Task Manager won't reveal itself

[Ben Askew]

Something I've never seen before - I've got a client's W2K
Server that I had to pull from the network until I'm sure
of the reason for this problem. The computer takes a very
long time to boot and, once the administrator has logged
in, it also takes a very long time during the "applying
personal settings" stage. Once it's up and running, doing
a control-alt-delete and trying to run task
manager.....task manager runs for a half second and then
disappears. It doesn't minimize itself, it just
disappears. It leaves the small icon in the lower right
corner of the task bar but when you hover the mouse over
that icon, it disappears instantly. Trying to run task
manager by double-clicking on the file itself (windows
explorer) shows the same results. I have a feeling that
this machine is showing the results of some type of hacker
activity and would like to know if anyone has any clues as
to what happened and then what to do to get rid of this
problem. This client has operated for over a year with
absolutely no firewall on their DSL connection. That
problem is now solved but I'd like to get this one server
back into operation.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Marina Roos [SBS-MVP]]

Check for viruses, check for spyware, make sure all servers and W2K/XP's are
fully patched.