Every. Program. Crashes. (Well, almost every one)

[Guest]

I turned on my computer today and it started up like usual; after logging in,
I went through my usual routine of closing unnecessary applications and
waiting for the CPU usage to go down to around 0% (which takes maybe a couple
minutes.)

First program:
The Xfire login window opens, I type my password and click "log in." The
program loads quickly and the window opens. It has connected to the internet
and loads my friends list. Maybe two seconds after the window has opened, it
disappears and I get the "(application) has encountered a problem and needs
to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" message. I try again twice,
with the same results.

Second program:
Hoping to find the answer to the problem online, I open internet explorer.
It connects and loads my homepage quickly, almost unusually fast, and as soon
as the window is open, I get the message again. "Internet Explorer has
encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the
inconvenience."
I click "send" to send the error report, and the program closes.
Realizing that the page had still loaded when the error message popped up, I
tried opening internet explorer again, and this time ignored the error
window. It's still open right now, as I type this.

Third program:
I'm searching with Google to find a solution to this problem, when all the
sudden: "Zone Alarm has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are
sorry for the inconvenience." There goes my firewall, and now I start
getting worried about whatever's wrong with my computer.

Fourth program, and so on...
I experiment now, opening different programs. Windows Media Player crashes
soon after it is opening, before I can even start playing something.
Microsoft Paint and Notepad don't have any problems, for some reason. I
didn't leave them open long, anyways. Hey, Windows Movie Maker works. What
gives?!

Conclusion:
Specific, seemingly randomly chosen applications crash when opened, each
time they are opened. My computer is running much faster than usual, most
likely due to the lack of programs that are usually running in the
background. I have no idea what is going on, and what triggered this.

The last time I logged on, and it was running normally:
I changed my theme a few times.
I ended a few unwanted applications with task manager. I do this often, but
I think there were a couple that I didn't recognize.
I accidentally visited a site that probably or definitely had malicious
programs just waiting to be put onto my computer, however nothing was caught,
and attempts to access my computer were denied.

Please, if anyone knows what could be going on with my computer, and how I
might fix this problem, I will be extremely grateful for your help. I'm
going to close everything and try restarting the computer now.

 

[Guest]

Edit:
There goes Toshiba Pinger. Same old error message, and it seems that all my
running applications are dropping like flies.

 

[Rock]

I turned on my computer today and it started up like usual; after logging in,
I went through my usual routine of closing unnecessary applications and
waiting for the CPU usage to go down to around 0% (which takes maybe a couple
minutes.)

First program:
The Xfire login window opens, I type my password and click "log in." The
program loads quickly and the window opens. It has connected to the internet
and loads my friends list. Maybe two seconds after the window has opened, it
disappears and I get the "(application) has encountered a problem and needs
to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" message. I try again twice,
with the same results.

Second program:
Hoping to find the answer to the problem online, I open internet explorer.
It connects and loads my homepage quickly, almost unusually fast, and as soon
as the window is open, I get the message again. "Internet Explorer has
encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the
inconvenience."
I click "send" to send the error report, and the program closes.
Realizing that the page had still loaded when the error message popped up, I
tried opening internet explorer again, and this time ignored the error
window. It's still open right now, as I type this.

Third program:
I'm searching with Google to find a solution to this problem, when all the
sudden: "Zone Alarm has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are
sorry for the inconvenience." There goes my firewall, and now I start
getting worried about whatever's wrong with my computer.

Fourth program, and so on...
I experiment now, opening different programs. Windows Media Player crashes
soon after it is opening, before I can even start playing something.
Microsoft Paint and Notepad don't have any problems, for some reason. I
didn't leave them open long, anyways. Hey, Windows Movie Maker works. What
gives?!

Conclusion:
Specific, seemingly randomly chosen applications crash when opened, each
time they are opened. My computer is running much faster than usual, most
likely due to the lack of programs that are usually running in the
background. I have no idea what is going on, and what triggered this.

The last time I logged on, and it was running normally:
I changed my theme a few times.
I ended a few unwanted applications with task manager. I do this often, but
I think there were a couple that I didn't recognize.
I accidentally visited a site that probably or definitely had malicious
programs just waiting to be put onto my computer, however nothing was caught,
and attempts to access my computer were denied.

Please, if anyone knows what could be going on with my computer, and how I
might fix this problem, I will be extremely grateful for your help. I'm
going to close everything and try restarting the computer now.

Have you run a thorough scan for viruses, spyware, and other malware
using a current AV program with up to date definitions plus a
combination of other anti-malware programs, running the scans in safe mode?

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Richard Harper’s Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

PC Hell Spyware and Adware Removal Help
http://www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.spywareinfo.com

 

[Guest]

I've restarted my computer, and everything is running fine now. Perhaps even
better than before. I don't know what was going on, but whatever happened
might have made my computer run faster now.
I'm so confused.

 

[Guest]

My Toshiba laptop Satellite 1415 no longer will go into hibernate. Instead,
when it tires to, you get a mesage that says it cannot because the
WINDOWS\SYS32\DRIVERS\MODEM.SYS PROGRAM will not let it go into hibernate. I
called Toshiba and they said to instal a new software modem driver, which I
did and I then updated the driver but it did not seem to make any difference.
What can I do to make the system ignore the driver and hibernate, or is
there a newer software modem driver that will solve this problem?
If this is not the correct forum for this question, please tell me which one
is better. Thanks, slofly6942

 

[GateKeeper]

I've restarted my computer, and everything is running fine now. Perhaps even
better than before. I don't know what was going on, but whatever happened
might have made my computer run faster now.
I'm so confused.

When I read this, I thought "spyware,virus or trojan." Many kinds of
badware disable antivirus programs at startup. This would certainly have
the effect of making your computer run faster. It might even cause your
other programs to crash, as many programs call up the antivirus
autoprotect routines. Try turning off system restore, restarting in Safe
Mode, and doing full scans with both antivirus and spyware programs.