Alright. So, as of lately, my computer has been having some problems. Quite frankly, they're irritating me and I need some help. Temporary Delay / Lagging [Solved, thanks to Neil.] So, as of really recently, whenever I play some sort of audio or video file, my computer will play it but every 10-15 seconds, there will be a really brief lag and the song will continue as normal until the next really brief lag. It's really irritating, and like the rest of you, I want to be able to hear my music / watch my videos without interruption. I think that this may be the cause of a virus because my computer has been infected with some sort of virus / group of viruses for a while. Anyone know what the problem is and how I can fix it? Internet Explorer Pop-Ups I am a Mozilla Firefox user and, for a while now, as I use Mozilla Firefox, pop-ups from Internet Explorer come up and basically slow down the computer a good deal until I can close them. They're usually one at time and pop up every few minutes. I have continually been searching for the virus behind this and nothing seems to be coming up that's solving it. Adware / Trojan viruses pop-up when I do my Virus Scan searches and I get rid of them, but none of them seem to be what's causing this problem, as well as the delay problem. The only way I have found to get around the Pop-Up problem is to shut off the computer, disconnect the Ethernet cable, turn on the computer and log in and then after everything is loaded, I put the plug back in and sign on to AIM. When I sign onto AIM, it asks me whether I want to Connect to the Internet or Stay Offline. I pick Stay Offline but I am still actually connected to the internet, but since the computer is under the impression that I am offline, the pop-ups don't come up. This is convenient and it does well but it doesn't get rid of the virus and that's what I want to get rid of. Unfortunately, this solution doesn't seem to rid me of the delay problem. So, I need help from you guys. What do I do? I continually search my computer every day every couple of hours for viruses and when any are detected I clean / delete them. This doesn't seem to be solving my problems. Help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
I had problems very similar to this a while back. They totally crippled one of our computers, and I know how annoying it is when your AV cant remove/detect them. Couple things that I did was first, go into your Program Files folder, and look for folders that don't look familiar, or suspicious. A lot of adware will install their files in the programs files folder, and so that is always a good place to start. If you arent sure if you should remove something, google it. Those pop ups are being launched by a virus program running the background (usually). Go into the Task Manager, and google the file name (i.e. ad324.exe) of any programs that again don't look familiar. There are lots of sites that database processes and can tell you whether the program is a needed system file or a virus. So lets say you find a program that is an adware program. First, close the program via the task manager, then search your computer for the file. If its in a system folder, just delete that file. But if its in a folder of its own (in the Program Files folder, for example), chances are the other files in that folder are viruses also, so delete them. This method may seem tedious, and it is, but I found was pretty effective at stopping annoying pop ups. And always delete stuff like that into the Recycle Bin, just in case you accidently delete the wrong file (duh, I know lol). If you try what I posted, lemme know how it goes. Ill try to remember the other methods I used to combat stuff like this (besides completely reformatting the computer), as its been a while. Hope that helps.
Thank you. But here's the thing, I don't know which processes are regular processes and which aren't. I'm not that fantastic with computers even though I have an okay idea about it. Like, I can recognize a process like iTunes or Firefox or Internet Explorer (of course, those are all obvious). But I really don't know which ones aren't really familiar. Anyone who can give me a list of processes that are typical on a Windows XP computer? It'd be much appreciated. When I get these processes, I will try what you said, JNudda. Thanks.
Some important ones are taskmgr.exe explorer.exe services.exe svchost.exe rundll32.exe To name a couple off the top of my head. It differs from computer to computer, based on configuration, software, etc. How about take a screenshot of your current tasks (if you dont mind) and posting them, and maybe we can tell you which ones are bad ones?
Most processes that are important like system ones wont let you turn them off, but explorer will so dont turn that off but i sometimes get IE pop ups while using FF, so i just always end the proccess for Iexplorer.exe and it usually ends em for a while
Regarding the intermittent lag every few seconds/minutes - make sure you don't have an unassociated wireless card. When I wireless card is searching, it can lag the shit out of everything, including media. As for the viruses, try using this online scanner: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
JNudda: Alright. Well, I took three screen shots of my process list at normal function and here is what it looked like: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/SuperXeroEsaul/screenshot_1-1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/SuperXeroEsaul/screenshot_2-1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/SuperXeroEsaul/screenshot_3-1.jpg I'm positive that some of those are bad but I'm not sure which ones. Help is appreciated. Neil: The lagging suggestion worked. I did have a wireless internet adapter inserted into my laptop and after I removed it, the music flowed like normal. Thank you. As far as the virus scan that you suggested, it doesn't seem like it did anything. I fell asleep for an hour and let the site run but it didn't do anything at all. Any other suggestions as to where I can find this virus that's causing these pop-ups? - - - Do you guys think that if I removed Internet Explorer from the computer, the pop-ups would stop? Or do you think they would just make their way onto Mozilla Firefox? If they can be completely stopped by removing IE, how do I remove it? And would re-installing it bring back the problem? Thanks.
Alright, I looked at your process list, nothing out of the ordinary, I googled the processes that looked weird, but they all came up legit. Have you tried running adaware at all per chance? If not I'd recommend going ahead and doing that, and letting us know what it removed or came up with.
Alright. Good to know that my processes aren't abnormal. I'll let you know about the Ad-aware soon. Thanks again, guys. If there are any other suggestions that may help, do not hesitate to let me know. - - - So, I installed Ad-Aware and I ran 3 scans. Two of these scans were Smart Scans, which scan the critical components of the computer. The third scan was a Full Scan, which scans everything on the computer. The first scan found 208 infections and removed a good deal of them. The second scan found nothing. The full scan found 7 more infections and got rid of a good deal of those. In total, Ad-Aware found 215 infections, but it says it has only removed 192 of them. It has made some progress. The pop-ups don't come up nearly as often as they used to, but the fact is that they still seem to pop-up with Internet Explorer. What do I do now?
What exactly is safe mode? I've heard a lot about it browsing tech forums but I'm not sure what it is. Is it just when your OS boots only processes that are needed to run the system? And what if you try to run an unneeded process, will it not let you? (I thought that Ad-Aware would be recognized as a non-vital process and not be allowed to run while the system is in safe mode, that was just a guess though)
Basically. You can start up other processes though, but as viruses start themselves on autorun to protect themselves, they can't do that in safe-mode.
I ran the Ad-Aware Scan in Safe Mode and I removed whatever it found. It found a bunch of tracking cookies and it found an MRU (I believe that's what it's called) and I removed all of them. It didn't solve the problem. Although the pop-ups don't come up nearly as often as they used to, they still do come up. What do you guys suggest I do?
I'd assume you've done a virus scan in safe mode as well, right? AVG, NOD32, choose your poison. *shrug*
I only did the Ad-Aware Scan in Safe Mode. I'll do the Virus Scan and Prevyx 2.0 Scan later. EDIT: I've come around to doing the scans. Prevyx doesn't like running in Safe Mode so I only did Virus Scan, as well as Ad-Aware once more in Safe Mode. Virus Scan found nothing. Ad-Aware found tracking cookies and an MRU and got rid of them. The problem doesn't seem to be completely gone, though. What do I do now?