My pc is messing up, any suggestions?

[GerryDavid]

Im going to explain what has happend with my pc since yesterday, but Ill put a short version at the end for those that dont want to read all of this.

I was away for a week and when ever im away for an extended period of time my pc seems to go weird.

It was working fine at first. I had just got a usb thumb drive so I had used it a fair bit since it was a new toy. I never did the usb remove thing to remove the thumb drive since it didnt show up on the toolbar, so I presume this is what caused my pc to mess up, but I could be wrong.

So yesterday I was sorting through my class notes and trying to open some pdf's in adobe but ps didnt load, it just locked up. Then I noticed other programs started to do this, like realone player, the antivirus main screen although that one now works, etc. This was rather annoying but since I was able to use the internet, firefox, mozilla, etc, it wasnt that bad.

I ran Spybot: search and destroy since I had been seing some spyware blockin messages from it when ever I went to hotmail and I removed like 6 spyware things. I then searched my msconfig>startup settings for new things to see if anything there installed itself and is messing with my pc. I noticed there was two "WinTools" there that I hadnt seen before, that were in c:\program files\common files\wintools\wtoolsa, so I tried to uncheck them and then hit ok, but the window would lock up and not let me save the changes.

So I went into safe mode to do it there and I was able to do it, but when I went back into normal mode, they were there again, also when I tried to fix my taskbar *normally its 2 rows, so I can actually see more than 2 window buttons there at once, and have my quick launch stuff and clock* went to 1 line since safemode changes the screen resolution to 640X480 and it messes up my desktop settings. When I tried to change it from the single line to a double line, it locks the taskbar up, which is very annoying.

I updated my spybot and checked again, and ran my av over night to make sure it wasnt a virus, I had some trojans but I got rid of those. But the pc is still messed up.

I then went back into safe mode and tried to run system restore but it complained that I was almost out of hard drive space, that I should erase 200mb's and try again. I checked my system and it was 3.something gb's free, but I erased 200mb's of stuff I dont need but it wouldnt work.

I went back into normal windows mode and tried there and same thing. I free'ed up about 1gb so im now at 4.something gb's free out of 20gb's but its still saying im almost out of memory, so I cant run a system restore.

SHORT VERSION

I didnt use my pc for a week. Then I came home and started to play with my new usb jump drive a fair bit, removing it with out uninstalling it first since that option wasnt available.

I tried to open ps but it wouldnt open for me, then other programs started to not respond as well.

I checked for viruses and spyware and removed trojans and some spyware that ive had in the past and didnt have any troubles with back then.

I checked my msconfig startup stuff and found a couple new things but when I tried to remove them, the window locked up and it wont let me remove it.

went into safe mode and ran system restore but it says I need 200mb's of free space but I have 4gb's. So I cant do a system restore. Not even in normal windows mode.

QUESTION

Does anyone have any advice on how to fix my pc? I dont want to run the restore CD since theres stuff on my notebook that I dont have backed up, and my pc wont take my thumb drive anymore so I cant move the stuff to the other pc. Also theres a program on here that I dont have the cd to anymore so I cant reinstall it.

 

[Corry]

My suggestion:

Go join http://www.thesupportforum.com and ask you question there.

It's a great place.

 

[Nytmair]

why can't you do the system restore? can you just not get to it? or it doesn't open? ....becuase that is what i was going to suggest...

 

[John E.]

Trojans can be very nasty. The concenses in conputer security is once one has a trojan the only way one can be sure of keeping control of ones computer is to reformat including the master boot record and start completely from scratch. If your computer has become a slave then who knows what the new master has done to it.

This is the best place I have seen to learn about it.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security

These people do a great job of cleaning systems for free. just make sure to read and follow the instuctions before posting in the Hijack this log forum.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/

 

[Uselessdreamer1]

hmm our computer started doing this so i fdisked it or redid the system. this would be last option. I cant really tell u when went wrong but im guessing damage from the trogens.

 

[Gandalf]

Make sure you run the following in safe mode, since that is the only way they are truly effective:

- AdAware

- Virus Scan

- HijackThis! (download it here and post your log file for me so that I can see if there is anything running on your computer that shouldn't be)

That's all that I can think of for now.