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system is not working help!

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i was having problems getting my net start spooler to start on its own. had posted some questions and got a responce of this:

May be a stretch, but since print spooler depends on RPC, try suggestion in article below.

https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5138-10589-5657162.html?tag=search

this rpc fix had me switch the rpc to local rather than network all was good infact joy. got icons i was missing printer worked , so i set a restore point. at some point it looks like an auto update came in ........that i did not know about and loaded. now i did not know this had happened, the other half started up the system and now it just hangs took almost 15 min to get a desk top and nothing seems to work. i did restart in safe mode and tryed to go back to the restore point, that i had just set, thats when i noticed the update that took place 15min after i set the point. did the restore but same problem. went back to feburary last point i had set and still not luck. help how can i restore with out loseing data ect.......

24 replies

by craig herberg

Before you do a complete reinstall, try the following. Get Webroot Spysweeper and do a scan of your hard drive. If it finds spyware, let it delete it, and scan again, until the scan comes up clean. There is a good chance that will fix your problem.

If it does not, get Symantec Ghost v9 and an external hard drive. Boot from the emergency CD and copy all of the files you need onto the external hard drive. Now you are ready to reinstall the operating system and restore your needed files from the external drive. Make sure to install Norton Internet Security 2005 or Zonealarm Security Suite, and Webroot Spysweeper.

Good luck.

Craig Herberg

by heather.smith

i already have spybot and use trend micro internet security do i really need to use another spyware program? also what happens if i use my xp cd to repair? do i lose all my programs/data/ music ect... that i have loaded?
also when i tried to undo the change to the rpc back to network it is greyed out and i can not choose that option.

by heather.smith

also this is a up dated version of xp home w/ sp2 i originally had me on the system and about 6 months ago installed the xp.????????

by willcomp

You are just not having enjoyable computing experiences lately.

Boot into safe mode and try to uninstall (Add/Remove Programs) MS security update that auto-installed.

Apparently something was installed either by MS update or malware that is creating a problem. Restore point will not usually eliminate these.

Since you have XP, install MS Anti-Spyware Beta (from microsoft.com). It's good and free for now.

If a repair installation becomes necessary, you will need a fully installable retail or OEM XP CD (not an upgrade CD).

Try the easier methods first. If they don't work, post back and I or someone will provide instructions for a repair install. A repair install should not affect data or installed software.

Dalton

by willcomp

From Restore Point identification, sounds like malware vs MS update. Also, you can uninstall MS security updates.

Should have thought about Installer problem with MS Anti-Spyware. Ad-Aware SE will install in safe mode and definition updates can be downloaded and manually copied to Ad-Aware folder. Spybot is good, but it usually takes 2 or more programs to remove adware/spyware.

Should have internet access, even in safe mode, if you bootup with network access. Try running an on-line scan such as Housecall.

XP loads USB drivers in safe mode and USB devices will usually work.

Since you can boot into safe mode, should be recoverable. Just difficult to pinpoint problem without having PC to work with.

Dalton

by willcomp

Been having problem with answers "disappearing" and reappearing lately. TR Staff has been informed, but not fixed yet.

by willcomp

Was that an online game he was playing? If so, you are likely infected with malware.

by zlitocook

Remove your restore points first, they can hold any virus or trojan that you have picked up. Down load the newest antivirus dat files. If on a network unplug it. Go to another computer down load Stinger, with all virus files. This is a three or four part down load. Boot to floppys with Stinger first, run them and then boot to safe mode and run your antivirus. Reboot and run spybot search and distroy and reboot. If this does not work and you do not need to save anything on your hard drive, Boot to your OEM CD the cd that came with your computer and chose reinstall. This will wipe your hard drive and remove every thing. If you need to save things you need take your computer to a shop that can try to save your data and reinstall your software. I tryied to help people to do this but it became too hard to explane how to do this.

by heather.smith

ok tried to install ms anti-spyware beta...in safe mode, windows installer is not loaded so it will not load. reran spybot nothing... checked the entries in add remove nothing added on 4/20/05 which is day the "update" occured. went into restore for that day it was called "software distribution service 2.0" also tried to run my p-cillin/ trend micro can't start scanning in safe mode.
also got a question if drivers dont load in safe mode how would i load an exturnal hd? to copy my files???

