[hutchy32]

I hope someone can help,
my laptop freezes when I start doing things after startup, mainly the internet. It works fine in safe mode but not in normal mode.
I have searched the internet to find solutions which I have tried with no joy, some things have made the laptop last longer but it still freezes.
I have tried going into msconfig and disable everyting in services (apart from microsoft) I also done the same in startup, clicked apply and reset the computer but to no avail.
I thought it could be McAfee, so I reinstalled that but no luck. I have only really tried the internet (IE) to gauge how long my laptop will last before freezing, If I am lucky it will last 5min, maybe 10min and the everything freezes, Could (IE) be the problem as my laptop seems fine most of the time when I do not open (IE), I can go into programs, run Videos and music but when I use (IE) after a few minutes it freezes, then the only way to shut down is to hold the button down.
I have tried running a Malware program but that comes back clean. When I go into Device Manager I have 2 yellow triangles on network adapters, 1 on Microsoft tun Miniport Adaptor #2 and 1 on Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface. When I click on them they come up with "This device cannot start. (code 10) When I click on Check for solutions it comes back with windows can not find driver software. If I click on Update driver, it says Windows has determined the driver softwrae for your device is up to date, so why the yellow triangles?

My laptop is Sony Vaio VGN-AR51J, I am running Vista Hme Premium 32-bit, Processor Intel®Core™2 Duo CPU T7250 @2.00GHz 2.00GHz, RAM 3.00GB

Any help would be gratefully appreciated, there does not seem to be any comsistancy to the freezing apart from going on the internet, which I need badly to plan my holiday for next week in America.
Thanks
Ian.

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Hello and welcome to the Geeks to Go Virus, Spyware & Malware Removal forum. My name is Josh and I will be helping you remove your infection. I am only human not superman - I can make errors but will do my best to help you as best I can so we can solve your problems. If you have since resolved the original problem you were having, I would appreciate you letting me know. Please include a clear description of the problems you're having along with any steps you may have performed so far if you haven't already.

Some of the following instructions to begin the malware removal process can be hard to follow - let me know if you have any questions. Please read all of my responses through at least once before attempting to follow the procedures described. I would recommend printing them out, if you can, as you can check off each step as you complete it. Also please do not attempt any disinfection procedures without my instruction as things can go wrong that way or lengthen the time it takes to disinfect your computer. Also please follow your topic to conclusion or your system may not be completely clean, and it will be more vulnerable to future infections.

Throughout our interactions I will be using canned speeches. These are premade speeches for different scenarios we will encounter. If you find errors like bad links in my canned speeches please let me know so I can fix them.

Please copy and paste all logs into your reply. Do not attach logs to a post unless I tell you to or if they don't fit in the post.

One more thing - please refrain from using your computer until it is disinfected unless you absolutely have to (unless you are following my disinfection procedures) - if you do have to use your computer please disconnect it from the Internet - that way the current malware cannot propagate further infections.

Expect no more than 36 hours between your post and my response unless World War 3 breaks out and I will need at most 48 hours for initial analysis of your OTL log. Good luck! After 4 days if a topic is not replied to we assume it has been abandoned and it is closed.

The first step is to get an OTL log by doing the following. Then we can begin disinfection. Also we will run aswMBR to scan for infections prevalent these days and Farbar Service Scanner to see if your services are working properly. Please do the following:

(this will work in safe mode with networking if you can't get it to work in normal mode)

Step 1

• Download OTL from here
• Double click OTL to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed to let it run uninterrupted.
• Select the Scan All Users box in the middle on the top of the window
• Under the Custom Scans/Fixes box paste this in:
  
  

  netsvcs
  %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
  /md5start
  services.*
  WSHELPER.*
  consrv.dll
  explorer.exe
  winlogon.exe
  Userinit.exe
  svchost.exe
  /md5stop
  C:\Windows\assembly\tmp\U\*.* /s
  %Temp%\smtmp\1\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\2\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\3\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\4\*.*
  >C:\commands.txt echo list vol /raw /hide /c
  /wait
  >C:\DiskReport.txt diskpart /s C:\commands.txt /raw /hide /c
  /wait
  type c:\diskreport.txt /c
  /wait
  erase c:\commands.txt /hide /c
  /wait
  erase c:\diskreport.txt /hide /c
  CREATERESTOREPOINT

• Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan won't take long.
• When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL. If you have already run OTL it won't open Extras.txt but Extras.txt will be in the same place as the new OTL.txt so simply open in manually.
• Please copy (Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy) the contents of these files, one at a time and post them in your topic.

