Computer Trouble! Help!

[ettin]

Hello All,

So first of all, sadly, I had no idea AW.com had a Tech Forum.... shame on me!

Wondering if any of you could lend some advice on a computer problem.

Earlier today my desktop was working just fine (HP Phoenix Envy running Windows 8.1).

I returned to the computer after a period of about two hours (it was still on) and I tried opening a web browser and it was really sluggish. The computer then essentially froze up on me although the mouse still moved around.

I've restarted it several times and get similar effects. It makes it to the desktop screen and some of the normal programs seem to do there normal load but the moment I try to hit the start menu it won't open. I tried a system restore to no effect. Browsers may or may not open and may or may not try to load different websites.

Either it's a really nasty virus (and I really don't know how I'm going to get rid of it if nothing will load properly including my Kaspersky protection) or there might be some type of memory lag/failure? CPU?

Also I did open up the case and clean the inside from dust and build up as my old computer sometimes had a slowing down issue related to dust build up (have a lot of wind blowing through the nearby window) but that didn't help.

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

Another friend of mine suggested that if I'm using Adobe Flash that I may have picked up malware (I did do an update of Adobe Flash recently).

Thanks,

Robert

Edited November 17, 2015 by ettin

[gotbeer]

How many sticks of ram do you have?  If you have more than one.  Take one out.  Restart and see if it helps.  If it doesn't, take the other stick out, replace the stick you took out back in.  And restart.  

 

If you see improvement, then it is probably ram going bad.  

[gotbeer]

Oh one other thing.  It's rare, but I've had it happen on my comp.  But sometimes the ram slot goes bad.  So mix and match and see if you can isolate the problem.

[Thomas]

When you say system restore could you please clarify what you did since that could be one of several things?  I would strongly recommend wiping your machine and installing from the manufacture system restore disks if you have not yet. I would in fact save any files you might want and take the time to install/have installed a solid state hard drive while you are at it.

 

Your friend is wise btw. It seems every other week Adobe is announcing a zero day vulnerability with Flash.

[ettin]

Okay GB I'll try out the RAM thing as I find it interesting that the system loads and I can see my desktop but the moment I try to open a browser or load anything it invariably slows down and even just freezes up the system for the most part.

Thomas - I used the "System Restore" function to go back to a Restore date about 3 weeks ago but it didn't solve my issue which, now that I think about it, probably makes it a hardware issue rather than a software one although viruses can be nasty in a lot of ways.

My friend is a computer science major and runs his own software development company so he knows a lot. He recommended I try loading a malware search program which I will try as well.

I'll try out your recommendations and let you know what happens.

[mrwicked]

only wipe everything as a last resort.

highly unlikley to be a hardware issue (its possible, but other than hard drives which fail all the time, most hardware won't fail nearly as often as malware will get in there).

its likely malware.

run a malware program.

they'll find it.

malwarebytes is pretty good.

 

windows sucks.

Edited November 17, 2015 by mrwicked

[Thomas]

only wipe everything as a last resort.

windows sucks.

 

Disagree on Windows machines. The installations on Windows are practially disposable. Once any form of malware compromises the system, Windows in particular, and gains significant permissions you can never really trust that installation again. How are you really sure you sufficiently cleaned the machine? Let alone the gradual rot Windows installations have without the assistance of malware. Regardless you are going to spend many times over the effort trying to clean it than to declare it a lost cause and start from scratch. Best solution is to keep a clean image of your system with your desired apps installed to save time on the restore process. I'd never have time as an admin at a company trying to actually "fix" systems instead of just restoring from a stored image. And if you are running your OS on a spinning disk hard drive you will find the upgrade to a SSD especially rewarding.

[nate]

Sounds to me like a virus

[Adam]

I think your computer has AIDS

[JAHV76]

I would blame Charlie Sheen if you downloaded that article

[ettin]

Apparently this thread is starting to go viral.

[mrwicked]

Disagree on Windows machines. The installations on Windows are practially disposable. Once any form of malware compromises the system, Windows in particular, and gains significant permissions you can never really trust that installation again. How are you really sure you sufficiently cleaned the machine? Let alone the gradual rot Windows installations have without the assistance of malware. Regardless you are going to spend many times over the effort trying to clean it than to declare it a lost cause and start from scratch. Best solution is to keep a clean image of your system with your desired apps installed to save time on the restore process. I'd never have time as an admin at a company trying to actually "fix" systems instead of just restoring from a stored image. And if you are running your OS on a spinning disk hard drive you will find the upgrade to a SSD especially rewarding.

 

yeah fair enough.

as long as you have good, consistent backup, then wiping/restore is a totally smooth way to go.

i do that for all my machines with time machine (and i backup the backup), but having backups is OS agnostic.

should always do it, then you can easily recover from sh*tshows like malware/virus/aids, etc.

i take it back.

listen to thomas.

[notherhalo]

How many sticks of ram do you have?  If you have more than one.  Take one out.  Restart and see if it helps.  If it doesn't, take the other stick out, replace the stick you took out back in.  And restart.  

 

If you see improvement, then it is probably ram going bad. 

[notherhalo]

Oh one other thing.  It's rare, but I've had it happen on my comp.  But sometimes the ram slot goes bad.  So mix and match and see if you can isolate the problem.

[mrwicked]

^ lol.

i see what you did there.

plagiarizing like a true south african.

[ettin]

So I ended up where the computer started okay and I was able to run a full system scan with Kaspersky. After that I ran Malwarebytes and it found a couple of items which I removed. I then took the advice of another buddy and downloaded CC Cleaner and ran that to clean up my registry and the computer appears to be operating okay at this point.

 

Thanks again for all of the inputs I sincerely appreciate the advice!