Any Computer Xperts (esp Win XP)?

[Deleted member 325]

I could really use some help from people more knowledgeable or experienced than me (and I am no slouch). Is there anyone out there with high level skills in Windows XP.

My Older workstation (which still has a lot of my files on it) started throwing a lot of BSODs recently (I have auto-restart disabled so I actually see them). Each is different. There have been no new hardware or software changes (except an update of Spybot and AVG last week - but this started day before yesterday). I have ruled out memory issues with Memtest86, I have ruled out HD failure with Advanced and Extended HD tests using WD Data Life Guard and a few other tools. I booted from 2 differing versions of AVG Rescue USB and found no virus (though unconvinced as I can not get MBAM to run, and when I do get into Windows any attempt to edit the registry, run SFC, or Scan and alter the main HD triggers a BSOD which all of my experience tells me is a rootkit). If it is a rootkit, it has been some 4 years since I have had to deal with one (since shortly after leaving the repair shop and all independent work dried up). I have tried the trick suggested to clear the pagefile and reset it for 0x00000050 error. I have checked all device drivers to see if it was a driver conflict or error. I reset the system bios to default and rebuilt its settings for my Mobo. I am stumped (but still leaning toward either a rootkit or virus, or something in the startup menu gone bad).

I could use some ideas/advice.

Sadly, I no longer have internet either, so I will have to check back when I can.

 

[Faery_Light]

I am no expert but usually find my way around the different Windows OS.
The only thing that come to my mind (may be some windows glitch) is AVG.
I used it a while back and felt secure until I started having issues.
Then I found AVG had allowed some stuff through and was not even finding it.
I tried the free Malwarebytes and found the trojan.
It also found several others AVG let through so I switched and never had problems again.

Other than that I will let computer experts answer here.

 

[Miss B]

I had my WinXP laptop for over 8 years, but it'll be 5 years end of next month since I dropped it one too many times and had to get my current Win7 Pro laptop.

That said, I don't recall getting the BSOD more than once, maybe twice, during the time I had my WinXP laptop, and never had recurring issues, so not sure what to suggest. I can say I've never used AVG, so not sure if that is the issue, as FL suggests, but I do have Spybot Search & Destory AND Malwarebytes, and I have on occasion found Malwarebytes cleaning up some things Spybot didn't catch, so you might consider trying it out to see if there is indeed a virus or malware you haven't been able to locate.

 

[Riccardo]

A couple of ideas:
1) Have you tried to boot in safe mode (press F8 while booting on pre-Win7 OSes) and see if you experience the same problems?
2) Malwarebytes usually installs a special version of itself called Chameleon. You should have it already installed along the normal application. It is the program disguised to not be noticed by malware that could prevent mbam from running
3) try Combofix
ComboFix Download
Beware that it may require some level of expertise, it is not a very user-friendly application

 

[Deleted member 325]

Updates on progress...
Miss_B and Faery_Light, I tend to use a mix of tools on my various systems, and yes MalwareBytes, Spybot Search and Destroy, and AVG are just three among them. Malwarebytes is, usually, my go to program for cleanup. In this case I can not get it to run (which is why my gut says virus/rootkit...fought enough of them to run into this before).

Riccardo, yes I have tried safe mode a number of times, as well as a known clean USB boot disk and a few differing versions of Hiren's Boot CD and MiniXP. In most cases Safe mode would BSOD before log in, or shortly after the minute I try to open boot manager or run Malwarebytes. On the USB and CD boot I experienced mixed results (which those should have worked without issue). This had me thinking it might be a Hardware issue, or a mix of Virus/Rootkit and Hardware failure.

Each BSOD has had a different message and error, but I was able to access management console long enough to find a lot of ATAPI errors. So, at the moment my system is running, but not optimally. I unplugged both DVDRW drives, disabled AVG and Spybot startup, and csannow boot the system and let it run for long periods. I have run multiple memory test programs and none have found RAM errors. I ran WD Data Lifeguard and Diagnostics on the boot drive, and aside from a fair bit of data corruption and orphaned files from all of the BSODs found not bad sectors or indications of hardware failure. I have replaced missing and damaged Windows files with SFC /scannow. I have manually checked key places in the registry where I know rootkits like to hide and found no tracks or suspicious entries. A scan from a bootable AntiVirus USB drive found nothing on several attempts.

