Taskbar Freezes Up + Other Issues

[kaze950]

This all started yesterday when I opened My Documents. For some reason, my computer got really slow and then froze up. So, I restarted it and when I did so half of my desktop was covered in just a gray block and I wasn't able to click or otherwise access the start menu. I tried safe mode, but that didn't work and my computer appeared to just restart as normal. It's really strange because I can move my mouse and even click on desktop icons above the gray block, but whenever I hover over the taskbar and/or windows menu icon, my mouse turns into that circle icon that indicates its loading something but it never does. Even pressing the windows menu key does nothing. Ctrl+Alt+Del rarely works, and when it does, it's just a black screen that doesn't seem to go away and I'm forced to restart.


Eventually, I was able to run malwarebytes and it found this

1 Object Infected - Trojan.Chifrax C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Setup.exe

I removed it and restarted my computer. Everything seemed to be going fine until I opened a folder (recent files) and the computer suddenly became very slow and nothing was responding. So I rebooted again, and every time now, even when I try to start it in safe mode, the taskbar freezes and whenever I hover over it I just get the spinning blue circle. I'm pretty sure the taskbar is freezing up because the time does not change.

When I run Startup Repair, I got the message "Boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully"

I tried system restore to about a week ago, but got "rstrui.exe = application error - The instruction at 0xfbb7584d referenced memory at 0x00000008. The memory could not be read" Also, the only icon on my deskptop is recycle bin and double clicking it does nothing. I can't right click on the desktop to bring up the menu either.


Is there anything I can do in the command prompt? or should I just give up and take my PC in for repairs. I'm having trouble understanding this because I removed the trojan, and everything was working fine until I opened an ordinary folder. I can't find any information about the task bar becoming unresponsive and the spinning blue circle not going away. It's also strange that safe mode doesn't seem to work. I press enter on the safe mode option, but my computer returns to the acer start up screen (with the options for "enter setup" and "boot menu") and there's no indication that I'm in safe mode.


I also don't have a windowa 7 disc; I believe when I bought it I opted for direct download. If it helps, here are my computer's stats that I could find:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
OS: Windows 7
System Memory: 8gb
System Manufacturer: Acer
Product Name: Aspire M5800
BIOS Version: P01-A0

[Allan]

Please follow the instructions in the following link and post your logs in the thread you create (NOT in this thread):
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html

[kaze950]

Due to the nature of my problem, I am unable to post any logs because I am unable to access the anti-malware and anti-virus programs I do have and unable to download any new ones.

[Allan]

I'm moving this topic to the malware forum. Please wait for a Computer Hope Malware Specialist to respond.

[kaze950]

Thank you very much. I'm a bit new to this and didn't know the root cause of the problem.

If it's any help, after reading some information online, I did a "Chkdsk \f \r" in the CMD. Everything seemed normal, but this came up:


The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters detected in file 564  of name \Windows\Prefetch\REAADYB~1\Trace2.fx.

No clue if it's related or not, but I hope it helps in some way.

[SuperDave]

Hello and welcome to Computer Hope Forum. My name is Dave. I will be helping you out with your particular problem on your computer.

1. I will be working on your Malware issues. This may or may not solve other issues you have with your machine.
2. The fixes are specific to your problem and should only be used for this issue on this machine.
3. If you don't know or understand something, please don't hesitate to ask.
4. Please DO NOT run any other tools or scans while I am helping you.
5. It is important that you reply to this thread. Do not start a new topic.
6. Your security programs may give warnings for some of the tools I will ask you to use. Be assured, any links I give are safe.
7. Absence of symptoms does not mean that everything is clear.

If you can't access the internet with your infected computer you will have to download and transfer any programs to the computer you're using now and transfer them to the infected computer with a CD-RW or a USB storage device. I prefer a CD because a storage device can get infected. If you use a storage device hold the shift key down while inserting the USB storage device for about 10 secs. You will also have to transfer the logs you receive back to the good computer using the same method until we can get the computer back on-line.
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It sounds like your hardrive is maxed out. Let's try this. Click on My Computer, right-click the C: drive and choose Properties. Please tell me the capacity of the disk and how much free space you have.

[bifurious]

Your comment has been removed. Please do not post malware advice, or post here in the malware forum, unless you need help. First Warning! Superdave.