[davidafuller]

First off, thank you very much to whomever is able to offer me some support.

Here's the situation: my work computer (which I use for personal as much as I use it at work) started acting up a couple weeks back. When I would get to work and start it up, it would give me a non-disk error and become stuck in a purgatory state. Once I got past this with repeated attempts to boot up, everything would be fine. Then, over the weekend, it started happening at home. When I FINALLY got it to boot up normally at home, I found that when it connected to the internet it was slow as anything and would freeze quite frequently when I did anything with my browser or other program. The next day, I did a Google search and found some sites about the Conflicker/(Conficker) worm, so I did some of the things they suggest I do to get rid of it. I went into my %temp% folder and found a ton (thousands) of FAP{A-Z#A-Z#}.tmp files with 0KB size. I deleted everything, then deleted some items from my RegEdit program that had keys of {RANDOM} per the fix on the website. After that, I ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware software and did a quick scan. It found one item, and I removed it. Appeared to be a malicious worm. After that, my computer ran extremely well the rest of the day while connected to the internet.

The very next morning, when I booted up just fine at work, I found that whenever I connected to the internet, everything would freeze up on me frequently once again. I see nothing in my %temp% folder and the RegEdit items did not return. I ran a full scan with Malwarebytes in Safe Mode w/o Networking, and it found nothing. I'm now running in Safe Mode w/ Networking. I can't work or browse from home in this setup though.

I did try something yesterday; booted up in Safe Mode, went into MSConfig, unchecked all services, etc. I rebooted normally, but upon internet connection, it still started to freeze. I've got nothing. All help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

David

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My impression is that your hard disk is failing although the same problems could be caused by other failing hardware components.

Please find out the make of your hard disk and download the manufacturer's test tool from here. Follow the instruction and create a bootable CD. Run a full test of your hard disk and report the results.

If you need help please let us know.

[The Skeptic]

My impression is that your hard disk is failing although the same problems could be caused by other failing hardware components.

Please find out the make of your hard disk and download the manufacturer's test tool from here. Follow the instruction and create a bootable CD. Run a full test of your hard disk and report the results.

If you need help please let us know.

[davidafuller]

I did want to update you/anyone willing to help; I did a bunch today. When I booted up normally at work, I was having the same issues. I downloaded CCleaner which helped a ton; got rid of a Meg of temporary internet files, cleaned up my Registry, etc. I then did some reboots, went into safe mode, eventually ran a full scan with Symantec's Endpoint Protection. Nothing came back.

Next, I rebooted normally. Everything was fine. Went into Outlook; everything froze up. Closed Outlook; everything immediately went back to normal. IE is navigating perfectly, I can use Office Communicator, I can access the network. I'm going to do another couple of reboots to confirm that Outlook is the issue. If that is the case, any idea what could be causing this?

Thank you.

[The Skeptic]

I can't see how Outlook, or any of the actions you took, including CC, could solve boot problems that show up at the very beginning of the boot process. However, the fact that I don't see something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I suggest that you use the computer normally and we'll see how things evolve. Meanwhile, I still think that a hard disk test could be beneficial.

Re Outlook, there is no point in looking for the exact cause because we will never know where the problem is and eventually we will take one of the two options available: 1)repair 2)uninstall and re-install.