Truly bizarre problem.

C

Chris Schumacher

I'm not putting up much hope that anyone has ever seen something like
this before, but I suppose there's no harm in asking.

Vital Stats: Windows XP - Home, 5.1.2600
Recently Windows has started to act truly bizarre.
Unless I open certain programs within the first few minutes after I
turn the machine on, they act very strangely. Note however that all of
these program work just fine if I open them up as soon as the computer
boots up. Since so many different programs screw up, I'm pretty sure
that this is a system problem and is not a problem with the system
itself.

Mozilla: The Mozilla logo comes up and freezes. This happens if I shut
down a (working) Mozilla window and try to start up the program again.

Eudora: (very old version) boots up, but is stuck in "connecting to
mail server" mode. It never connects to the mail server, and it's
impossible to stop it from trying. (clicking "Stop all tasks" doesn't
do anything).

Thunderbird: Never loads, though the program itself shows up in the
Processes list on the TaskManager.

Agent: Load ups perfectly fine but when you click on the Go
Online/Offline button, it "sinks" in and immediately pops back up. The
program freezes.

Spyhunter: If you try to update the program, the program freezes.

Internet Explorer: Loads perfectly, but never manages to connect to
any site.

(again, all of these program work properly if they're started in the
first couple of minutes of the system booting up).

Find: After a certain amount of time, the program stops responding. It
even minimizes itself without me telling it to.

Okay, now here's the strange part, every other program on the computer
works fine: (including, but not limited to, PowerDVD, Textpad, Visual
C++ 6.0, Visual Basic 6.0, Microsoft Office 2000, Adobe Photoshop
Elements, Winamp, all the start-up programs).
If the affected program are loaded up within a couple of minutes of
start-up, they run perfectly. Furthermore, if they aren't shutdown,
they continue to act within normally for as long as they're open. Even
after the other programs are affected.

I scanned for viruses twice, using the latest definitions from Norton,
as well as using Spyhunter to look for any spyware.

Recent changes: None that I'm aware of. You see, I'm not quite certain
when this problem started. I recall the problem starting with a
program called "Winhost" freezing like this, leading to my discovery
of it and wiping it out (it was spyware, apparently) removing it from
the registry and what-not. Of course shortly thereafter I downloaded
the latest version of Spyhunter, which might account for it, but the
problem seems to predate that, since I think it crashed Winhost.

Roughly a month ago I installed a new memory board in my computer, but
it was perfectly suited for my computer and I never noticed any
problems with it. I've heard that problems caused by small static
charges make take some time to manifest themselves, but does this seem
like a hardware problem?
I'd imagine that since all the programs that are affected are internet
clients that some kind of networking DLL might be damaged, but then
why can the programs load perfectly fine in the first couple of
minutes?

My startup log follows:
Bsx3
bxsx5
DVDSentry
Gravis Xperience Driver Support (joystick driver)
HotKeysCmds
IgfxTray
IMJPMIG8.1
MSPY2002
NAV Agent (Norton AntiVirus)
Phimea2002a
Phimea2002Sync

I could give more information, but I'm not sure where to start... I'm
hoping that someone recognizes these "symptoms" and has an idea what
could be causing it. Although specifics would be great, generalities
are probably what's going to solve this problem.
ANY help is welcome.

Thanks a ton.

-==Kensu==-
 
Y

Yellowbeard

First thing I look at with this type of problem is temp.
The CPU fan might be slow or dead. The cooling of the system is very
important.
The cpu or MB usually has a temp sensor. Mother Board Monitor program or in
your BIOS should have a screen to view this.
YB
 
C

Chris Schumacher

Update: The Live-Update function in Nortan AntiVirus is also affected
by this odd malady.

-==Kensu==-
 
R

Richard Urban

Now why would a temperature condition affect only internet programs? Think
man!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :)
 
D

Dave Neve

Hi

Don't be so hasty Richard.

Internet programs tend to run at the same time on activation of a browser.
(They might load at startup but they don't necessarily run)

You do seem to have a lot of stuff running in conjuction with Internet

(Other programs that you have cited tend to be used in isolation)

Such intensive activity could cause heat problems.

