computer issues please help if you can

[thecanadianrail]

Hey guys, my pc has been acting up over the past 3 days and I cant seem to figure out the problem that im having.

the things that are happening are that when I try and use the internet on one of my browsers (this happens on both IE and Chrome) a lot of the pictures will not load no matter how many times you refresh the page, and youtube videos will stop every 30 seconds or so (depending on my luck) just turning the youtube video white and having an exclamation mark in the middle. when I was watching Netflix last night I had the same kinda problems, and it said I need to update my flash player, so I did. and I am still having the same issues as I did before. im all out of ideas and its really starting to get annoying. another good thing to mention is that when I bring up the task manager on the processes tab it usually shows 5-10 IE's running while only one page is open, and if I try to shut one down no matter what one it is my webpage freezes and I have to restart my browser.

I thought it might be a virus and apparently I had one a few days ago and I got it deleted but I am still having issues and ive run my antivirus a few times without it detecting anything. ive also used my system mechanic to try and find the problem without luck, my antivirus is AVG.

btw it took me 5 trys to post this where everytime that it didnt my browser would freeze!

[buzz456]

http://www.iobit.com/

I am a big fan of these guys, both the System Care and the malware fighter, both of which you can get a freeware edition. They seem to find things nothing else does and keeps my computers working efficiently. There is definitely something serious amiss.
Good luck and keep us posted,
Buzz

[glcbn]

Hey guys, my pc has been acting up over the past 3 days and I cant seem to figure out the problem that im having.

the things that are happening are that when I try and use the internet on one of my browsers (this happens on both IE and Chrome) a lot of the pictures will not load no matter how many times you refresh the page, and youtube videos will stop every 30 seconds or so (depending on my luck) just turning the youtube video white and having an exclamation mark in the middle. when I was watching Netflix last night I had the same kinda problems, and it said I need to update my flash player, so I did. and I am still having the same issues as I did before. im all out of ideas and its really starting to get annoying. another good thing to mention is that when I bring up the task manager on the processes tab it usually shows 5-10 IE's running while only one page is open, and if I try to shut one down no matter what one it is my webpage freezes and I have to restart my browser.

I thought it might be a virus and apparently I had one a few days ago and I got it deleted but I am still having issues and ive run my antivirus a few times without it detecting anything. ive also used my system mechanic to try and find the problem without luck, my antivirus is AVG.

btw it took me 5 trys to post this where everytime that it didnt my browser would freeze!

Sure sounds like you still have a virus. If you are using the free version of AVG it does not have the ability to remove rootkits.

Greg

[Griphos]

It does sound like you have a virus still active. They are quite hard to fully get rid of nowadays. I've found the free help you can get on bleepingcomputer.com will help you get completely rid of any virus. It takes a while, and they will have you download and execute a number of programs. Just do exactly what they tell you when they tell you and they'll help you get rid of it.

[arizonachris]

OK, y'all need to run these three programs on a weekly basis like I do.
"Malwarebytes" http://www.malwarebytes.org/lp/malware_ ... QgodEzUASg
CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Avast! http://www.avast.com/en-us/free-antivir ... 20-%20Free

If those don't fix your system, you need to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows.

[Griphos]

Hey Chris,

Malwarebytes is good, and I use it. Avast is just one of the AV programs out there. It's like all of them, good at some things, not so good at others. CCleaner isn't AV. Once you have a virus (because it slipped past whatever AV you are using), none of these are particularly good at getting rid of it. Wiping and reinstalling is a LOT of work, as you know, and there are options worth trying out before taking that step.

[Toripony]

There's a "launcher" app on your system that keeps trying reconnect to its "home" to install that rougue software. Check your IE Internet Options, Programs, Manage AddOns screen. Look the items listed in the various sections and see if anything points to that "launcher" or a rougue software site. Check your Startup programs folder on your Start menu. Run MSConfig and look through the apps on the Startup panel.

[buzz456]

Another thing you can do is go to the task manager go to applications and see what's using memory when you are just sitting there idle. Often these bugs can be removed with a utility that you can find by googling whatever the application that is the bug.

[arizonachris]

It can be kinda tricky to go into Task Manager, Process tab, and try and figure out what is what. Heck, I'm not even sure , it's like, WTF is that! A virus will hide itself. You will not see it as a running task. You have to use Process Manager. But, like I say, even I don't really know what all that stuff is. But, in Process Manager, you can shut anything down. Just be careful!

If you have 5 or 10 instances of IE trying to run, yeah, something is trying to call home. And your internet lag is because, all those "calls to home" are eating your bandwidth.

I have been a big fan of Firefox for years now. Don't care for IE, tried Chrome, didn't care for it either. You can import all your Favorites into Firefox with a key click.

Oh, crap, forgot to say, uninstall AVG before you install Avast! Can't ever run two AV programs on one PC.

And, like I said before, do a repair of Windows. (as long as you still have the original Windows disk)

[arizonachris]

10 what?

There should only be one "instance" of your browser open in Task Manager. I have 12 tabs open in Firefox, but only one "program" running in Task Manager. IDK, maybe Chrome handles it differently. I'm still pretty much sure, there is a virus going on here.

[PapaXpress]

Yes Chrome does handle it differently. Each tab (and extension) is its own process. They do this so if a tab or extension crashes the rest of the browser stays up.

I am a staunch Chrome advocate. I like how it keeps all my data synced between devices and I don't have to worry about updates (something FF was late to the game with ).

Also note that FF uses a some of the Chome SDK under the hood, as well as WebKit and other need tools. They are just about cousins to each other.

[arizonachris]

I scanned with payware AVG software and every free program i can get my hands on though. What do i do?

You cannot have more than one A/V program running on your PC at a time. You will get missed files, and false positives, and they will conflict.

Gonna have to reinstall Windows. Can you copy your "steamapps" and documents to another drive? You have one of those scandalous virus programs that has infested your PC. You may loose a lot of "stuff" but this is the last step.

[arizonachris]

AVG is decent, alto I personally don't like it. Too many false positives on my video games. I'm not familiar with Advanced System Care. If you don't have a Windows CD, not much you can do as far as a Windows Repair. Unless, if you have room on the backup drive, put your "steamapps" folder in there along with you documents. Then run the restore program. Should be showing in your Control Panel.

"Advanced System Care"? uninstall that POS. I know, it's payware, but get rid of it. Or just uninstall and don't renew when they say to. It's really junk. It's like those "Driver Seeker" crap. Just don't do it.

Now, what do you mean, drive "D" is useless? Is there no drive D? is it bad? or is drive D the backup partition on the main C drive? You can always change the way Windows does backups, it's always in your Control Panel.

[arizonachris]

OK, then, drive "D" is just a second partition. At this state, Mike, get an external USB drive and back up all your critical info on to it. They are cheap. Plug and play, with the software includid. Toshiba makes a nice 500Gb one for about $50. Backup your "steamapps" and you documents, and whatever personal stuff, then reinstall Windows. But, seems like you need a new hard drive. I would just get a 500Gb drive, unless you have a lot of "stuff" you can go a 1Tb drive. Then, reinstall Windows, then copy the info from the external drive. Steamapps will have all your games, Documents will have all your saves.

I don't know how IE handles saving Favorites, but with Firefox it's easy to save bookmarks.