Unkwown change in system

Question

Hello,

Something recently happened to my computer which I do not know how to fix, or what it was caused by. First of all the start up is messed up. When i start normally all of my services run and dellmmkb.exe takes up 100 percent usage for about a minute. Now when i start up all of the services start except when it gets to the part for dellmmbk.exe, the usage stays at around one hundred and never drops down. Also the Norton Anitvirus does not enable autoprotect, which it usually does after the dellmmbk is finished. The second problem i have is that I have no sound! When I go to audio properties it says i have no hardware installed. I dunno how this could be because I have had this computer for 2 years without any sound or start up problems.

One thing that i considered to possibly have caused this was that i recently downloaded and installed a game off bit torrent. this installation wasnt working in normal mode so i switched to diagnostic mode and it worked. I uninstalled the game shortly after finding out how my sound didnt work. Im not sure if this caused the problem though because i am not sure if the sound worked before the installation or not. I just ran spybot also and i didnt really have much spyware or any that could be harmful.

If anyone can help me it would be great bc i really would like my sound and my computer to function regularly again. Thanks

Denny Denham · Answer

Hos988,

You should be able to eliminate the problem with the keyboard by downloading and installing the driver from here or reinstall the driver that came with the system since the problem began only recently.

It would be helpful if you would identify the system you have as well as what sound card is installed. The problems you cite sound like corrupted drivers. You can get instructions for reloading your drivers by going to the Solutions tab above the forum and (making sure your system is identified properly in the left pane) clicking the Reinstall Guide link at the top of the page.

Hos988 · Answer

Last night after checking out the problem more i realized that maybe it could be a worm or virus of some sort... When I checked services.msc, i found out that many of my normal services are disabled.  These include windows audio, windows installer, and the majority of the other normal services.  In msconfig i noticed that the only services considered essential were 'remote procedure call', which was running, and 'remote procedure call locator' which was stopped.  Does this mean someone is remotely accessing my system?  By the way i have a dell 4300 with xp home edition.

maxd · Answer

You may be right about the virus idea. Do you have a decent firewall and do you know how to use it ? Even MS acknowledges the current XP firewall is incomplete. Zone Alarm is quite good for people who are not firewall experts. See if you can access the norton.com site and do an online Security scan. Disable your NAV before you download their software.

Hos988 · Answer

Yesterday i scanned my computer for viruses and it turned out that i had a couple of types of trojans: byteverify, dropper and download.  I deleted these but i didnt think these were powerful enough to do any real harm.  I scanned online norton and mcafee after and they didnt find anything.  I've looked up various types of worms and i didnt have any.  So I am really not sure what I have.  I dont have a firewall besides the one included with xp and i cant enable it because when i go to network connections there is nothing in it, just an empty folder.  It occasionally gives me the error when i open it, 'The network connections folder was unable to retrieve the list of network adapters on your machine.  Make sure that the network connections services is enabled running.'  I cant get a list probably because the service is disabled.  Also, when i check the device manager with all the hardware there is nothing in it.  Even if i did go out and buy a firewall, how would i reset all my services back to normal and remove what ever i have?  Is there a way to check if someone is remotely connecting to my computer?  Another option I considered was reinstalling XP... would that do anything?

maxd · Answer

Unless you're prepared to wipe your hard drive clean by formatting it then no installing XP over itself will not help. If you want to avoid the hassle of a clean install this is what I suggest.

1. Download the free ZA firewall, AdAware, SpywareBlaster, and the Blaster Removal Tool. Links to follow.

2. Physically disconnect from the internet, eg telephone or cable connection.

3. Install Zone Alarm. Concerning the use of ZA: Once installed different programs/services will want permission to access the internet and some will want to use your computer to serve out *your* information. When this happens, each time click on the little 'button' that says "Remember this ..." and then click the "No" tab. No program I know of needs to have Server rights so don't give them Server rights when they ask. Don't even say "Yes" to Internet Explorer the first time. After you've turned them down the first time then you have control over your system. Later you can go into the program (by double-clicking on the System Tray ZA icon) and set what permissions you wish to give.

4. Install and run AdAware and delete all it finds.

5. Install and run the Blaster Removal Tool.

6. Install the SpywareBlaster program.

7. Disable System Restore, restart computer, and re-enable System Restore.

8. Run NAV (Norton) again.

9. click start | run | devmgmt.msc
locate the network adapter from the list
right-click the network adapter and choose uninstall.
restart windows and let it install the drivers.

The network connections folder should retrieve all the connections now. (including the RAS)

10. Disable XP firewall; you don't need it now that you have ZA.

11. Re-connect to the internet and launch IE. Rember to say No to every thing the first time each program wants to connect. Now go into ZA. Make sure anything under the Server colums ihas got a red X. If it doesn't click on the checkmark or question mark and select block. As far as the Programs listed under the Access Internet the only thing that you should give unrestricted rights (signified by a checkmark) to is "Generic Host Processes". The programs you want to give access to the internet but only when you want them to would be your browser, your NAV, AdAware, AutoDownload of Windows, possibly WMP. Click on the existing mark and select Ask (?).

12. Now that ZA is pretty much set up, update SpywareBlaster, NAV and Adaware re-running the AdAware and NAV scans.

13.Try to access the WindowsUpdate site and download any critical updates.

I know this sounds harder than doing a clean install but it's not. If you have problems using IE you may have to run the SFC command. Post back.

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?lid=home_zainfo

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e70a0d8b-fe98-493f-ad76-bf673a38b4cf&displaylang=en

Message Edited by maxd on 02-08-2004 03:33 PM