or not. It has its problems (particularly, for some reason, on laptops) but so did XP when it came out, and 2000 when it came out, and so on. Its a hungry OS, but if you feed it, it will treat you well.
If you have your heart set that much on downgrading, you'll need to reformat the C: drive- and other drives, too, would be a good idea-(using some third party- linux?- boot CD (the UBCD www.ubcd4win.com has Derek's Boot and Nuke which will do the job. Since you already presumably have a windows XP CD on hand, you can easily create the disk. Its very useful to have on hand! Check it out.))
Once that's done, you have an empty …
Don't need to do anything further, really. You should just make sure you have good defenses (Something let your problem through!), updated windows and your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs. What defenses do you have?
You can also run some free online scans (just to be safe). Here's a bunch for you to consider:
CA Virus Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
CA Malware Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/pestscan/
Trend Micro HouseCall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
BitDefender Free Online Scanner http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
McAfee FreeScan http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?affid=294
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Symantec Security Check http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym
Panda ActiveScan http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/
---Under this line does not remove, only finds, threats---
Webroot Antispyware Scan: http://www.webroot.com/En_US/land-spysweeper-freescan.html
Kaspersky Free Virus Scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
Prevex free scan: http://info.prevx.com/downloadcsi.asp
I recommend running Prevex, as many techies swear by its detection. Just as a way to make sure you're clean of malware. (Don't let me stop you from running any of the other scans as well!)
Good luck!
--The Comodore
Good call.
Norton isn't the best, but it's getting better. It makes for a pretty good backup- but I get physically queezy when I think of it being the front-and-center antivirus program on a computer. Besides, its active protection can bog you down!
And you're most welcome. :)
All the best,
--The Comodore
Don't run two antivirus programs at the same time! (I wish you could but it's a bad idea). They'll conflict with eachother (espeically the active protection), each will think parts of the other to be viruses, and just general bad things can happen. It can lead to system lockups and unbootable systems! Neither program will work correctly, either, so you will be *vulnerable to attacks* :p
It *might* work if you disable all the active protection from one of your programs, leaving it to the other, and use the first program to run scans from time to time... Maybe.
I recommend AVG over Norton. Besides, you can run free scans from the Norton website (one of the links above).
Maybe- (I'm not sure how)- this caused your problem? Or maybe you got infected as AVG and Norton fought eachother?
Glad to hear you'r system is feeling better! Post back if it happens again.
Good luck!
--The Comodore
Just looking at you HJT log, (I'm new to them, so I'm trying to read as many as possible to get used to it) Do you have Norton antivirus and AVG antivirus installed? Or was that AVG antispyware?
Anyways, what you probably have is some sort of malware (I figure you figured that one out :p), and I can't really read your HJT or ComboFix logs well enough to make recommendations on them, but I do suggest running a battery of scans to take the shotgun approach to finding whatever nasties are in your computer. (In safe mode would be best.)
The first thing you should do is back your most important information up (not too much so you don't back the malware up too!)
Then:
Your best option would be to create a Ultimate Boot CD (www.ubcd4win.com), update the antivirus ant antispyware programs, create the disk, boot from it, and run as many scans as you can.
Short of this, you could slave the C: drive to another machine (after backing up the important data on both machines) and run a full set of updated scans with whatever protection you have on that machine and some online scans.
Kaspersky Free Virus Scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
Trend Micro HouseCall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
BitDefender Free Online Scanner http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
McAfee FreeScan http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?affid=294
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool …
Nothing new from me- though the firmware thing is sounding better. Try all the stuff I posted. I hope someone else comes along with some more ideas!
Good luck,
--The Comodore
No problem! It is used mostly for Virus/malware issues and unbootable computers, but it has many diagnostic features and such. Plus, the disk itself (on the menu you get when you first boot off of it) has a bunch of extras- Derek's Boot N' Nuke (to wipe a hard drive clean), Memtest86, and windows XP's recovery console- among others.
I'm using the CD right now, in fact, because I'm having a similar problem to you- I can't delete files and folders on my D: drive. Its odd. If I can't get it to work, I'll post about it. :p
All the best,
--The Comodore
Just to be on the safe side, crack open your case and remove and re-plug all the cables going to and from your optical drive. While you're in there, give it a good dusting (if you haven't already) with a can of compressed air. (Maybe something got loose when you were speeding up your computer, particularly if you already dusted out the case?)
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread93792.html has some interesting help. If I recall you are running windows XP? You might try Dial-a-fix (http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix) which fixes many known problems with 32 bit windows.
