I definately have some funky stuff rolling around in here, but can't seem to nail it down. I'm getting a lot of pop-ups. My OS is Windows XP, browser is IE7. I'm using Mcafee virus scan as my antivirus, and have followed the suggestions posted on here ( Ad-Aware SE terminates or PC reboots during scan, removal process) for dealing with this sort of problem.

I have done the following:
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QUOTE
Press start, select run and in the window that opens enter the text in bold:

services.msc

Click the OK button to open the Services window.

In the services window that is displayed, scroll down to "DCOM Server Process Launcher". You may need to drag the column indicator next to the column headed "Name" to the right to see the full name. Double-click on "DCOM Server Process Launcher" to open the Properties window then click on the "Recovery" tab.

Against the item "Select the computer's response if this service fails" there are three settings. In the drop down box change each one (First failure, Second failure and Subsequent failures) from "Restart the Computer" to "Restart the Service". Click OK to save the settings.

Now scroll down to "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)". Double-click on "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" then click on the "Recovery" tab and repeat the above to change the three "Select the computer's response if this service fails" settings to "Restart the Service". Click OK to save the settings.

Close the services windows.
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And:
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QUOTE
Press start, select run and in the window that opens enter the text in bold:

shutdown -a

Note the space between shutdown and the -a

Leave this window open, do not press the return key or click on the OK button. We will need this window open should the PC begin to shutdown.

Now run a scan with Ad-Aware SE as normal, check to ensure you have the latest update to the definitions then run a full scan. If whilst scanning you see a shutdown message appear in a window similar to this:



quickly go back to the run window and click on the OK button to abort the shutdown. Let Ad-Aware SE now complete its scan and remove items found.

Please try moving the Ad-Aware SE window in case the shutdown window is hidden behind the Ad-Aware SE window.
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But there was never any notification that the system was shutting down.
I also ran:
Lavasoft Vitumonde Removal Tool,
Lavasoft Look2Me Removal Tool,
and VundoFixer

None of these found any infected files.

After all that, the only change was a delay of a few seconds before shutdown occurred.

What can I do?

Also, I have been getting a lot of error messages to the effect of:

winlogon.exe has encountered an error and needs to shut down

and

explorer.exe has encountered an error and needs to shut down

usually this is followed by the desktop either "refreshing", where all icons on the desktop and the toolbar disappear, leaving just the background, then come back as if the computer had just started up. Alternately, everything disappears and doesn't come back up. Usually, any programs I have open will stay open, but aren't accessible from the toolbar.

Until recently I was running Norton Antivirus, but I just replaced it with McAfee VirusScan. When I was still using Norton, it would very often detect such things as WinFixer and Drivecleaner, which were directing popups to their websites, which were selling Antivirus, Anti-spyware, and Anti-malware software. Often these popups said that they were performing scans of my drives. Despite Norton removing these files, they keep coming back.

Please please help, I don't know what I can do to get rid of these infections

Hi meiguovortex,

Was in the middle of posting this reply when IE stopped responding... your 2nd post appeared whilst I was rebooting.

Good work on looking for and trying the first sugestion that I would have made (not meaning to be patronising, but you did try scanning in Safe Mode?).

Given that the steps have failed, I now suggest that you post a HijackThis log for the expert log-readers to analyse...

Instructions on creating a HijackThis Log

Please note that due to the heavy demand for expert advice, it may take a few days for the experts to get to you - please be patient and don't "bump" your Topic (ie: add extra posts to it), as logs are answered from oldest to newest

Regards,

Spike

Hey Spike;

worry not about being patronizing, for I'm not all that tech savvy. I had tried running in safe mode, actually tried that first, but to no avail.
However; read through some some more topics related to my problem and discovered a fix to my problem.
Under a post about getting a blue screen while scanning, there was a recommendation to turn off the "unload recognized processes & modules during scan" option under the Tweak settings. That did it. No more rebooting.
The scan picked up three viruses and a ton of tracking cookies.

First question: I have the record of that scan; would it be useful to anyone?

Second question: I still have a lot of popups coming through, directing to four different sites. How can I ditch that?

Third question: Still getting a lot of error messages, i.e. winlogin.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close; explorer.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. What to do about these?

Any suggestions?

Hi meiguovortex,

Good to hear that you have stopped the re-booting.

As for the rest of your problems, I would suggest that you follow my post above (and yes, include that scan-log).

Regards,

Spike