weird virus/ malware issue

[71chevellejohn]

I've had this issue for a little bit and just pushed the laptop aside and used my desktop for everything. But I've got some trips coming up where I'd like to have it handy.

2015 dell xps 12 running win 10.
It was working fine before I went on vacation in August. I left it home because we were out in the wilderness for a week. It was asleep the whole time. I came home and now it only "works" for 8-10 minutes. It will get online, browse normally, run outlook, sketchup, anything for about 8- 10 minutes.

After that, you can still open menus but they are unresponsive... try opening any program and nothing happens. Any browser tabs that were open before remain functional... but if you try to open another it times out(chrome says its's unresponsive). Try to open a command prompt and it says "CMD.exe cannot be found". I had an infinite ping running in a command prompt window and tried to open a second window, but got the error that CMD couldn't be found. Even the power down/restart menu doesn't come up. Although the power button will still make it sleep or shut down normally. It pops up various windows file exception messages, but I don't think it's popped up the same code twice in my troubleshooting.

In normal mode, windows defender doesn't complete its scan before it acts up, Malwarebytes finds no threats. Spybot S&D didn't find anything serious(mostly temp files and cookies). There was a microsoft update, but I rolled it back and the problem remains.

I was thinking maybe the file system was corrupted, but Safe mode seems to have everything running ok. I just started a full scan in safe mode to see if defender completes and finds anything.

Last time I had a virus problem there were a few programs that were almost like a magic bullet for malware.... but it's been years since I've had anything sneak in. And for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the program I used then.

If anyone has suggestions on what scan/repair tools to try, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance.

[Gasser64]

If you just can't run malwarebytes (or insert your preferred program here) on it because its acting up too much, try running it in safe mode (with networking option ticked) and then download and run the antivirus/antimalware that way. If for some reason you can't do that, take the hard drive out of the laptop and plug it into your desktop. Run the scan on that hard drive from your desktop. Should be all good from there. I'd recommend malwarebytes, avira, and roguekiller.

But I'd do malwarebytes first, and then uninstall it. I've run into a few instances where malwarebytes and avira kinda don't like each other. Roguekiller doesn't seem to have much issue with this so it can be installed at the same time as either of the other two. Typically I'll find a bunch of stuff with malwarebytes. Then avira will pick up 4-10 things malwarebytes missed. Roguekiller kind of looks for different things than the other two, so it will pick up any number of things that they missed. Doing all this has gotten any computer that was infected, working fine for me again.

[Tx Redneck]

Tbh, it's been so long since I've dealt w/any remediation, I couldn't tell you what that "magic bullet" is anymore. I know MBAM is decent, as is Defender now. If you're in a pinch, I'd just pull your data and start fresh and ensure it's gonna be a trouble free environment for your travels.

[LS1Goat]

Hijack This is an awesome program for manually eliminating malware and other garbage. https://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

Some people may not believe this, but I have never got a virus on my Windows 7 Laptop using Microsoft Security Essentials. Just keep it updated. And do frequent Quick Scans. And have the real time protection turned on in the settings. Also, keep Firefox browser updated with Ad Block Plus.

Also, stop looking at porn

[Craizie]

No matter what the pop up ad promises, it can't make your dick bigger. Don't click it!

[71chevellejohn]

If you just can't run malwarebytes (or insert your preferred program here) on it because its acting up too much, try running it in safe mode (with networking option ticked) and then download and run the antivirus/antimalware that way. If for some reason you can't do that, take the hard drive out of the laptop and plug it into your desktop. Run the scan on that hard drive from your desktop. Should be all good from there. I'd recommend malwarebytes, avira, and roguekiller.

Malwarebytes doesn't find anything. And as I recall the drive isn't removable(one of the downfalls of the super slim ultrabooks - they solder SSD's and RAM to the motherboard)

Tbh, it's been so long since I've dealt w/any remediation, I couldn't tell you what that "magic bullet" is anymore. I know MBAM is decent, as is Defender now. If you're in a pinch, I'd just pull your data and start fresh and ensure it's gonna be a trouble free environment for your travels.

I've pulled just about everything I can think of. I'm just always a little hesitant to push the big red button and start over. But if I can't find a solution, I'll nuke it for sure.

Hijack This is an awesome program for manually eliminating malware and other garbage. https://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

Some people may not believe this, but I have never got a virus on my Windows 7 Laptop using Microsoft Security Essentials. Just keep it updated. And do frequent Quick Scans. And have the real time protection turned on in the settings. Also, keep Firefox browser updated with Ad Block Plus.

Also, stop looking at porn

I'll give hijack this a shot to see what it can do.

I've had good luck with Microsoft security too(I think they changed the name to defender for win10). I've got them set for automatic scans but I've never had it come up with anything.

That's part of the reason this feels like possibly a corrupt disk or possibly a component failure. I would think a virus would limit access right away... the fact it holds out 8-10 minutes after login is driving me crazy.

No matter what the pop up ad promises, it can't make your dick bigger. Don't click it!

One of those ads worked... I've been typing this whole post with my pecker!

[Gasser64]

Malwarebytes doesn't find anything. And as I recall the drive isn't removable one of the downfalls of the super slim ultrabooks - they solder SSD's and RAM to the motherboard

Did you try roguekiller or avira? I'd still try both of those two before I gave up. I'd be surprised if roguekiller didn't come up with anything. If those don't work, a new windows install is in your future. Save you a lot of headache. Unless yeah... component failure. Laptops, ugh. No thanks.

[kingjason]

I bet you need a hard drive. Mine bit the dust and was doing all sorts of weird shit before it finally just locked up. No virus or malware either. Now I am just eyeballing new lap tops waiting on good deal. I like a good graphics driver thats not integrated and a solid processor and I am good. Tiss the right time though you know all the deals should be cranking up.

[Craizie]

Malwarebytes doesn't find anything. And as I recall the drive isn't removable(one of the downfalls of the super slim ultrabooks - they solder SSD's and RAM to the motherboard)



I've pulled just about everything I can think of. I'm just always a little hesitant to push the big red button and start over. But if I can't find a solution, I'll nuke it for sure.



I'll give hijack this a shot to see what it can do.

I've had good luck with Microsoft security too(I think they changed the name to defender for win10). I've got them set for automatic scans but I've never had it come up with anything.

That's part of the reason this feels like possibly a corrupt disk or possibly a component failure. I would think a virus would limit access right away... the fact it holds out 8-10 minutes after login is driving me crazy.



One of those ads worked... I've been typing this whole post with my pecker!

Can I get a link for one of my small dicked friends? I'm talking about you, CJ!

[71chevellejohn]

I bet you need a hard drive. Mine bit the dust and was doing all sorts of weird shit before it finally just locked up. No virus or malware either. Now I am just eyeballing new lap tops waiting on good deal. I like a good graphics driver thats not integrated and a solid processor and I am good. Tiss the right time though you know all the deals should be cranking up.

I checked again and apparently it's only the RAM that is soldered onto the motherboard on this one. The drive is a M.2... which I have at least one new one laying around to try. And I have been wanting more capacity(stock is only 128GB), so this may be a blessing in disguise.