This may be worth a shot too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314096/en-us has some more information regarding optical drive issues.
Double check that your BIOS recognizes the drive- try booting off of a CD (like your operating system CD, after changing the boot order in your Setup so CD is before hard drive) just to be sure.
Check the drive manufacturer's website for a firmware update for the drive itself.
Try swapping out the drive for another one maybe? See if it works? If its an option, trade the optical drives with the other machine in question. It would be a good idea to see if your drive works fine in another machine- and this would be a good opportunity.
If your hard drive and optical drive are on the same IDE cable, see if you can find another one to give each drive its own cable- to prevent possible conflicts. You …
You should start a new thread for this I think- just post everything you did and give it a title describing the problem. I don't have time right now to post some help, but I should be free soon.
Good luck!
--The Comodore
Strange, I created my UBCD on vista? You have to run it as an administrator (by right clicking). As for not having SP1 or better, I think the website has some help for that under "Slipstreaming", where you can take care of that.
Here it is: http://ubcd4win.com/slipstream.htm
Its good to have a UBCD on hand anyways- its pretty much an all-purpose tool, and is very useful against malware and viruses.
These other suggestions sound good, so if they don't work, please post back.
Hope everything turns out alright,
--The Comodore
Its strange that Safe Mode doesn't help then. Did you try taking ownership?
Another thing you can do is use a BartPE or Ulitmate Boot CD (do you have one?) so that none of your hard drive's files will be in use by anything- these things are their own operating systems on a CD.
I recommend the UBCD: www.ubcd4win.com The site is very helpful in creating one if you don't have one, but post back with questions!
Once you create the disk, boot off of it, look near the bottom for a windows explorer-like option (its next to the "start" button), find the files in question, and try to delete them.
Good luck,
--The Comodore
I had a similar problem... The way it worked for me was to cut it from its folder and paste it into the recycle bin, but that doesn't sound like it will help you. Hm.
Does it give you an error message?
Maybe if you went into safe mode you could take ownership of the files in question? This helped me once on my XP machine.
Post back and I'll help you further- I'm stumped right now!
Good luck,
--The Comodore
Some info and a description of the problem would be nice.
Also, your problem is not unique- I just answered a post similar to this. Scroll down The Viruses forum until you find "Computer Performance- SLOW!"
Check for similar threads before posting a new one!
Good luck,
--The Comodore
Well, that is usually a sign of spyware- but if you scanned it with everything you've got, then you're probably clean.
Use Startup inspector (as I listed above) http://www.windowsstartup.com/download.php to see all the programs that load on startup and decide which ones to remove- each one has a link to a google search for it in its info pannel.
A disk defragment could help you too.
All of these things have been mentioned before, so try everything and see weather or not your problem continues. :)
All the best,
--The Comodore
What I meant was your hard drive probably has two power connectors on the back. One that matches with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SATA_power_cable.jpg
and one that matches with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Molex_female_connector.jpg
Plug either one or the other in, not both.
--The Comodore
Alright, with SATA you don't need to worry about Jumpers. You're good!
Make sure you don't plug in power to both power ports on the drive, though! I almost did that. There might be one legacy Molex connector (the thick, normal kind of power port on most devices like your CD drive and things) and/or one SATA power port (which is thinner than Molex)
If you plug them both in, you risk damaging your drive!
What else... You could have a bad hard drive controller?
You could try updating the firmware (if thats possible for these new drives), and test them out in a different computer- I think you did that already?- to see if they're having the same problem there.
All the best,
--The Comodore
Alright, so your options are a bit limited for upgrading your processor, but lets see what I can find- This is only if you are still slow after all this stuff.
What do you do with your computer, usually, anyways? 1.8 should be fine for most things, but for gaming and other computer-intensive things, you may want to upgrade.
Looks like you can upgrade to a 2.4 GHz P4 in the same socket (OEM meaning you'll only get the processor, no cooler and no thermal paste- but your cooler should be fine, and you can buy thermal paste for about $6) for about $65- and thats the slowest that is offered.
Thats a nice sum of money, so you might want to check Ebay or your favorite discount site for cheaper- I like Newegg, as they are really fast for shipping and I haven't had any problems with the products they carry.
Remember, though, don't upgrade unless you have to or want to. Its your prerogative :)
All the best, and Godspeed (for you and your computer!)
--The Comodore
Is this the drive you originally tried this with or is it the replacement you mentioned a few posts up?
Its sounding like a bad drive to me if it is the original drive you tried to add.
Is it Serial ATA or Paralell ATA? (SATA or PATA?)