Step 2

• Download aswMBR.exe ( 1870KB ) to your desktop.
• Double click the aswMBR.exe to run it
• It will ask you if you want to download the latest Avast! virus definitions, answer yes
  
  
• Click the Scan button to start scan
  
  
• On completion of the scan click Save log, save it to your desktop and post in your next reply

Step 3

• run farbar service scanner
  
  
  
• Tick All options.
• Press Scan.
• It will create a log (FSS.txt) in the same directory the tool is run.
• Please copy and paste the log to your reply.

Things to see in your next post:
OTL.txt
Extras.txt
aswMBR log
FSS.txt

[Crag_Hack]

Hello and welcome to the Geeks to Go Virus, Spyware & Malware Removal forum. My name is Josh and I will be helping you remove your infection. I am only human not superman - I can make errors but will do my best to help you as best I can so we can solve your problems. If you have since resolved the original problem you were having, I would appreciate you letting me know. Please include a clear description of the problems you're having along with any steps you may have performed so far if you haven't already.

Some of the following instructions to begin the malware removal process can be hard to follow - let me know if you have any questions. Please read all of my responses through at least once before attempting to follow the procedures described. I would recommend printing them out, if you can, as you can check off each step as you complete it. Also please do not attempt any disinfection procedures without my instruction as things can go wrong that way or lengthen the time it takes to disinfect your computer. Also please follow your topic to conclusion or your system may not be completely clean, and it will be more vulnerable to future infections.

Throughout our interactions I will be using canned speeches. These are premade speeches for different scenarios we will encounter. If you find errors like bad links in my canned speeches please let me know so I can fix them.

Please copy and paste all logs into your reply. Do not attach logs to a post unless I tell you to or if they don't fit in the post.

One more thing - please refrain from using your computer until it is disinfected unless you absolutely have to (unless you are following my disinfection procedures) - if you do have to use your computer please disconnect it from the Internet - that way the current malware cannot propagate further infections.

Expect no more than 36 hours between your post and my response unless World War 3 breaks out and I will need at most 48 hours for initial analysis of your OTL log. Good luck! After 4 days if a topic is not replied to we assume it has been abandoned and it is closed.

The first step is to get an OTL log by doing the following. Then we can begin disinfection. Also we will run aswMBR to scan for infections prevalent these days and Farbar Service Scanner to see if your services are working properly. Please do the following:

(this will work in safe mode with networking if you can't get it to work in normal mode)

Step 1

• Download OTL from here
• Double click OTL to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed to let it run uninterrupted.
• Select the Scan All Users box in the middle on the top of the window
• Under the Custom Scans/Fixes box paste this in:
  
  

  netsvcs
  %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
  /md5start
  services.*
  WSHELPER.*
  consrv.dll
  explorer.exe
  winlogon.exe
  Userinit.exe
  svchost.exe
  /md5stop
  C:\Windows\assembly\tmp\U\*.* /s
  %Temp%\smtmp\1\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\2\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\3\*.*
  %Temp%\smtmp\4\*.*
  >C:\commands.txt echo list vol /raw /hide /c
  /wait
  >C:\DiskReport.txt diskpart /s C:\commands.txt /raw /hide /c
  /wait
  type c:\diskreport.txt /c
  /wait
  erase c:\commands.txt /hide /c
  /wait
  erase c:\diskreport.txt /hide /c
  CREATERESTOREPOINT

• Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan won't take long.
• When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL. If you have already run OTL it won't open Extras.txt but Extras.txt will be in the same place as the new OTL.txt so simply open in manually.
• Please copy (Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy) the contents of these files, one at a time and post them in your topic.

Step 2

• Download aswMBR.exe ( 1870KB ) to your desktop.
• Double click the aswMBR.exe to run it
• It will ask you if you want to download the latest Avast! virus definitions, answer yes
  
  
• Click the Scan button to start scan
  
  
• On completion of the scan click Save log, save it to your desktop and post in your next reply

Step 3

• run farbar service scanner
  
  
  
• Tick All options.
• Press Scan.
• It will create a log (FSS.txt) in the same directory the tool is run.
• Please copy and paste the log to your reply.