Or

If you run these programs on startup, they will load themselves into the
..DLL memory first (cache)

If you run them later, the DLL memory might not have enough space and there
could be a problem with it unloading DLL.'s.

I'm not saying that 'Yellowbeard' is right, but he may well be on the right
track (based on your own observations of which programs crash)

Have you tried to look at your 'error' logs
Administrative tools, 'computer management'

Regards

Dave Neve
 
C

Chris Schumacher

If you run these programs on startup, they will load themselves into the
.DLL memory first (cache)

If you run them later, the DLL memory might not have enough space and there
could be a problem with it unloading DLL.'s.

And what could cause a problem like that?
I'm not saying that 'Yellowbeard' is right, but he may well be on the right
track (based on your own observations of which programs crash)

Have you tried to look at your 'error' logs
Administrative tools, 'computer management'

Regards

Dave Neve

Yeah, but they haven't been much help. I've appended them to the end
of the post.
Is there a way to check the integrity of the RAM chips, the same way
that you can test the file system? I'm wondering if it might've been a
problem with the memory board I installed a month ago.

Logs follow:

The COM+ Event System attempted to fire the
EventObjectChange::ChangedSubscription event but received a bad return
code. HRESULT was 80040201.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

------------------------

LastCounter and LastHelp values of performance registry is corrupted
and needs to be updated. The first and second DWORDs in Data Section
are the original values while the third and forth DWORDs in Data
Section are the updated new values.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

------------------------
[Application Hang]

Fault bucket 79757596.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

--------------------------
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Cannot obtain the collection
'Applications' from the COM+ catalog [0x8004e00f].

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

----------------------------
Hanging application agent.exe, version 1.93.576.0, hang module
hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

-----------------------------

Hanging application HelpCtr.exe, version 5.1.2600.1106, hang module
hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

-------------------------------

Hanging application LUALL.EXE, version 2.0.39.0, hang module hungapp,
version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

<Note: Norton AntiVirus update utility>

-==Kensu==-
 
J

Jim Byrd

Hi Chris - FWIW, both Spyhunter and NAV are know "problem causers". Try
uninstalling both and see what happens. If that fixes it, then try adding
Spyhunter back and see what happens. (I can't in conscience recommend
reinstalling NAV; however, you should certainly replace it with a good AV
and see what happens.)

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
 
C

Chris Schumacher

Hi Chris - FWIW, both Spyhunter and NAV are know "problem causers". Try
uninstalling both and see what happens. If that fixes it, then try adding
Spyhunter back and see what happens. (I can't in conscience recommend
reinstalling NAV; however, you should certainly replace it with a good AV
and see what happens.)

Thanks for the suggestion. I uninstalled Spyhunter (since the version
of NAV I'm using is over a year old, only the definitions have been
updated) but the problem didn't clear up. That is unless it didn't
remove all its DLLs.
Does anyone know where I can get a list of the DLLs that Spyhunter
puts into the system?

-==Kensu==-
 
J

Jim Byrd

Hi Chris - Residual .dlls will usually only show up if they're shared unless
you're dealing with deliberate spyware (which Spyhunter isn't, ISFAIK), so I
doubt this is a problem. I would still strongly recommend that you
uninstall NAV and test. The fact that it's a year old doesn't mean that it
hasn't been updated (new engine(s), for example, as well as definitions) in
ways that can cause trouble.

Also, you might give this a try - some malware just doesn't show up in the
standard AdAware/Spybot scans.

Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip (Always download a
new fresh copy of HijackThis [and CWShredder also] - It's UPDATED
frequently.)

Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click the
Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log which
will create Startuplist.txt

Then go to one of the following forums:

Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11

or Net-Integration here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-...86d536d57b5f65b6e40c55365e;act=ST;f=27;t=6949

or Tom Coyote here:
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=495&s=2c6e92805e310b519b9fa61cc7098fba

Sign in, then copy and paste both files into a message asking for
assistance, Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal
of your parasite(s).



Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it UPDATED) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed, and it provides information and fixit-links for a variety
of parasites.

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Keep it UPDATED. Both Very Highly Recommended


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
 

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