[havredave]

Try disabling Ad-Aware Security Toolbar and seeing if you still get those pagenotfound.co.uk problems:

Open Internet Explorer, click the tools pulldown, choose "Manage Add-Ons". Find "Ad-Aware Security Toolbar" in the list, and highlight it, then click the Disable button. Close the management window, restart Internet Explorer, and see if you still have problems. If not, then the issue was indeed Ad-Aware.

As you pointed out, the problem isn't just you, and appears to have much to do with Ad-Aware itself.

Let me know how it turns out.

[Advertisements]

Well, I checked Manage Add-ons and the Ad-aware toolbar is already disabled!

[Tracey Lowndes]

Well, I checked Manage Add-ons and the Ad-aware toolbar is already disabled!

[havredave]

I'll see if I can come up with another method of finding out why it's using that particular page, rather than the standard 'broken image' icon or similar. It seems to me that those pages are being blocked intentionally by something, and Ad-Aware is the common theme.

In the meantime, since you're using the free Ad-Aware, you could try uninstalling it as a test. It can always be re-installed afterward.

I'll get back with you on alternative (to what we've tried so far) methods of figuring out which program is blocking with pagenotfound. Please let me know if you decide to try testing Ad-Aware's involvement via uninstalling, and whether or not it worked.

[Tracey Lowndes]

Thanks for the reply. I'll uninstall Ad-aware (including the IE toolbar), and tell you if that solved the problem.

[Tracey Lowndes]

Sorry, I've not done anything at at all (partly my own fault)! Unfortunately I'm going away tomorrow for 1 week, but I'll deal with everything when I return, OK?

[havredave]

Sure, that's fine. We might even take another angle by then, but we'll see. Let me know when you're back!

[Tracey Lowndes]

I'm back - I returned on Thursday. I'll do my jobs soon, OK?

[havredave]

Ok.

Do make sure that in addition to removing Ad-Aware for this test, you remove any toolbars or other safe-surfing software that installed with it.

I look forward to the results!

[havredave]

Due to lack of feedback, this topic has been closed.

If you need this topic reopened, please contact a staff member. This applies only to the original topic starter. Everyone else please begin a New Topic.

[havredave]

Re-opened at user's request

[Tracey Lowndes]

Okay, here's an update!

Well, I've finally removed Ad-aware and the associated IE toolbar from my computer and replaced it with the free version of Malwarebytes.

I've also upgraded Adobe Reader, as you advised, and some other software.

And there's something I should have mentioned when I started this topic. For some months, AVG has notified me of high memory usage in IE. I didn't mention this because I thought it was related to Ad-aware, however, a Google search has indicated that the notification has nothing to do with my problem, but if you would like to discuss the matter further, let me know!

I don't know whether pagenotfound.co has gone, as I only uninstalled Ad-aware yesterday.

So what happens next?

[havredave]

Ok, as far as your initial problem is concerned, we should wait at least 24 hours and see if you still get redirects. If you do, then I dig (a lot) deeper, which will likely take quite a while.

Hearing that IE is using a lot of memory during normal use isn't that surprising, really. In a browser, that will increase with the content in a page. For instance, a lot of Flash content, Java applets, or things of that nature will increase the amount of memory used until the page is closed or you browse to another, lower-load site, such as Google's homepage.

The XP machine we're dealing with is a bit older and a bit low on RAM, so again, not really all that surprising.

Let me know by tomorrow if you can whether or not you're still getting redirects, and we'll go from there.

[Tracey Lowndes]

Update!

I've been on one of the sites that had a problem with pagenotfound.co, and I THINK the problem has gone. I haven't checked any of the other sites, however. So I may be speaking too soon, but I HOPE the problem has gone away.

So what next?

[havredave]

If the initial problem is gone, then there's nothing left.

You've updated the software that was out of date, and nothing malicious was spotted, nor were you having malicious symptoms, so I think you're in good shape.

Here's a last bit of instruction to clean up the utilities we used:

Run OTL

• Then click the Clean Up button at the top
• Let the program run unhindered; it will reboot the PC when it is done

Delete aswMBR.exe from your desktop (or wherever you saved it).



Would you like to touch on the other laptop now, or start a new topic for that one when you have time?

[Tracey Lowndes]

I ran OTL as you instructed, but then it stopped at "Processing [deleteself]....", so I had to close it. I did a Google search on a Mac, and it seems I can delete it manually. Shall I do that? Also what about aswMBR.exe, do I delete that manually as well?