Things to see in your next post:
OTL.txt
Extras.txt
aswMBR log
FSS.txt

[hutchy32]

Thanks for your reply. For some reason my laptop seems to be working fine again. All I done was a couple of window updates. Do you think I should carry on with what you suggest or wait to see if it freezes again?

[Crag_Hack]

Wait and see if it freezes again. Am I correct it usually freezes within 5-10 minutes? Was it very consistent in its freezes after that amount of time? How long have you been able to use it now without it freezing?

[hutchy32]

It would always freeze after 5 to 10 minutes using the internet, every time it froze I would turn it off and then back on again, load the internet and just keep loading pages to see how long it would last, just when I thought its working, it would freeze and the hardrive light would go out.
It started last Thursday, spent all weekend looking into how to get it working. Monday night I found out about using msconfig and disabling items on services and startup, restarted and hey presto it lasted 20 minutes. My touch pad was not working correctly so I went into msconfig and enabled it, restarted and again all worked fine. Finally I enabled Mcafee, restarted and once again, all worked fine, so I went to bed.
When I got home from work the next evening I started my laptop, opened the internet ready to start planning my holiday and once again after 5 to 10 minutes the freezing started again. Uninstalled Mcafee, the reason is I had an update last week and thought maybe it did not work or was installed incorrectly, restarted my laptop but to no avail.
Thats when I posted on here for help. Got home tonight to see what to do, maybe reinstall Internet Explorer, as my laptop seemed ok until I went on the internet. I noticed that I had a couple of Microsoft updates, which were:
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - September 2012 (KB890830)
Update Rollup for ActiveX Killbits for Windows Vista (KB2736233)

Since installing these updates my laptop has not frozen, I have been on the internet all evening (nearly 6 hours), I have loaded USA maps on my Tom Tom which took nearly an hour. As I type, no freezing has occured, strange or do you think that the Windows updates played a part in fixing the problem?

Edited by hutchy32, 12 September 2012 - 04:31 PM.

[Crag_Hack]

The updates could have solved your problem. Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool gets rid of malware. Let me consult a colleague to get another opinion and I will get back to you.

[hutchy32]

Thanks for your assistance so far, much appreciated.

[Crag_Hack]

Sorry to take so long to reply to you I was busy yesterday. If you'd like to check if the Malicious Software Removal Tool removed any malware take a look at this file:
C:\windows\debug\mrt.log
You can post its contents here if you would like me to analyze it (just open it in notepad to see its contents).
It's hard to say whether your issues were malware related or not but if you want I can analyze your logs anyways to make sure your computer is clean. You would just follow the instructions in post #2. If not and you are satisfied with the current state of your computer without any freezes let me know. I you are satisfied I can give you my all clean speech in which I tell you how to increase your computer's security and avoid becoming infected with malware in the future. Let me know if you have any questions.

[hutchy32]

Hello again, thanks for getting back to me. So far my laptop has not suffered any more freezes, which is encouraging. I just tried typing in C:\windows\debug\mrt.log in RUN but it comes back with windows cannot find, am I doing something wrong, or another example of my laptop playing up. I will get round to following your instructions in Post #2, hopefully this weekend, but all the time it's working I do not want to tempt fate and send it to the ice age again

[Crag_Hack]

Try instead navigating to the C:\Windows\Debug folder then open mrt.log manually

[hutchy32]

I tried what you suggested and I managed to find the window debug folder but there was no mrt.log. All I have is UserMode, WIA and PASSWD. So i typed just mrt. in "run"and it came up, so I ran a quick scan but it came up with nothing. Maybe the MRT has never benn run.

[Crag_Hack]

Well considering the log wasn't there MRT probably did not find anything. It's not terribly important since your OTL, aswMBR, and Farbar Service Scanner logs will show any infections. The mrt.log file would just reveal if the MRT program had removed any infections when it was run (it was one of the updates you did the other day). Let me know if you have any questions.

[Dakeyras]

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic has been closed. Glad we could help.

If you're the topic starter, and need this topic reopened, please contact a staff member with the address of the thread.

Everyone else please begin a New Topic.