Strange Computer Problem

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ZeeOSix

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I’ve never had this happen before. I’m running XP with SP3. Always kept up to date and always running Microsoft Security Essentials (soon to change) and manually scan every week or so with Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro and SuperAntiSpyware programs – and MSE does a quick scan daily. Never find anything but cookies that these programs pick-up.

So last night I boot up the computer and the main desktop comes up and looks normal. The mouse curser moves around, but I can’t click or open anything. I can’t even shut the computer down with the mouse – I have to hold the power button down for 5+ seconds to do a hard shutdown. Try booting up a couple more times – same result. I noticed on one of the boot-ups I got a pop-up warning window that said: “Antimalware Service Executable has encountered a problem and needs to close.” I click OK and the warning window goes away. Computer seemed like it was working somewhat at that time. I had the router on, so was connected to the outside world.

I shutdown and rebooted in Safe Mode, and ran MSE (full scan), Malwarebytes (full scan), SuperAntiSpyware (quick scan) and Hitman Pro. I didn’t find anything but a few cookies by Hitman Pro and SuperAntiSpyware. Hitman Pro however showed a file called “iedkcs32.dll” in the list of items it found, but it said “ignore” instead of “delete” for recommended action. I have never seen Hitman Pro pick this file up before when scanning - maybe due to being in Safe Mode? I tried to look at my firewall setting in Safe Mode, but it wouldn’t allow me. I’m not connected to the router through all this.

Reboot normally again (still have the router off) and still have the movable cursor, but still can’t click anything open. When I put the cursor anywhere on the task bar at the bottom of the screen, I see the cursor turn into the hour glass symbol. Did another hard shutdown and reboot. Got the same pop-up warning about the “Antimalware Service Executable has a problem and needs to close.” Clicked OK, and had some mouse control and then was able to look at my firewall setting, and found it was turned off. Turned it back on, then did manual scans with MWB and Hitman Pro again – they found nothing.

When the pop-up warning showed up this time I also got a couple of other pop-up windows that came up out of the task bar at the bottom of the screen about Microsoft Security Essentials. So I’m thinking this “Antimalware Service Executable has encountered a problem and needs to close” message has something to do with MSE. I ran out of time, and my next step is to turn the router on and see if I can get on the internet without any issues.

If so, my plan is to download Bitdefender Free, disable my router, then uninstall MSE and install Bitdefender Free. Not sure if Bitdefender Free will load without accessing the internet or not - I have a feelling it will access the internet (Bitdefender's server probably) since the executable is only like 165K in size. If so, then I guess I’ll leave MSE on and running until Bitdefender is up and running. Yes, I know I need to get rid of Windows XP and will probably buy a whole new computer system sometime soon, but I need to keep this machine going until then.
grin.gif


So, any gurus here that might know what was going on here, and if my plan on how to get MSE off and Bitdefender on the computer is good? Sorry the write-up is so long, but wanted to give some good details to help describe what happened.

Thanks in advance, I've been saved a couple of times with help from the computer guys here before, and it's highly appreciated!
 
Definitely get rid of MSE.. I don't know if you can install Bitdefender free without the internet, but I do know that I've installed Avast free that way. But give that a try and see if it can find anything.

Also, if you don't need windows, then you don't need a new computer system. You might really like Linux Mint... Might be worth looking into before buying a new computer system. It'll save you a TON of money.
 
Agreed, get rid of MSE.

I had trouble last week where the keyboard didn't work when coming out of sleep, the mouse was fine. It's a PS2 keyboard as well and I'd never had an issue before.

I rolled it back a couple of days, thankfully I do regular backups, and the keyboard worked normally.

All day yesterday it was fine. Last night I get a pop up saying "Windows downloaded some updates" and the only thing listed was the MSE definitions. Once again, no keyboard when waking up. If I reboot it's fine.
 
Just to update my problem, I rolled it back to before last nights update. The keyboard is working fine again

[censored] MS!
 
MSE is pretty much worthless.

Snag something like ESET NOD32. You can transfer the license to your new computer.
 
avast and anti malwarebytes is pretty good also i have that on my office computers along with something else i dont remember.. On this one i have nothing and it never has a problem
 
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/windows/security/

Go here and download combofix, rkill, junkware removal tool, adwcleaner, and emisoft antimalware. Run rkill, then install emisoft, download updates, then reboot into safe mode. Run rkill again, then run combofix, junkware removal tool, emisoft, then adwcleaner in that order, reboot . Then you can install avira ,avast or bitdefender.
 
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If your data is backed up say goodbye to Win XP and install Linux Mint. It was the best move I've made in a long time. I'm giving serious thought to saying goodbye to Win 7 as well.
 
Update - Well, my issue was definitely Microsoft Security Essentials. For some reason it just went bonkers on me a couple of days ago - it had been working flawlessly for years. As I described in my first post, when I booted up the computer it would boot up XP just fine, but it was totally locked up where I couldn't do anything with the mouse. The cursor would move around but couldn't click to open anything, not even shut down the computer with the mouse. I always had to do a hard shutdown (ie, hold down the power button).

I determined the message window that appeared sometimes saying “Antimalware Service Executable has encountered a problem and needs to close” was definitely indeed associated with MSE having issues. When that message showed up (which wasn't always), and if I clicked OK the computer would then seem to behave. That was because MSE was disabled at that point and the computer would then work normally when MSE wasn't running. I could never get back to the point where I could do anything with the mouse after a normal boot-up, so I booted up in Safe Mode and ran Revo Uninstaller and removed MSE. Revo Uninstaller worked fine in Safe Mode.

Then I was able to reboot normally and the computer was working great. I did full scans again with Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro and SuperAntiSpyware. Found nothing but a few cookies. Then went and downloaded and installed Bitdefender Free edition.

So everything seems to be running perfect once again. If anyone is running MSE, you need to get rid of it ASAP!
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
I had the same issue the past few days and decided to uninstall MSE

I'm guessing it might have something to do with XP support ending.
 
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: Warstud
I had the same issue the past few days and decided to uninstall MSE

I'm guessing it might have something to do with XP support ending.


I don't see how since the version of MSE I was using was working fine for quite sometime. Neither XP or MSE were updated after XP support ended so how could they magically become incompatible? When XP support ended, so did MSE except for virus just definition updates. As soon as I uninstalled MSE my machine was back to normal.
 
Originally Posted By: Jeffy_D
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/windows/security/

Go here and download combofix, rkill, junkware removal tool, adwcleaner, and emisoft antimalware. Run rkill, then install emisoft, download updates, then reboot into safe mode. Run rkill again, then run combofix, junkware removal tool, emisoft, then adwcleaner in that order, reboot . Then you can install avira ,avast or bitdefender.


I feel sorry for windows XP users
lol.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Originally Posted By: Jeffy_D
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/windows/security/

Go here and download combofix, rkill, junkware removal tool, adwcleaner, and emisoft antimalware. Run rkill, then install emisoft, download updates, then reboot into safe mode. Run rkill again, then run combofix, junkware removal tool, emisoft, then adwcleaner in that order, reboot . Then you can install avira ,avast or bitdefender.


I feel sorry for windows XP users
lol.gif


Yea, I feel sorry for any windows users. I used to be one and wish I left earlier.

I wouldn't download more than half the stuff at that link.. looks like malware.
 
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