Mine keeps on failing on me and "end programs."

Is this something to be concerned about?

It seems to be a virus thats going around causing this and other things to fail. I've had to fix 3 computers in the last days, plus my own laptop. I had to reformat them, all with the same symptons, and I have no idea whats casusing it.

Try opening your hardware device manager, or reg edit. If it closes immediatly opon opening, or if you get some message about not enough privledges. Also try going to network places.

If suspicious exes are crashing all the time (random sequences of letters, or exes like 45.exe, 70.exe, 20.exe) then look, just don't bother with it. Backup your files and reformat.

No, it's not a virus, although there are certain virii that try to disguise themselves as svchost.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894391
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314056


If you're worried, you may want to do a HijackThis dump and/or Google re: malicious svchost processes to try to determine whether or not yours is indeed one. Your problem sounds like that described in the first link, though (if you're running XP)

combofix then malwarebytes anti-malware

oh and don't listen to gold, he's gold

Ahh the bulk of that is caused by the dreaded windows update bug.

I cant recall how I fixed it.

Thank you. So it COULD be a virus.

Look dude, just reformat, its much easier.

Not really.

Well I guess it depends Vin.

On these computers, and my laptop, I was unable to install AVG. Some of them already had norton or kaspersky. They wouldn't run, always crashed when I tried to run them. On my computer I had AVG and I used SpyBot... they both crashed when I tried running them.

So I had 3 computers and my laptop to fix, and just one day. It was much faster and easier to just back up and reformat.

Reformatting is only easy when you don't actually do anything significant with your machine. That is, if you're Gold.

Clearly, he has no idea what he was doing. Seriously, everyone knows that you don't try and install a new antivirus program while one is already running, unless you want to watch them fight a duel to the death.

Second, I doubt he even knows what malwarebytes even is, let alone has ever run it. 100% guarantee those computers could have been fixed by someone competent in half the time it took him to reformat.

I was trying to install a new antivirus... after unistalling the previous one which, WASN'T working....

Being you must be truly awful.

Well, look at it this way. I needed to get 3 computers out which had more problems than just the virus that was casuing all this chaos, and also my laptop, which I use to download drivers than I burn them or use a usb memory to transfer them to other computers when I reformat them. I also use it to backup files, as I also own an external USB 120gb hard drive.

So, I didn't have much time to fiddle around with it and try to identify the problem and then follow the steps to solve it. I infact did some research but none of the cases I was looking at had the majority of the problems I was having with my laptop.

So I said, to hell with it, this computer hasn't been formated since I bought it, time to do it.

You're so defensive.

You're right, I just want some chocolate cake, and can't wait to get it, so I try to pass the time posting

YOU USE SO MANY COMMAS ARGH

Jesus Christ boy, you must be retarded.

Formatting, however life-saving as it may be, should only be regarded as a "last resort". A fail safe plan if nothing else works.

ESPECIALLY, if you have a pre-built computer like HP or Dell, where formatting is a bad idea since you'll probably lose your windows CD Key, and probably don't have a windows CD in the first place.

The best idea in the place of pre-built computers is the recovery discs that most of them come with, they'll "format" the system and reinstall it's basic OS.

However that should also be treated as a last resort.

Give us your system specs/OS and we'll see what it might be. It might be a virus, but there's definitely other things that can be causing it.

Like I said, only format if nothing else works, the computer won't boot into windows no matter how desperately you try, or you have absolutely nothing on it worth keeping.

In all likeliness if you're running XP, it's the link that I posted above and what Reafis mentioned.

Well, the laptop is pretty much my social computer, and what I use as bridge from transfering files from unformatted computers to formatted computers.

I probably should rephrase, I didn't format my laptop, I used its own Auto Recovery, it came with EISA Utilities.

All I had to do was run that, and it reinstalled windows, with another 90 days of norton.

Let me list ALL of the problems.

I was unable to enter Safe Mode, it kept telling crashing when it was trying to load SPTD.sys (I think this is the driver for the cd control?). So I tried fixing that to no avail.

You cannot open any device management utilities, or regedit, or msconfig. They close themself as soon as they are opened.

Spybot, AVG don't run, they close themselves as soon they open.

If you uninstall AVG and try to reinstall it again, when you are reinstalling it, it gives you an error, something about rollback and another thing about administrative privledges. Seeing as my account is administrator, this shouldn't be a problem.

Randomly named exes crashing.... 70.exe, 45.exe (I remember these from the top of my head, kept crashing every time)

I was unable to run firefox, unless I opened I.E. and navigated to a couple pages first. (I doubt this is related)

You cannot open any of your network places because it says something about administrative privledges.

Now, I was reading about some of the fixes for some of these problems, only problem is, they required me to do something with regedit, or install a utility, which, conveniently, closed as soon as I tried to install or gave me an error. Or wanted me to go into safe mode...

So, you tell me, what exactly should I have done in this case?

Sledgehammer it.

Like I said, LAST RESORT.

Ok, still, what should I do if the problem occurs again with another computer?

I mean, if reformatting everytime something like this occurs is the wrong approach, I would like a suggestion for a better approach. Here in mexico, I sometimes just have to install and antivirus and do a couple other things to a computer and its ready. Most people just reformat and reinstall everything. In this case I didn't have time, and couldn't find a better solution.

Just to be prepared, what should I do next time?

When the **** did Mexico get computers?

Get off the Internet. You are obviously incapable of browsing without infecting yourself with viruses.

El oh el this thread has become derailed

That's a pretty good alternative to formatting

I say get a better anti-virus, keep it up to date. Run weekly spy-ware scans and registry scans to keep your comp in tip top shape. Try to save as much hard drive space and defrag regularly.

That way, you avoid your stupid problems in the first place.

If it happens again?

Run CCleaner, it can fix registry issues as well as clean out the crap from your temp locations, etc. Nifty little program.

It also allows you to do what MSconfig does, changing your startup programs, etc.

It may also help to disconnect from the internet while trying to fix the comp.

Worst case senario, get a copy of "The Ultimate Boot CD". It's a DOS-type application that emulates Windows, and has several anti-virus programs and other such things on it (such as boot recovery programs, defrag programs, and pretty much anything else you can think of.) It pretty much just runs it off the CD and uses your RAM as a virtual HDD.

If that fails, THEN reformat

Excellent suggestions Xzero, now I have more tools at my disposal, and I'm now more prepared for future problems.

Thank you.

This was all actually a sign from Jehovah that you need to stop using computers and crawl back into your sombrero or wherever the hell it is mexicans hide.

In your ***.

The population of fecal matter residing in my ******* and intestines is a little too intelligent and socially high brow for you to ever fit in with.