--The Comodore
Glad I could help. Sorry about the sheer length of my post, but speeding up slow computers is one of my favorite topics (along with fighting viruses/worms/malware/hackers and cradling a new CPU in my palm- I don't know why that last one is so heartwarming, it just is :p )
You *should* notice a pretty good increase in your performance. If not, its most likely hardware related.
Did you manage to find out what socket type your motherboard has? What motherboard is it? (The manufacturer, name, and maybe model number would be very helpful. :) )
Wishing you luck,
--The Comodore
Do some basic windows maintenance things to help speed up your computer. Here's a few simple things you can do- though I'm sure you're aware of most of them, it never hurts to reiterate.
--Make sure you're malware free. Sounds like you've done a pretty good job- what applications are you using? If you're using Norton or McAfee, switching to a lighter, more nimble program- AVG, Avast!, NOD32- will likely help you speed up your computer.
Try running some online scans. Here's a list of the ones I know about:
Kaspersky Free Virus Scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
Trend Micro HouseCall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
BitDefender Free Online Scanner http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
McAfee FreeScan http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?affid=294
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool http://www.microsoft.com/security/ma...e/default.mspx
Symantec Security Check http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym
Panda ActiveScan http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeuse...ns/activescan/
--Defragment your hard drive. Files get splintered up and spread out over a hard drive. After enough use, your computer can start having files spread all over the hard drive, making recovering each one time-consuming- and slowing down your computer. Disk defragmenter moves the "splinters" into a more consecutive order, helping to speed up your computer.
Start>All programs>Acessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter>Defragment
--Eliminate junk files that clutter up your PC.
These show up through normal use- temporary files from web surfing, installing applications and such. This can slow down your computer if you have too much …
True, that. Try to find one as close as possible, if needbe?
--The Comodore
Gateway isn't necessarily a bad company... I still have a few gateways that are about 8 years old, still running fine- albeit slow.
Did you check to see if it wasn't the hard drive? That seems most logical to me- the partitioning software killed the drive. Plug it into another machine and see if its recognizable. If it is, then its probably the motherboard- which sounds likely. But you should always start from square one!
Are any capacitors on the motherboard bulging or leaking?
Just a few thoughts- probably a bit late for you.
Happy New Year!
--The Comodore
If you didn't change anything, then the jumpers on your motherboard should be fine as they are.
For your hard drive settings, check out this website to help you with that
http://www.ehow.com/how_6031_change-master-slave-designation.html
You should do master on the original drive and slave on the new one, or do cable select on both and make sure that the original drive is at the end of your cable and the new one is on the second connector a bit further down.
This is all assuming you are using ATA cable (long, wide, flat, cabling that is usually grey) instead of SATA cabling (which is not nearly as wide, thicker, and usually red). If you're using SATA, just make sure you have your original drive plugged into the 0 port (or 1 if there is no 0) and the second one is further along the number line. Its pretty straightforward- you want your main (the one with your OS installed) hard drive to be the lowest down the list, and your second one to be after it, but before any other SATA devices.
Make sense? :p
Tell us if you have more questions!
--The Comodore
Hello!
You've got some good help here, but I just wanted to add something.
If none of that works, you can remove your C: drive, slave it to another machine (making sure to back up your important information!) Boot into safe mode on that machine, and then run your scans. I suggest using whatever is installed on the machine in addition to A-squared free http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/ And perhaps- if you do safe mode with networking- trendmicro housecall
Good luck!
--The Comodore
Sounds like the drive isn't configured right, damaged, not installed right, or its some sort of fluke. Try physically reinstalling it, ensuring any jumpers are correctly set (most likely slave or cable select would suit you). If you have any questions on this, go ahead and give us your setup and hardware information (model number of your hdds and whatever hardware you can) and we should be able to help you. (Like is the drive PATA or SATA? Its your second drive in your system, right? Or are you replacing your C: drive? Those sorts of things :) )
Another possibility is that it is a bad drive. Its actually not that uncommon to receive a drive DOA (Dead on Arrival). I think it has something to do with how incredibly complicated and small the components are becoming, but its just a hunch. Since you presumably just purchased this drive, try returning it to the store or contacting the manufacturer for a replacement if you're still having trouble.
When dealing with your drive, make sure to ground yourself! Use an antistatic strap or antistatic gloves, or at the bare minimum, touch a metal part of your computer case for a few seconds. Don't work on carpet, and unplug your computer unless you can cut the power to your outlet, then you can leave it plugged in so its grounded better. Oh, and a common mistake- that I've made a lot- don't put hardware on the outside of antistatic …
