Computer wierdness

[L-10_shooter]

My computer is doing something goofy. I am unable to log into email, or any other website that I have a user/password for. When I click enter the web page freezes. I am able to close the window (tells me its not responding). So I logged my computer to another user and I am able to log in just fine to any of the same websites. I have no idea what is going on and need the advice from the more computer savy members. I would like to get my internet running good again!

[Classic_jon]

My computer is doing something goofy. I am unable to log into email, or any other website that I have a user/password for. When I click enter the web page freezes. I am able to close the window (tells me its not responding). So I logged my computer to another user and I am able to log in just fine to any of the same websites. I have no idea what is going on and need the advice from the more computer savy members. I would like to get my internet running good again!

I am assuming you are running windows:

If so It sounds like the user that will not work has some spyware or a corrupt account of some kind.

Use the other user and google for these programs.

1) Malwarebytes

2) Spybot search and destroy

3) Adaware.

Download all three, update them and run them one at a time, and it should find most spyware programs and remove them.

You should also check you antivirus to make sure it is current and working properly.

Let us know what happens after you run those programs and we can go from there. Those programs are pretty automatic so you should be able to start them scanning and walk away until they are finished.

I like to do the simple things first to rule out the basics before we start diving into the operating system, removing programs and services, and changing all sorts of stuff

[L-10_shooter]

thanks jon I will try the three programs today and let you know.

[D.Hayden]

After you get it figured out.. at a minimum, change all your passwords you tried to use... and after that, I'd change any passwords that really mattered..

[JohnGaultsGun]

After you get it figured out.. at a minimum, change all your passwords you tried to use... and after that, I'd change any passwords that really mattered..

What browser are you using? Internet Explorer, FireFox? If you have a top heavy anti-virus program like McAfee or Norton and your phishing filter is on, it takes FOREVER to validate sites that require login (using Internet Explorer).

Since I have both IE and FF, I can usually narrow it down to a browser specific problem.

One thing you can do is go to this site and have it remotely check your machine for spyware, virueses, etc ...: http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Watch how your machine reacts when you use any antivirus/malware removal or validation software ... if it HANGS forever, REBOOTS itself, POPS up misleading Malware "fix" windows, etc ... you are basically hosed.

[Classic_jon]

After you get it figured out.. at a minimum, change all your passwords you tried to use... and after that, I'd change any passwords that really mattered..

Good suggestion.

[L-10_shooter]

After you get it figured out.. at a minimum, change all your passwords you tried to use... and after that, I'd change any passwords that really mattered..

Good suggestion.

Yes this is a good idea.

I use internet explorer. I have run through the first two so far. Spy bot found a couple trojans. Seems to be letting me sign into stuff now. I will run the third suggestion then get my passwords changed. Thanks for all the advice, I love Benos and all its helpful people!!!!

Edited December 22, 2009 by L-10_shooter

[Classic_jon]

After you get it figured out.. at a minimum, change all your passwords you tried to use... and after that, I'd change any passwords that really mattered..

Good suggestion.

Yes this is a good idea.

I use internet explorer. I have run through the first two so far. Spy bot found a couple trojans. Seems to be letting me sign into stuff now. I will run the third suggestion then get my passwords changed. Thanks for all the advice, I love Benos and all its helpful people!!!!

Glad to hear that helped!

Just make sure to let those programs "remove" said trojans

After you have done that, make sure your antivirus is up to date and functional. Norton AV 2009 is pretty good as they have slimmed it back down but if you have the MacAffe or Norton internet security suites... unless you have paid a lot of $$ for them, I would say to uninstall it and get Avast!, AVG, or Kapersky free antivirus programs as they are a lot lighter weight and do not slow down your system as much.

As for the paid Anti-Viruses I like F-secure as it has the AdAware antispyware engine built into the antivirus program and it also has an anti-rootkit program. Between the three parts of it you will usually stay pretty clean

Hope that takes care of your problems!

[L-10_shooter]

I have finally run all three programs. Spybot was the only one that found something and I trashed them. I will look up the anti virus stuff, I dont even know if I have any antivirus software on my computer . I only started using it online 6 months ago. I apreciate all your help Classic jon, thanks again!

[Matt P.]

It really sounds like to me that you have a registry issue. download www.ccleaner.com for free and run the registry tool. after that, restart your computer and I would imagine you should be in the game.

[Classic_jon]

If you don't have a current anti-virus program all bets are off as to what nastys could be lurking on your hard drive. Get one asap and if you have one installed now that is out of date, uninstall it BEFORE installing the new one. Some of the antivirus programs (most notably Norton) do not play well with others. The Avast!, AVG, or Kapersky free antivirus programs are all good ones and free if you search for it.

I also do agree with Matt P. that running ccleaner would not hurt. The reason this is a good idea is that since the other profile works it may be simply a corrupt entry on the original profile that ccleaner could fix. The reason I think it may be more than a registry issue is that you describe it as happening when you try to enter a site that uses a user ID and Password, and that to me sounds like a keylogger of some kind. Now, if it crashes other times in Internet Explorer, then it may be something that got corrupted in the profile or in Internet Explorer itself for that profile. But, without knowing if you have a valid and up to date antivirus program running we are kind of guessing as to the root cause.

