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[lojban]

So I have a relatively new computer, and it is pretty good. (windows 7)
Except in the past two days i have been having this strange problem with it.
When I open an application or exe file, some of the time it opens but most of the time it does not.
The process just sits in the process list, doing nothing, with about 100k ram usage.
Minecraft won't work, DF won't work, Skyrim won't work.... Even PYTHON won't work.
I get no error messages, nothing.
They just don't DO anything.

Has anyone had this problem before?
Does anyone know how I might go about fixing it?
I need help, I don't want a dead computer.
Thanks.


Edit: I tried installing a system update. After that, everything worked once. Just once. Then everything went back to not working. Also: could this be a virus?

[lojban]

Okay, it's gotten worse.
I literally cannot run* any program that is not system-sanctioned (control panel, dxdiag, etc.)
The programs that run on startup run then, but if i close any of them i cannot reopen them.
I get an error if i try to create a dump file from them:
Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteProcessMemory request was completed.
help!

*they execute but do not do anything. same as before.

[Loud Whispers]

See a professional, unless someone here knows something about computers... Which I'm guessing given time, will find this thread.

[Nilum]

I, I guess run msconfig and see if there's anything unusual under the startup tab? If you don't notice anything out of place, I'd suggest reinstalling Windows, if possible. If it's not a virus of some sort, then I'm assuming your Windows install was damaged.

[Telgin]

Yes, this could be a virus.  Try restarting it and running it in safe mode (hit the F8 key repeatedly while it's booting up, you should get an option to do so).

If stuff works in safe mode, then you can probably salvage your OS install.  If not, then something is very badly broken and you'll probably need to reinstall Windows.  This is almost certainly not a hardware problem.

In general, if you can get into safe mode, you can try installing anti-virus software and trying to remove the virus infection.

[lojban]

Okay guys i found a "VDeck.exe" that was probably a virus in diguise ( it wasn't any of the normal file sizes, it was appearing in taskmanager when it shouldn't and it ran on startup even though it wasn't in the list of startup programs.)

I terminated and deleted it and so far everything now works.
I hope that was it, and thanks for all y'all's help.
(y'all's, ha)

woot

[lojban]

Okay, no, that wasn't it.

I tried shutting down 'userinit.exe' before it could terminate itself and that worked for one boot, (until i restarted) so i think a cvirus has appended itself to the end of userinit.exe.
Unfortunately i cannot delete it or i will not be able to use the computer and i cannot restore it because ... i dont have a restore point and I don't know another way to do so.

any ideas?

[Stargrasper]

Either boot into safe mode or boot a live disk OS (puppy linux will fit on a usb key) and retrieve important files.  Just in case.  You may not be as screwed as you think.  If you put in the Windows install disk, it should give you the option to do a repair install.  That should replace the offending executable with a correctly functioning copy as well as handle any and all other system files that are damaged.  This should work well enough to make the rest of the system recoverable, but just in case, assume you'll lose everything and make appropriate preparations.  You can always whip the thing clean if you can't fix it.

[Starver]

Hmm, I've just written in the "Sigh... My Dad and Viruses" thread a message that (better written) might have fit here.

Long-winded, it was.  Hate it already, so won't repeat it.

[lojban]

New development!
I got an error message at last besides the cryptic one.
When I open python command line and it doesn't do anything, then hit 'shut down' it flashes an error message on the screen for a few seconds, which I was able to read by taking a picture of it with my camera.

It says:

"The application was unable to start correctly. (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application."

I have done quite a bit of research on the 0x142 error but haven't been able to find a safe fix for it...
There are a couple of questionable programs that claim it is a registry error and I do not want to run
them for fear of them being viruses. (shouldn't the plural of "virus" be "viri"?)

anyway any ideas?

and I don't think it's a virus or malfunctioning exe anymore, I read something about this error originating from a corrurpted version of C++ or C

[DrKillPatient]

Do you recall doing anything specific to the computer before this started happening?

shouldn't the plural of "virus" be "viri"?

"Virus" (meaning poison or noxious substance) is a Latin word, but it is one of a few nouns that occurs only in the singular in Latin. Thus, we add "-es" to the plural. (info from here)

[lojban]

No nothing in particular happened.
I had just bought the computer from my brother a couple weeks before this started happening
and he hadn't had any such problem.

Oh and the problem is completely intermittent, all of last week it was goen and now it's back...
I ran malwarebytes which came up with some corrupted registry files and fixed them and the
problem seems to have gone away. But it could have just stopped for the time being.

[lordcooper]

Malwarebytes is good.

If you have registry issues, I'd recommend you DL and run CCleaner as well.