by heather.smith

ok the culpret ie my husband just told me it didnt just start-up bad he played three games of risk first and while he was playing trend micro wanted to update he says he click yes and went on playing. he also said it came up a coulp of times after that and he just clicked on them to keep playing. eventually risk game said something was wrong and shut down. he said he rebooted several times and was not able to access anything, "it was like it just locked-up"
so now i'm not sure what to try..........i did a search and can see what was accessed, modified, ec t but i can not post it here it copied it like a pic. so tried to save it as txt but nope that didnt work either. ??????????

by heather.smith

update... did housecall nothing...did adware caught a few, did webroot spysweeper, caught one. rebooted nothing.
looks like from the add/remove the only updates are from 2/05. but if i search on the 22nd there was an update with the name i described before so i am not sure. what is puzzeling me is that the husband used the system for a while and then it became unstable and lock up....what ever its doing.
doing a defrag now and going to try a few things yet.....dont know what else to try

by heather.smith

i must have maxed out. so the last 2 posts are not there tried housecall, adware, webroot, mcafie one wont load in safr mode.

by heather.smith

what i had posted before is the culpret ie the husband confessed today that he had play 3 games of risk on the system before it became unstable. he says that he rebooted at least three times and had no luck getting anything on the desktop to run also includeing the start button. cntrl alt del does not work either. so he just shut it off.

by blackcurrant

Hi

From what you have said so far, it sounds like Trend Micro freaked out while Risk was being played. Most games are resource intensive so I wonder if Trend Micro was unable to do its thing (to use the technical terminology).

Try uninstalling Trend Micro and then reinstalling it. When you uninstall it, make sure that all references to the program have been removed from the C:\Documents and Settings folder too. Otherwise, when it reloads it may just reinstate the old settings.

You may also want to uninstall Risk prior to doing this, then reinstall after Trend Micro is back.

Good luck

by _christian_

Looks to me like a VERY mixed-up situation, so I will try to eliminate some issues, first.

A) I know the game Risk. If it is a genuine copy, it has no call to interfer with the PC, and I who forget about it. If it is not, then look for a trojan.

B) What about this "Trend Micro update"? this is not MS update, is that something you might have legitimately expected? If not, then it is likely that your husband fell victim of a common hacker practice, and acccepted something without checking if that was genuine or not.
In that case, I would definitively look for a Trojan.

C) Back to the anti-virus. In one of your posts you referred, if I understood correctly, to the anti-virus software unable to start correctly.
That very definitely stinks of a virus or trojan, since many are able to disable anti-viruses.

What I would do in your case is to create a safe anti-virus boot disk, on a known clean PC (definitely not that one). Most anti-virus softwares have an option for that.
Then boot your PC with that floopy disk, and see what happen...

Worse case scenario, if it was a destructive trojan or virus, you may have to reinstall windows from CD boot, on top of your current installation.

Now, if there was no virus, there are other options to investigate, but this is the most likely reason, given the scenario you described.

by heather.smith

you did not solve my problem but you did lay things out in a way that with all the other answers I got it help get me to my final solution. 400 points

by heather.smith

new piece of info-the husband brought home one of the IT guys from work, who said that my CPU useage said it was at 100% yet nothing was running. So I went to trend micro to see about I dont know what but I found that after the last up date there was a pattern of high cpu utilization and it gives a fix. So i'll go home and that and the many new sugestions and i'll let ya know, wish me luck or JOY!

by heather.smith

ok well.....??????????? no one figured it out. but you cant believe how much i learned in the process. So.........the soulution Trend Micro put out an update..........while my husband was playing Risk........go figure. so anyway, something about that update made many windows cpu basicly esperience high if not maxed cpu utilization. thus why things were not working and no viruses/ spyware/ malware showed up. the fix was posted right on the frount page of tren micro's web site. basicly it had me take out the file reboot and well............nothing but JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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