Minor Computer Problem

[GlutusMaximus86]

Problem: Again this is very minor, but is annoying. Anyway what's happening is right now whenever I'm on the computer, no matter what I'm doing, this little pop-up program bar appears on the bottom of my screen (where all the other program bars are) for about 1/2 sec to a sec every 15 - 20 min and then goes away. The program bar at the bottom has no text on it when it pops up.

What I've tried to do: Scan for Adaware with Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-aware SE (Both are up-to-date). Also have done a virus scan, defrag, Disk scan, and a couple other things with Norton SystemWorks and Norton WinDoctor. I've also gone into msconfig and looked in there for any suspicious looking programs and found nothing.

Anyway is there anything else I can do to try and fix this problem? I know it's not major, but if I'm playing a game or watching a DVD (yes I do watch DVDs on my computer), it can get a little annoying. BTW I have Win XP Pro (up-to-date as well).

Thanks for any replies.

 

[diablo]

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Go down to where it says:

"Double-check your system with HijackThis! (after using one of the above)"
....Next, go to: http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

I was running into a similiar problem - SpyBot, AdAware, Norton, etc etc all couldn't take care of it... HijackThis! found it (though I had to wait on someone who knew what to look for to review the thread and tell me what to get rid of...)

It's definitely annoying... oh, and I watch DVD's on my computer too.

 

[MetalFortress]

Microsoft AntiSpyware is another good one.

 

[Zaine]

ya "Hijack This!" is good. Its easier when you have 2 ppl and know how to use it tho.

 

[GlutusMaximus86]

Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it a lot. I just dled and used Microsoft AntiSpyware, it found nothing but it certainly still seems like a good program to have around. I've tried Hijack This, it seems pretty good but, I'm still waiting for a response to the post I made on Tuesday. I read the FAQ and followed the directions too. Do you guys remember how long it took before you got a response on Hijack This?

 

[diablo]

A few days - however the wait is worth it, as mine was undetectable through every other method out there... only the people on that forum or a full reformat could have gotten rid of it. Thankfully, they came through.

 

[Albion4]

I know its been a few days. But if you're still having the problem, please explain to me what the popup looks like and what it's advertising.

Part of my business is cleaning machines of this crap. I could tell ya some stories.. But, I get $100 a crack for cleaning a machine. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes, sometimes it takes me 4 hours. But I am pretty well known for being able to bring machines back from the dead that most other people would have just reinstalled.

List of programs to run to keep your machine clean:

AVG - By far the best Anti-Virus out there and free.
Spybot Search & Destroy
Adaware SE
BHO Demon
CWShreader
Hijack This
About Buster.
MS Anti-Spyware - Be careful, it is still beta and I have seen problems with it.

-Al

 

[GlutusMaximus86]

Originally posted by Albion4
I know its been a few days. But if you're still having the problem, please explain to me what the popup looks like and what it's advertising.

Well that's the strange thing it dosen't have any text, and the pop-up dosen't even seem to appear on the screen (if it does it's certainly up there too fast for me to see), and all that I see come up is a little program bar (which dosen't have any text on it, it just has a little program symbol inside the program bar and that is it) at the bottom of the screen (where the start menu, the clock, and other program bars are) for about 1-2 secs. The problem is though whenever that little program bar comes up it interrupts any movie, game, or any other program I am using. It's almost like the person who made this spyware (or whatever it is) never bothered to complete it or put any content in it.

 

[Albion4]

Next step.

I am assuming that you're running WinXP if not, upgrade.

1) Tell me all the programs running in your system tray (The little box that the clock is in)
2) Start Button->Run type msconfig. Let me know what's running in there.

You stated that you're running Norton System Works. Uninstall this beast. It's a resource hog and causes nothing but problems. If you need to run anti-virus, run AVG from www.grisoft.com. If you need to run a firewall, either upgrade to XP sp2 or run Sygate's free personal firewall www.sygate.com.

I am assuming that the popup appears over your system tray. This is usually the place that programs display system messages. It could be that something non-malicious is trying to display something to you but because you're running something that's changing the display (full screen video, full screen game) it's not fast enough to switch out and display the message. System works is notorious for displaying stuff like this.

Here are a couple of tips to follow also. Never run anything in the background that is not necessary. The only programs that should be running are you AV, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, and maybe an IM. Stuff like Real player, Quicktime, weatherbug, kaaza, stock tickers, etc... should not be running in the background. They can cause problems like you are having and can use up necessary resources.

In step two above I showed you msconfig. Go through it and turn off stuff like quicktime, etc... Be careful about it though, research everything in there on the internet before you go turning it off, some of it is system software that needs to run. Anything that isn't necessary get rid of.

Run CWShredder www.intermute.com. They do have pay software, but there is a link under downloads for just CWShredder which is completely free.

Does this happen only when a browser is running. Check your task manager, some spyware may be starting Internet Explorer but hiding it. CTRL-ALT-DEL -> Task Manager -> Processes tab. Check to see if there's an iexplorer.exe in there. If it's there that may be your problem.

Kill all running programs so that your taskbar at the bottom is empty. Check the processes tab in Task Manager for any other software that may be strange looking. If you see something that you don't know search for the exact term on google.

Let me know what you come up with.

-Al

 

[GlutusMaximus86]

1) Tell me all the programs running in your system tray (The little box that the clock is in)

Microsoft AntiSpyware, Norton Anti-Virus, Wireless Connection, SpySubtract, and an icon to safely remove hardware (for my USB Printer).

2) Start Button->Run type msconfig. Let me know what's running in there.

Well I'll tell you the name of the startup items that are enabled (I'm assuming that's what you want, some of these are system files so I'm not sure what they do):
SM1BG
rundll32
HPWuSchd2
CTRegRun
SBDrvDet
CTDVDDet
UpdReg
NvCpl
NvMcTray
ccApp
DrgToDsc
hpcmpmgr
gcasServ
ctfmon
cfgwiz
msmsgs (this is a program called Windows Messenger, I have tried for months to disable this startup item but everytime I do it just re-enables itself)
SpySubtract

I am assuming that the popup appears over your system tray.

The "pop-up program bar" appears in the program bar between the system tray and startup menu (where program bars for other programs such as IE, or Microsoft Word are), and nothing actually seems to appear on the screen above the program bar. All that is on this “pop-up program bar” is a little program symbol (such as the symbol you would see for programs unidentified by Windows).

I ran CWshredder and SpySubtract and it found a few things (CWshredder found nothing) and I had it fix those problems. When I check the Processes Tab while on the internet there is an iexplorer.exe process.

Yesterday when I was playing RCT3 the pop-up never interuppted the game once (so I'm assuming it never came up). Whenever I play a game I always disable all antivirus Antispyware stuff in the taskbar. However today when I was watching a Simpsons episode on DVD (I leave the taskbar alone when I watch DVDs) the pop-up never interuppted the DVD once but about 10 mins after I was done watching the 1 Simpsons episode the pop-up came up again (I had been on IE for about 10 min as well when this happened). That is a bit strange because the pop-up will always appear at least once every 20 min, no matter what the computer is doing.

I also Unistalled Norton Personal Firewall yesterday before I went to bed because it was starting to get on my nerves. Whenever this or that wants to accses the internet it had an annoying pop-up asking me what to do. After I unistalled it I left the computer on for about another hour, while I just surfed the internet and the pop-up program bar never did come up at all during that hour. Also my Win XP pro is up-to-date, with the SP2 and everthing.

While that should be it for now, let me know if you have anymore suggestions. Thanks for your help.