Task Manager won't open .......... HELP!!!

[Gucci]

I'm after a little help.

I can't open the Task Manager on my laptop. When I use Ctrl-Alt-Del it will pop up for a second and then dissapear leaving a small green sqaure on the toolbar at thr right. You can repeat this and it will leave more green squares but won't run Task Manager more than the brief glimpse.

I think it is connected to a couple of Viruses that I have just eliminated using "Stinger" and spyware/adware wotsits that i've just rid with "Ad-Aware SE" & "Spyware Doctor". My OS is Windows XP Home and the Laptop is a P4 3.2.

Any help on how to put things right would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,
Chris.

p.s. my dial up Internet has become very pedestrian also, could this be related??

[Plotloss]

Right click the task bar and select task manager.

Does that work?

[Gucci]

Hi Plotloss,

Tried that and the same thing happens.

Any ideas?

[Gucci]

Also, when you run the mouse pointer over the little green square, it disappears before you can click on it.

[Plotloss]

Have you tried rebooting?

I assume you have and the same thing is happening?

What I think is happening is that you have some sort of virus type process thats monitoring for Task Manager, as soon as its seen its killing it quite brutally. This is to ensure you cant kill the monitoring process.

The green blocks you are seeing are window artifacts that are sitting there until the screen is redrawn (mouse movement).

Hmmmn...

[Gucci]

Hmmmmmmmmm indeed or stronger words to that effect!!

As i've said, I did have a couple of worm viruses but now Stinger reports them deleted. I can only assume that this problem is left over from these.

Thanks for interest, any more ideas?

[Plotloss]

You can get a list of running processes and indeed kill them via the DOS shell.

I'll see if I can find the commands.

They may also be in Windows help.

[JonRB]

Use Process Explorer from SysInternals (all hail SysInternals )

Go to www.sysinternals.com and download it - it's free!

Edit: Direct link here

>> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 28th September 17:27

[malman]

Plotloss said:

You can get a list of running processes and indeed kill them via the DOS shell. I'll see if I can find the commands. They may also be in Windows help.

If its XP its tasklist and taskkill that you can run from the command prompt

[Gucci]

Thanks to all for your input.

JonRB,

I've used your link to download System Internals and have it up and running on my laptop. Next problem is, just what am I looking at and what am I looking for?

I understand that the upper window is showing me applications currenly running and you can expand to files in the lower window. What I don't know is what should and should'nt be there.

Any help?

This might also help finding out why Internet Explorer runs so slow. Using my desktop pc with the same ISP account runs x10 faster.

Thank you.

[Gucci]

I've just run Stinger again to check for nasties after the download and it found a couple of things which it repaired plus these.

Found application hide windows in -
C:WINDOWSsystem32dir32.exedir.exe
C:WINDOWSsystem32gone.exegone.exe

These could not be repaired so were deleted.

On reboot I now get mIRC32 application on the toolbar with a small window open. I can exit the application if I enter the small window but can't close it from the toolbar.

I feel i'm gettin deeper and depper into trouble here! HELP!!!!!

[malman]

Sounds like something was hiding processes from the tasklist.

Update adaware and run it through again see if it finds anything now.

[Gucci]

Run my Ad-Aware SE & Spy Doctor 2.1 and it reports all clear. The problem however still persists!!

What should I be checking on the Process Explorer. If i understand correctly, this should display everything that is running during each application.

[KITT]

My brother's computer had a very similar problem to this. It was caused, for whatever reason, by the lack of the actual taskmanger EXE file! No idea why it was deleted but it was. So copied it from another XP machine and all was well again

[malman]

When it comes to process viewers you just have to manually go through each and see if it should really be running on your system. Take the process name and google it to see if it really is a valid process. Check the name is exact and that it is running from the correct folder. Some malware hides by using valid names but incorrect folder or very similar names.

There is software out there to do this automatically but I don't know any free stuff.

Hijack this is a utility that will show you what is loaded at startup and any explorer plugins. This might help you track it down. Be careful as this is not an automated utility it just shows you a list and what you remove is up to you so its best to post the log on a forum if you have any questions about what is safe to remove

[Gucci]

Almost sorted the problem.

I downloaded the new Stinger v2.40 (mine was v2.30) and ran that. It picked up several variants of the W32/sdbot.worm virus and deleted them. My Task Manager/Register Editor etc. now work ok.

The one thing i'm left with is a the mIRC32 application window that opens when I boot up my laptop. It appears to be some kind of Chat application.

Any ideas how to remove?

[malman]

start -> run

enter "msconfig" hit return

goto the startup tab and see if you can see what line is starting the mirc client

if its and HKLM\HKCU its in the registry or Common startup is a shortcut in your start menu.

regedit to get rid of registry entries and right click delete on the start menu shortcut to get rid of those.

msconfig should show you the registry location if you need it. You can search in regedit for any occurances of the the mirc client name.

Disclaimer: Standard MS disclaimer about registry editing goes here


>> Edited by malman on Wednesday 29th September 16:40

>> Edited by malman on Wednesday 29th September 16:40

[Gucci]

Got rid of it on Add/Remove programs although it said it was unable to remove certain files.

All is functioning correctly now some i'm happy again.

I am getting a copy og McAfee Internet installed prior to going online again along with the already installed free downloads of Ad-Aware SE & SpyDoctor 2.1. Are there any othe software packages I should look to install before heavy downloading on a BB Connection?

Thanks for all your advice.

[malman]

Use firefox for browsing unless a site really needs IE (its nice and fast too). If you don't have a firewall running get one (I think the mcafee internet suite has one). Keep your virus definitions updated (set it for automatic and check it regularly). Be careful with attachments to mail that you weren't expecting. Enable Automatic updates on XP and make sure they apply.

That should get you going.