Personally I would not get onto the internet on a windows PC without a good up to date antivirus program running....especially if you have "sensitive information" on your PC like user ID's and passwords...let alone banking information...

Edited December 23, 2009 by Classic_jon

[L-10_shooter]

Thanks for the tips guys. I used the internet last night and all day today with out an issue. I think spybot killed the bug. I will get an anti virus downloaded asap.

[Cactustactical]

We went through a bad virus / malware issue a few months ago on one of the store pc's ( receptionist playing on the net). Mcafee was installed on the pc and it never even noticed the virus / malware coming in. This was an evil bastard, it would go out and install other viruses so by the time I was told about the problem, the pc had over 20 different viruses . malware on it.

We used Malware Antibytes, Spy Bot, Adaware Macfee repeatedly until they all could not find 'things' left on the pc. But, upon re-booting, the virus would start back up, so something was still lurking around.

On the advice of a friend, we tried SpyHunter's free version. It found the last few files that somehow managed to not get found by the others. The catch is you have to buy a copy for it to remove what it finds. I did buy it and it managed to work. So, it would not hurt to download a copy of Spy Hunter by Enigma Software and give that a try. No one virus scanner seems to find everything, when we get hit, I try everything I can think of until the virus is gone. Some tools seem to find different things, so it does not hurt to run as many different tools as you can.

[Classic_jon]

We went through a bad virus / malware issue a few months ago on one of the store pc's ( receptionist playing on the net). Mcafee was installed on the pc and it never even noticed the virus / malware coming in. This was an evil bastard, it would go out and install other viruses so by the time I was told about the problem, the pc had over 20 different viruses . malware on it.

We used Malware Antibytes, Spy Bot, Adaware Macfee repeatedly until they all could not find 'things' left on the pc. But, upon re-booting, the virus would start back up, so something was still lurking around.

On the advice of a friend, we tried SpyHunter's free version. It found the last few files that somehow managed to not get found by the others. The catch is you have to buy a copy for it to remove what it finds. I did buy it and it managed to work. So, it would not hurt to download a copy of Spy Hunter by Enigma Software and give that a try. No one virus scanner seems to find everything, when we get hit, I try everything I can think of until the virus is gone. Some tools seem to find different things, so it does not hurt to run as many different tools as you can.

Programs like what you describe have normally been "installed" as a legitimate program and will keep "lurking" in the background and re-downloading and installing until they are uninstalled in the Add and remove programs list, you disable them in the MSCONFIG, and you disable the service that they have installed.

Basically,for things like that, if someone clicks on a link that says "Yes I want to download and install this program I know nothing about from a company I know nothing about" and runs it... all bets are off...

You can have the best Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs in the world running, but if the human factor ignores common sense and does it anyway...nothing can stop people from being Dumb....

[Cactustactical]

We went through a bad virus / malware issue a few months ago on one of the store pc's ( receptionist playing on the net). Mcafee was installed on the pc and it never even noticed the virus / malware coming in. This was an evil bastard, it would go out and install other viruses so by the time I was told about the problem, the pc had over 20 different viruses . malware on it.

We used Malware Antibytes, Spy Bot, Adaware Macfee repeatedly until they all could not find 'things' left on the pc. But, upon re-booting, the virus would start back up, so something was still lurking around.

On the advice of a friend, we tried SpyHunter's free version. It found the last few files that somehow managed to not get found by the others. The catch is you have to buy a copy for it to remove what it finds. I did buy it and it managed to work. So, it would not hurt to download a copy of Spy Hunter by Enigma Software and give that a try. No one virus scanner seems to find everything, when we get hit, I try everything I can think of until the virus is gone. Some tools seem to find different things, so it does not hurt to run as many different tools as you can.

Programs like what you describe have normally been "installed" as a legitimate program and will keep "lurking" in the background and re-downloading and installing until they are uninstalled in the Add and remove programs list, you disable them in the MSCONFIG, and you disable the service that they have installed.

Basically,for things like that, if someone clicks on a link that says "Yes I want to download and install this program I know nothing about from a company I know nothing about" and runs it... all bets are off...

You can have the best Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs in the world running, but if the human factor ignores common sense and does it anyway...nothing can stop people from being Dumb....

Yeah,I believe that is what happened. She got a popup stating that the PC was 'infected' and needed a scan to run to clean it.

IIRC, this was a variant of the Vundo virus, it loaded at least 20 different viruses, etc to the pc almost immediately, turned off Mcafee, shut off Windows Restore, etc. It took me about 2 weeks to get the pc back to where it needed to be. All the crap that was loaded, Mcafee never hiccupped at any of them as they were loaded since it was turned off. As I said, it took a combination of a bunch of different utilities to get rid of all of the traces.

BTW, the receptionist no longer works here, this was just one of the things she managed to foul up.