I think my laptop has Sars...

[durex]

No, really... its sick bigtime... Here are all of the symptoms Im experiencing....

1. First off, when trying to install masai editor, I get the following error complaining that .Net Framework isnt installed.. but it is!:

2. Also, Ive got a program Im trying to install (which Ive installed without issue numerous times). It has both an exe and also an msi you can use... when I use the exe I get this error right before it goes to install:

When I use the msi directly, I get this error:

3. Adaware hangs on 'comfile\shell\open\command' every time I run it. I read on lavasofts forums that a chkdsk may need to be run, so I ran it, but it said that it couldnt run and it would upon next reboot. Now, every reboot I get the message "cannot open volume for direct access" and chkdsk doesnt run, and windows just continues loading up.

4. Whenever I telnet to other PC's, if I let my session go without activity for about 20 seconds, it times out. There doesnt seem to be a problem if I continue working in my telnet session. This happens on multiple servers, with multiple telnet clients

5. I cant uninstall many programs. When I goto Add Remove progs and click remove on a program, the screen kinda flashes for a sec and does nothing... Ive tried 4 apps so far- 3 dont uninstall, 1 did.

So that just about covers it... I can run Spybot without issue and it doesnt come up with anything bad.. and adaware doesnt find anything up to the point where it gets locked up. Now this isnt my PC, it belongs to my work, so it cant be reformatted and I work on the road about 98% of the time, so my MIS dept never has a chance to look at it.

Who knows.. maybe most of these issues arent related, maybe they all are... all I know is my laptop isnt liking me right now.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks guys.

[prathapml]

Time for your uA CD to crawl out of its shell and get to work....

[keytotime]

Sounds like a virus. Try running and antivirus.

[^_^]

maybe also take a look at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/start_corp.asp and do an online scan

truthfully, it sounds more like an adware problem to me, but hedge your bets

[mark]

Yeah, like prathapml said. I find a fresh install the easiest solution after a carefull backup. Numerous times I have cleared the damage from the that nasty bug that gets lodged between seat and keyboard.

DL

[totoymola]

SARS! Haha! If I were you, I wll reinstall my system.

[durex]

Sigh.... and the hits just keep on comin.. tried running MicroTrend online scan.. it starts downloading the updates and every time, when it gets to 95% complete, I get the same error:

Trend ActiveUpdate did not update successfully.  It may result from busy server or bad network traffic.

Error Code: 47

Error string: Invalid zip file

Do you want to retry?

I click retry and it does the exact same thing. So I try to run it without the updates and I get:

Error: Unable to load Virus Engine

I did a search on these errors and didnt come up with much...

Now I was able to run Panda online virus scan and it worked fine and came up with zero viruses.

And again... I cant reformat cause this isnt my pc.

[^_^]

Can you update adaware?

Make sure you have the latest adaware from www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download

Then update the definitions

Now restart your computer in safe mode by repeatedly pressing F8 key during bootup process right after POST, but before it starts loading windows

this will bring up a boot menu, use arrow keys to select safe mode, then press enter

once you are in safe mode, run adaware & make sure it scans all files including compressed files

that will make sure no software is running that will prevent adaware from running and also will allow it to delete any adware files

after scanning, restart computer in regular mode just to make sure there's no registry entries it would have missed.

this should help, and at least be a starting point

[mark]

Is it possible to repair or re-install Windows and have that possibly fix the problem for durex?

[prathapml]

A repair or re-install normally does not start on a clean slate - old junk is still around which can cause problems again.

[XtremeMaC]

my suggestion is to uninstall software. it might sound wierd to u but i've recovered like that from a similiar state.

also as for spyware and virus, get boot time virus check and use spybot and let it run at startup.

its always a good idea to look at start-up items as well as looking at running processes.

i suggest u take a look at http://www.sysinternals.com

and download process explorer and autoruns.

process explorer: is a nice utility that's like the taskmanager but more advanced.

autoruns: it obtains all those start-up items even for those who hide theirselves..

if u don't which one to delete which one to keep post your results, both programs have save ability, so u can save the running processes and startup items to a text file and post here..

but as i said uninstall some stuff. after that use a reg cleaner. i use registry first aid 3

[durex]

my suggestion is to uninstall software. it might sound wierd to u but i've recovered like that from a similiar state.

Only problem is I cant uninstall a bunch of my programs...

Ill try out those boot time antivirus checkers...

As far as re-installing.. heres the thing. If I were to reformat and reinstall I would need to do it without their help or them noticing. Ive got a my own copy of WinXP and grabbed the i386 folder from the install disk they use and I know there are ways I can find the CDKEY my pc is using now... so I could re-install.

That leaves me with a few problems though..

1. This laptop has Symantec AV installed and is setup to be managed via their symantec server... I obviously dont know the password and I would assume I would need to be on the network when I install this to select the syamtec server and whatnot... again, Im hardly ever in the office, so this would be difficult.

2. Ive got outlook installed which is setup to login to their exchange server.. which I dont have the slightest idea how to setup

3. Currently the account I use to log into my PC is a domain account.. not a local one.. so I wouldnt be able to create this account unless I have direct access to the network...

4. I dont have any domain admin access so I wouldnt be able to add myself back to the domain when I did get back into the office, right?

So as you see, I dont think I would be able to reinstall windows without the assitance of my MIS dept, which I wouldnt have. If anyone thinks I would be able to get around the above issues, by all means speak up as I would have no problem with reformatting.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Keep em comin!

[XtremeMaC]

hmm u naught boy, whose computer did u mess up huh?

do u at least have admin rights at that messed up computer?

[durex]

Well I travel for work on a weekly basis, so they 'give' us our own laptop, but obviously when I leave this position I have to give the laptop back. Its not as though Im trying to be all sneaky, its just out MIS dept make these things into big issues and they would want my PC for a day or 2 trying to figure exactly whats wrong before finally re-installing it, and I just dont have the time for that. I also realize they probably wouldnt like employees reformatting thier PC's on a whim.. so Im just trying to make this as easy for me as I can.

As far as admin rights.. yes, Im an admin of my PC.

[XtremeMaC]

well here is what i think: just give it back as it its right now. if its the mis dept its kind of their job to deal with these. u could just blame windows

i'm very very sure they'd have a ghost image or something and it won't take much to bring back the laptop back..