Hello guys, it's been a bad day today apart from me getting my Antec 480W PSU for my new pc. Anyways, I think this is how it started.. I left 2 programs running (Spybot S&D and Registry Mechanic). Switched user, So the programs were still running and went out. I came back a few hours later to find that someone had turned the computer off, and I thought 'ah well', so then I switched the PC back on and it got to the Memory testing in the boot up and said "CMOS checksum error 'CD Drive'" not sure it said CD Drive.. So I reboot tap F8 the Advanced boot options come up, I chose Safe Mode and it went through executing all the files and then went to the bad resolution logon aka safe mode.. I logged on to the Administrator account and it must've been tired or something... no response from waiting 5 minutes. I switched the computer back off and tried loading normal boot up.. which worked but I couldn't logon to my account so I tried my dads and luckily it worked. Sadly, there's no taskbar (Start button etc..) So I had to navigate and run programs with Task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del). First things I did was check for viruses. Seen as though I had no Specific protection always running (My McAfee Subscription ran out last week). I came to the end of Spybot S&D and it had found around 4 infections. I cleaned them and then logged off my dads account. Thinking that the viruses was the cause for all this I attepmted to log back to my account. This time it worked and loaded all my normal setting and everything. Except it couldn't seem to sign in to MSN Messenger. I troubleshooted and still no connection. So then I want to install some permanent security until, I get the next security. I downloaded ZoneAlarm Free Edition and popped up a window saying "You cannot have mcafee and zonealarm firewalls running on the same computer blah blah blah blah.." So then I go to Add/Remove programs and Try and remove 'McAfee Personal Firewall'. Im thinking ok I've got it all sorted and then COMPLETE BLACK OUT.. I have been meaning to post about this for a while but never though whilst I have been browsing HWF. So what it does is black out for one second then refreshes as though it will come back on but it doesn't. So i reboot and find that I can't log back onto my own Account.. I am currently posting this on my dad's windows account using Windows Task Manager.. I have tried some things like clearing the CMOS by taking the motherboard battery out and I tried resetting the jumpers something willhub told me a while ago but i wasn't certain of what to do. Here's some specs: Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7DXE CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (Reset to default 1.8GHz) GPU: 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee .. I know PSU: 350w Generic ... it works though RAM: 768MB PC2100 [1x512,1x256] Optical Drive: 52x24x52 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combi Hard Drive: Maxtor 40GB FDD: Generic Floppy Drive I think the problem is that the computer was turned off when having 2 scans in the run.. or that mixed with some malware.. I would appreciate any input thanks in advance! Chris_ EDIT: I think it still might be that CMOS checksum thing because I updated the Spybot S&D and when i downloaded the Virus Definitions it said "CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR" any infrmation you can offer would be awesome!
My guess is that Registry Mechanic was doing a automatic scan when the system got turned off and in doing so, screwed with the registry. I'd prob just try a repair install or try rolling back to a previous restore date! P.S - In task manager, click new task and type 'explorer' without the quotes and your taskbar should come back
I rolled back to another date just after I posted and nothing has changed. And I knew to run explorer after one of my mates computer kept blacking out. Now I get this error. It pops up every 60 seconds say Here's another few screens, am I running anything suspicious? 1 2 Thanks, Chris
Damn, I think that 'userinit.exe' is either the virus (probably trojan), or is infected with spyware. Im running registry mechanic again and it's identified thousands of problems. I better start backing up and maybe reformat. EDIT: And yes it was. Right no for removing it. It's a trojan, I know that and so far Spybot hasn't helped neither MS AntiSpyware. I'll try Lavasoft's Ad-Aware.. has anyone came accross this before? Here's the image
Try grabbing a copy of The Ultimate Boot CD and do a virus scan with it. Hopefully you'll be able to remove it!
A reformat and reinstall would be the best thing to do. If your system is badly damaged in the registry aswell as by malware then I would recommend it. When you do make sure all updates and service packs are installed as well as all security software.
If you don't have anything backed up, just do a repair. If you have everything backed up already, I'd just format and re-install WindowsXP. Bye bye problems (save for windowsxp )
I've only seen repairs damage data if it gets interrupted, but yeah, you should be backing up data all the time. But who does
