PC freezing after trojan found and quarantined

[Carol Smithson]

I just opened the PC and the fan inside is turning, and there is air blowing from the back of the PC where the power supply is located. The PC is relatively clean inside as it wasn't too many months ago that I added the 2nd hard drive. One thing I was worried about was whether my power supply was capable of carrying the extra load of the 200 Gig HD and then long ago I added the DVD burner, but I just replaced the CD burner with it. I don't know what type symptoms I would get if the power supply couldn't carry the load. However, the PC just started with the freezing and the hard drive was installed at least 2-3 months ago. Could anyone tell me if the flash player is the same as Shockwave? I cannot find Shockwave in the add/remove programs but do see a flash player. I wanted to check to see if these were updated and if they could be the problem. Also, any ideas about needing updated drivers for anything in my PC (video card, hard drives, etc)? If so, how would I go about finding the drivers needed and upgrading them?

OK, looking in add/remove programs, I have Adobe Shockwave Player (did they change it from the Macromedia?) and I have Adobe Flash Player Active X. I just recently updated the Java RunTime Enviroment to the latest version (I had a message saying there was an upgrade); however I removed the updated version Wed or Thursday in case that was the problem. However, there is J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 9 listed and Java (TM) SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 1 listed in add/remove programs. The latter is 141 MB and the other is 119 MB. Should one be uninstalled? I would have thought it would update over the existing one so there would not be 2 entries. I do not see the Java icon in my sys tray anymore, so it may not work now that I removed the very latest version that I had downloaded.

[valis]

Let's do this first:

Download the Hoster from here:
www.funkytoad.com/download/hoster.zip
Run Hoster and press Restore Original Hosts, OK, and Exit Program.

then post a new log; I want to get the system totally clean then hit the hardware......

thanks,

v

[Carol Smithson]

Originally Posted by valis

Let's do this first:

Download the Hoster from here:
www.funkytoad.com/download/hoster.zip
Run Hoster and press Restore Original Hosts, OK, and Exit Program.

then post a new log; I want to get the system totally clean then hit the hardware......

thanks,

v

I don't really know what that means, but I did see on the HJT log that I had a program that has Hosts by many entries (entries...that may not be what it is called) like this
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.51 www.winmx.com err.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 test3201.winmx.com test3205.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 test3202.winmx.com test3206.winmx.com

Will doing this mess up the program? Thanks!! I was about to give up on getting help, so thanks for answering!

[valis]

nope, shouldn't affect the app at all....my understanding was that winmx was peer to peer, and as such, probably is involved in infecting your pc in the first place.....go ahead and run it, and then post a new hjt log....we'll take a look.

Didn't winmx go under, as well?

thanks,

v

[Rodents210]

valis: Officially, yes.

Officially, the support of WinMX by Frontcode ended in 2005 when they received threats of legal action by the RIAA. While the official website and servers for WinMX have been removed, a community of developers have brought the service online unofficially with the use of third party programs.

[Carol Smithson]

Originally Posted by valis

nope, shouldn't affect the app at all....my understanding was that winmx was peer to peer, and as such, probably is involved in infecting your pc in the first place.....go ahead and run it, and then post a new hjt log....we'll take a look.

Didn't winmx go under, as well?

thanks,

v

Yes, Rodents210 answered that. Winmx did not have spy or adware, but you did have to be careful and scan everything if you downloaded anything. I have not run it in quite awhile, but still like to have it handy.

I am thinking I found my problem, although I still may go ahead and run what you recommended, especially if it happens again. Seems that the hard drives were getting hot. They were installed in a 3.5 bay basically one atop the other. Why it took awhile to cause a problem, I don't know. I probably have shortened my hard drives lives now, but so far with one unplugged, I have had no more issues with freezing. However, last time after removing the 2 entries in the HJT log, I thought the PC was fixed, but by the next morning, it was freezing again. So it is still a little early to say for sure, but since unplugging the one, it hasn't occurred again. Now my question is this....what is a better way to address the heat issue? I want to use 2 drives if possible, one for my OS and important apps and one for storage. I did read about installing in a bigger (5. something bay..I am not looking at it now for the exact size of the bay) and getting rails that have a fan in front. Will this work? Has anyone used this setup and do the fans work? Also, I guess I could get the removeable thing where you put your hard drive in it and you can swap out drives. I guess I would still need a new bay to put my 2nd HD in so that it isn't sitting over the other. Can I do away with the 3.5 bay and add a 5. something one instead because I believe my other 5. something bay contains my floppy drive. I guess I could do without the floppy, but I hate to for the times when you just want to copy a few things and don't want to waste a whole CD. I have a lot of floppies around here that contain school work and sometimes I need to use them. I would hate to have to copy all that to the drive and back it up again on CD because it would take awhile!

[valis]

there should be multiple bays for the hard drives, cd/dvd drives, etc. If you find you have both a cd a drive and a dvd drive, obviously you don't need both, as the dvd will play cd disks. Now, if you have a cd burner, and a dvd read-only, that would be an instance in which you would need both. But most chassis' are designed with close quarters in mind and therefore designate certain fans to blow in certain areas, controlling the air flow through the compartment. This is also why you can take the side panel off and actually reduce the cooling capacity of your system; they are designed via forced convection, and by removing the side panel, all you are doing is removing a facet of the forced part, and as a result the flow gets disrupted and is degraded.

One thing you could do is download a diagnostic tool such as speed fan that is free and will tell you the temps of everything (I think; ih8billls will know more about this I do) including the hd's. I know it does tell the heat of the processor etc, but unsure of the hd's temps. Worth a shot.

scratch that, just checked it out, it measures hd temps too. May want to take a look at this:

|MG| Free Download - SpeedFan 4.32

if you install it, let us know what the readings are.

thanks,

v