That being said, I would accept it is likely one of the two DVDRW drives going bad and sending bad signals (or even the controller) except....
Malwarebytes and Malwarebytes Chameleon will not run through a scan without crashing. Every time I have ever encountered this, it has been a rootkit. Of course, Malwarebytes has not supported XP in a long time, and it may be coincidence and it's latest update from earlier this week just being incompatible with XP, but it still leaves a bad feeling in my gut.

On the good side, I can at least get in to the machine to move files off onto USB drives, and do some work...

 

[Faery_Light]

Ugh, hate when a virus starts eating the AV programs too.
Did that when I first had Macafee, hit it first then started destroying all my exe and com files.
Hardly had time to backup a fee personal files to cd before it destroyed everything.
Never used Macafee again, tried Norton AV program and same thing.

I have noticed that on externals, if they start going bad or a virus sneaks into them it will cause the computer to start the blue screen.
I hope you can get things fixed so whatever it is does not force you to buy a new HDD.
My hard drive died on my desktop a few months back and all diagnostics show failure.
It won't even show on the computer so I have anew hard drive coming now, but now i have to buy a Windows OS.

 

[Gadget Girl]

That being said, I would accept it is likely one of the two DVDRW drives going bad and sending bad signals (or even the controller) except....
Malwarebytes and Malwarebytes Chameleon will not run through a scan without crashing.

So here's what I'll add as someone who spent 8 years fixing Mac's where virus/rootkits etc. are almost never the problem. We spent a lot of time trying to isolate parts of hardware and setting up minimum system configurations to figure out what would be crashing a machine. Malwarebytes could very well just be trying to communicate with your DVD drives to see if there is an infected disk in there, and crashing out when it can't talk correctly to the drive. The fact that you have two DVD drives makes me assume you have a tower.

Here's the quick and easy way to see if the DVD drives are the problem. Disconnect one of them (in many towers you may not even have to remove it, just unplug the data cable. Try running Malwarebytes again. If it doesn't crash, you've found the bad drive. YAY? If it does crash, leave the first drive unplugged, then unplug the second one, and try Malwarebytes again. If it still crashes, you know that the DVD drives have nothing to do with it. If it doesn't crash, try it with the first one plugged in, and the second one unplugged, because there's also the chance this issue is actually in the bus/board that the the drives connect to.

Also, if you're anything like me, I'd make some notes as you do this, and maybe find a way to label the two drives, because otherwise I always suddenly find myself not remembering which drive I unplugged in what order.

 

[Deleted member 325]

Well, I had thought I was making some progress on this machine (ok, not really, but I am stubborn). It was receiving steady data transfusions to it's primary OS, heavy doses of Anti-virus technology, a slow electron drip from the wall. I pulled and complete cleaned out the CPU fan and heat sink (which was clogged with dust and was hopeful it was all an overheating issue). Today, however, during one of the many reboots it threw a Bios Checksum Error. The attending resident insisted we call TOD, switched off life support, and pulled the sheet over it...

R.I.P. Phoenix
(Custom Build Celeron 2.66ghz)
April 10th 2006 to November 12th 2016
You will be greatly missed.

Still... the Asus tech support forum does say that Bios Checksum errors often just need a new battery...

 

[Gadget Girl]

I pulled and complete cleaned out the CPU fan and heat sink (which was clogged with dust and was hopeful it was all an overheating issue).

That's the worst. Sometimes it seems like the dust is the only thing keeping a computer together. It's amazing what little vacuum cleaners they are.

Still... the Asus tech support forum does say that Bios Checksum errors often just need a new battery...

So not sure which battery this is, but I will say, I have seen computers be unable to boot because of bad batteries (talking about desktops here, not laptops). I know I've seen worn out batteries in RAID cards cause issues, and also some desktops have a coin battery so the clock won't loose track of time if it's unplugged or theirs a power outage and sometime if those go bad the computer gets really confused, especially if the hardware is enough older than the software, because the default date the computer sets back to, may not be considered valid by the OS, and a lot of internet security is based on a correct date-time stamp, so if your computer clock is way off it can't even talk to the internet easily to figure out the correct time.

 

[jecnodde]

When I still was using xp (like 2 years ago) I started getting lots of BSOD. The problem was new drivers for the graphic card. I had to reinstall some older drivers since the new ones didn't support xp - but this was on a desktop. I stay away from laptops