What's going on with my screen?

[WoodieSC]

After numerous scans in safe mode with Avira, Malwarebytes, and Spybot and having found one or two PUPs and a bad sector on the HDD, the problem still continues.

Any continued assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[millero]

After numerous scans in safe mode with Avira, Malwarebytes, and Spybot and having found one or two PUPs and a bad sector on the HDD, the problem still continues.

Any continued assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Bring me your computer and a blank check.

[Rock & Rye]

Backup your shit. Read how to factory restore HP laptop. Shit might be quarrentined but still have ducked up your registry and left traces that will rappear lately. You may also have a rootkit. Remove all AV you have, download Avast free and run a "pre-boot" scan after doing the normal scan it does after install.... it may even tell you it needs to run a preboot scan..... backup your shit first, you may be rootkitted.

[WoodieSC]

Bring me your computer and a blank check.

That would be nice to do, but I'm going to have to slug it out. Thanks for the offer.

Backup your shit. Read how to factory restore HP laptop. Shit might be quarrentined but still have ducked up your registry and left traces that will rappear lately. You may also have a rootkit. Remove all AV you have, download Avast free and run a "pre-boot" scan after doing the normal scan it does after install.... it may even tell you it needs to run a preboot scan..... backup your shit first, you may be rootkitted.

I've got about 99.5% of my personal files backed up and just need to re-copy the Outlook files and archives that have changed in the last week.

I suspect you're right about the rootkit problem. I've tried about everything else, hoping to avoid the days of work involved with having to start over, but it might have to be done. What's stopping me the most is that I keep finding these bad sectors on the HDD scans so I'm figuring I'll end up doing all the rebuild work and the HDD will end up failing and having to do it all again.

I'll try the Avast scan and let you know what happens.

Thanks.

[WoodieSC]

Update -

Two things have had a positive impact thus far...

1. I reviewed the 'Start Up' files and stopped Spybot S&D from loading at start-up like it was, keeping in mind the problem they admitted they had last year (2 yrs?).

2. I ran a new Avast Free scan on the other PC and it found an old file that "mirrors" a trojan virus. The pre-boot scan isn't finished yet, and then I need to run it on the laptop, but it's interesting that no other scans or softwares had found that file, although I don't know that it was doing anything at this point other then sitting there since it hadn't been installed.

The stopping of Spybot S&D from opening at start-up appears to be a primary performance issue. I have not yet, and am too busy right now, to test the FB video problem. That's the least of my worries.

Hope some of this helps someone else, but if I confirm that Spybot is once again a performance problem with Win 7 I'm going to have a conversation with them... the asshats.

[millero]

If you think you have more and you cant get rid of them, get this: http://www.combofix.org/
Of course, it can do more harm than good if you aren't careful, so be careful!

[WoodieSC]

If you think you have more and you cant get rid of them, get this: http://www.combofix.org/
Of course, it can do more harm than good if you aren't careful, so be careful!

I'll take a look at it, per your caution.

I did get an Avast pre-boot scan done last night and found the same ones that were moved to the 'Chest' on the desktop PC two days ago, which is no surprise since they're virtually mirror images, at least of the My Docs files. But I'm not sure any of those were actually live viruses vs. false positives based on a review of some posts on various tech forums.

Still working on it, as I get time. There's some improvement but I know it's 'not right' yet.

Thanks again.

[Wolf]

get Linux.

[WoodieSC]

Just an update for any curious souls...

- Eliminating Spybot from active status has improved the performance on both the PC and the laptop.

- Eliminating Spybot from the Windows Explorer "integration"(?), as told to do by Spybot personnel 2 years ago, stopped a problem with right clicking on a folder and crashing WE, which I hadn't even mentioned, but was exactly one of the problems I was told by Spybot programmers that they would fix... 2 YEARS AGO!! Fuck Spybot now...

- Changing from Avira to Avast and running pre-boot scans, as recommended by Rock, has been a key in cleaning out possible old viruses/trojans - but because each was found in files or programs as old as 2004 and several were never even installed I'm not sure how much of this was 'false positives' or not. Either way, things are running much better.

- Found that the AC adapter for the laptop was going bad. I found that when I had it plugged in to the laptop while it was running the screen would occasionally blank out and flip on and off in sections, just like it was doing earlier and I thought it was caused by FB. I've talked to the warranty folks but they won't send me a new adapter without me sending them the whole laptop so they can confirm everything. Will talk to them at length tomorrow to decide whether to bother yet or just buy a new adapter for $20 myself.

wolf, I messed with Linux a year or two ago and found that it was more time consuming and trouble then it was worth to me. With the 'ten thousand' varieties to choose from, etc, it's probably good for an IT person to use, but for the average user it appears to be just as big a PITA as Windows. Maybe I'll change my mind some day, but for now it's not in the plan. Thanks anyway.

-

[DRDUCK]

Fukin Bleach

[millero]

get Linux.

That is one of the most ignorant statements on this forum. If he cant keep viruses off of his Windows computer, do you truly think he will possess the ability to manage a linux computer?

[WoodieSC]

That is one of the most ignorant statements on this forum. If he cant keep viruses off of his Windows computer, do you truly think he will possess the ability to manage a linux computer?

That's the bitch of it. I've normally run - full time - an active anti-virus program, Spyblaster (or similar), Malwarebytes, and Spybot Immunization, etc.

As you can see above, the Spybot program has a problem that the programmers haven't fixed in the last two years.

Avira was not only run full time, but regular scans were run (weekly or more often), yet they didn't pick up the possible viruses that Avast did (pre-boot). I did run AVG anti-virus for years before changing to Avira a few years back.

Malwarebytes scans are run regularly.

My email is scanned when it comes in and before it goes out.

Other than never going on the Internet, I'm not sure what else can be done except deal with the problems when they show their ugly heads.

I'm open to suggestions... ????

[WoodieSC]

Finally got a few minutes to talk to the Extended Warranty tech group last night and after running through my summary and a few tests for him, he agreed that not only is my AC adapter bad and causing the screen issues, but the HDD is going bad (according to my disc scans and the 'Event Viewer' showing bad disc sectors along with some other unspecified 'hardware failures'.

So, with the exception of that 'Facebook Virus' suggested by YoungBuckTX, which I think was an issue, the only other self-induced problem appeared to be related to the use of Spybot Search & Destroy as an active monitoring program, which has an admitted programming problem that was reportedly fixed by the company and has not been.

The laptop is going in to them and they'll at least install a new HDD, give me a new adapter, and do whatever else they're able to document as being needed.... up to potentially just replacing the laptop with a new one.

Thanks for everyone's patience and assistance, and I'm glad to see that despite disappointing XHailGC that I didn't cause most of this crap, at least it may get resolved with the hardware replacements.