MS Secutity Essentials - Locks up

[papadba]

Rather frequently my Win7 pc locks with no diagnostic info shown. The system just freezes. Sometimes, the mouse can be moved about, sometimes not. Windows can neither be closed nor opened.

When i try to run the full scan it runs for quite a while (different amounts of time) and then locks up. Again with no diagnostic info.

Not much to go on, but what is the best way to determine why the full scan fails?

Thanks.

 

[xit]

Without knowing specifics on your system, this is what I would check first, run a manufacturers hard drive diagnostic on your system to eliminate a hard drive failure. First thing actually is to have everything important backed up.

 

[goombawaho]

Not a bad start, but if things don't improve, follow that with:
0. memory test
1. temp file cleanup with ccleaner
2. malware scan using rogue killer, malwarebyte's anti-malware, tdsskiller

Will it run reliably in safe mode if all else fails?

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[papadba]

Thanks for the replies.

Haven't tried safe mode. When rebooted, it defaults to "normal", so i go with that.

I'll try the things suggested (once we get back in town).

When i learn something, i'll be back . . .

Have a Great Thanksgiving!

d

 

[papadba]

Well, before i began running the diagnostics suggested, IE 11 installed.

This seems to have cleared up most/all of the problem. I still have "opportunities" when there are multiple FaceBook pages open at the same time.

Maybe this weekend there will be some diagnostics run - depends on the "honey do's"<g>

 

[papadba]

IE 11 actually didn't do much . . . Too much hope<g>

Memory test completed successfully.

ccleaner completed successfully.

malwarebytes cleared a ton of junk, much beginning with PUP.

CHKDSK will not complete.
The first 3 stages complete successfully.

Stage 4 (verify file data) always locks at file 2946 of 158448. Tried 3hree times on different days.
The keyboard locks and the only i've found to get out is to power off.

My best guess now is that there is a disk error. Is there anything else (preferable free) that will do similar to chkdsk (i.e. examine and repeair)?

 

[goombawaho]

Find out in BIOS or by looking at hard drive inside of case what brand it is. Get the ultimate boot CD image (ISO file). Burn it to a CD-ROM (must be burned as an image not just a data cd). Boot from the CD. Choose Hard Disk Drive Utilities. Run the manufacturer's hard drive diagnostic utility for your brand. It may be fixable or it may be toasty.

BACK UP DATA NOW. Drive could be near death.

Near the bottom "Mirror Sites"
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[papadba]

Thanks for the replies.

Via diagnostics and talking with Dell, nothing can be done to salvage the drive.

I'd hoped the bad place(s) could be flagged and unused (like we did more than 30 years ago), but this is no longer possible

 

[goombawaho]

Did you run the manufacturer's utility vs. the diagnostics built into the Dell? Often the manuf. utility CAN fix problems if they aren't catastrophic. I've seen it with quite a number of drives. Other problems, nope. Get you data off and be glad that you can do that. Lots of people don't even get that opportunity.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[papadba]

Thanks for the follow up.

When i was talking with Dell suppport on the phone, they had me do some of "their" diagnostics (did several and do not remember the specifiec - moving too quickly for me to record<g>). When we did these things and i reported some of the results as requested, the tech explained that this meant the hard drive is not repairable.

I asked if i could "fence" the bad part(s) of the drive and he said that was not an option.

Going to run one last backup tonight and then do no more updates until i ger the drive swapped out (probably this weekend). It is a 1tb drive, but it only has a few gig of "my" files.

Thanks again for the help!

d

 

[goombawaho]

My point was that I wouldn't trust the Dell utility to CONDEMN the hard drive. I would simply use it to sniff out a problem. Then always use the manufacturer's utility to see if it offers a repair for the problem. Even if it only gets you to the point where you can copy your files off, it might pay off. So, this comment is for "next time".

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

At this point, I'd honestly focus on backing the data up elsewhere if not already backed up. THEN you can go for the diagnostics. Then again, if you can afford say $100 to get a new drive, just back up what you've got, order a new drive, and swap it out when you get it. I'd highly suggest just doing a clean install after the new drive, since you had at least some adware/spyware/malware stuff from Malwarebytes found, even if you could mirror the old to the new. Besides being faster, you'll save time, and probably do what you'll end up doing anyway. Then you'll have more time for your honey-dos you mentioned.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[mikrom]

I used MS Security Essentials 1-2 years ago on my notebook and on the workastation at home. On both machines I first could only observe significant slowdown, but then I got this virus, which locked my admin profile, which I used for working and browsing on the internet.
Luckily I have on each machine always more Admin Profiles and so I could delete the infected profile and recreate it new. Since then I'm rather using Avira Free Antivirus.

 

[goombawaho]

Yes, M.S.E. generally won't stop a damn thing, but it's free and it doesn't nag you to upgrade to "super duper version". I don't even recommend it to high risk users - people with kids, torrent freaks, etc.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[papadba]

Well, took the beast to a guy who builds/repairs pc systems and he has some for-pay diagnostic tools.

The drive (Seagate) looks ok, but it still completely locks up after a while

The current plan is to replace the drive. When it came from Dell, eve3rything was pre-configured including MS-Office 2010. I don't have any media to re-install. WIll Dell show me the way to re-install 2010 from their site (or some MS site?

The guy installing the new drive has Office 2007 and i'll start with that until i can get 2010 back on the system.

Do we have much experience with Avira Free Antivirus.I didn't realize Security Essentials was Not so good . . .

Thanks again for all of the replies.

 

[goombawaho]

You can get the download for Office 2010 no problem, but do you have the key code. You can get it from the stuff that came with the Dell (hopefully) OR you'll have to run key finder on the hard drive (as a slave if not bootable) to pluck off the key code. I don't know if Dell has the code or not - probably not.

Link
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[IndianaSkinny]

Does the computer have a recovery partition? A few years ago my grandson's computer had a bad drive and while HP sent a new drive under warranty, it was blank. I was able to make a ghost image of the recovery partition and restore it to the new drive. Then when it booted, I was able to restore the original new state of the computer and copy his personal files back on it. This could be doable if the the recovery data is still good.

 

[papadba]

A bit of an update . . .

The hardware guy ran his dignostics and said a few things seem flaky. The keyboard for one. I have no idea why the keyboard suddenly ats up. He reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows 7.

The machine now has some rather strange new symptoms. When closing a window, it no longer just closes the window - poof. The window begins shrinking (kinda like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz) until it is totally gone. Video files play well, but animated apps do not. For example a slot machine game starts spinning the weels and it goes on until the window is closed and the audio is distorted. It takes between 10 and 15 minutes to boot.

I bought a new hard drive, but was not payng attention when the guy brought it up to the counter. I need a laptop drive and he brought the same drive - for a desktop. So it has not yet been swapped. We are on the road for the next several days, so i won't be takking it in until next week.

If anyone recognizes these new sysptoms, i be most interested what has caused them for you.

 

[goombawaho]

Check device manager for any missing drivers, especially video drivers. Update video drivers if they are older than a year old.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[mikrom]

Look in Event Viewer, mybe you will find some errors.

But...according the symptoms you have described, I would not thing about buying a new harddrive, but about buying a new computer.
How old is your PC ?