Ok, not sure how all this happened as it was just sudden. It started out yesterday as a minor annoyance and turned into something major and i have no idea what is causing it or where to even start to fix it. Here is the story:

I come home for lunch yesterday and start the PC and click my IE7, i get a white page and it just never loads my home page (Google). So i start poking aroung in my networks and find that somehow it has switched setting and gone back to the setting where it tells the system to use a specific IP and DSN instead of the automatic setting. So i change it back and con connect to the internet.

I come home from work and start up again and sure enough i get the same thing. so i change it again and can connect. This time i run my Avast and it finds nothing but some keygen programs which it always considers a virus so i tell it to skip them and continue. I figure everything is ok then.

So i come home today and start up and now once again can not connect. So i yell a few obseneties and go to change the network settings again, but now it will not let me even access anything to do with my network connections. I tried through the control pannel, start menu and my computer and every time i click on anything associated with the networks the computer totally freezes. It will not even let me shut down the open windows with CTRL+ALT+DEL as that will show in the task bar but i can not open it. So it freezes completely. I did about 3-4 restarts and have the same results.

Now just the day before i had a friend who needed PC help and i had him connected to my wireless and it was working fine. So i assume the connection is there, i just can not do anything on the main PC.

Any thoughts and idea's as to where i should start. I tried system restore yesterday but that did not help and now it will not even bring up system restore at all today. I really hope i do not have to go through the hassle of format & reinstall but i am not real sure at this point what i can do to fix it. The computer seems to start just fine, the only difference is that programs that i had auto starting in the taskbar are not starting now at all (MSN Messenger and AnyDVD). I also use to get a red symbol about my computer not being protected or something because i turned off automatic updates due to one update that causes me to stop connecting to the EA Sports server to play Tiger Woods 07. If i turn it on it will download and i have to delete the one file and restart my system every time i want to play online.

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Hmm, it's possible you may have been infected with malware. My first thought is because you are using IE7. Can you post a HJT log? I realize if you can't connect to the internet at home it's a problem. If you can run a HJT this scan on your home PC and post in this thread somewhere you have internet access, that will be very helpful. The wide array of problems you are experiencing seems to indicate either malware or hardware issues to me. I think malware is more likely because you are using Internet Explorer.

In Avast, when the keygens are reported as malware, do you look them up in the Avast virus database? Most AV's have an online virus database where you can go and get more information about reported infections. I have the same issue with AVG Pro, but I'm 95% sure they are false positives because all the keygens have the exact same generic trojan name and the AVG Virus database doesn't have anything about them. If it says something like Win/AV Hack program, it may be a false positive. I recommend looking up or taking note of the name of the infections and looking them up thought the Avast database or Google when you have internet access.

Also, if you can download some anti-spy programs, you may want to clean your PC out with Spyware Doctor, AVG-Anti-Spyware, Ad-Aware SE, SpyBot S&D, CounterSpy, and Webroot SpySweeper. I know that might be challenging without a network at home, but it's a good bet you will flush out some nasties.

Short of that, you may want to backup your key files and reformat. It's easier, but not always the most practical solution.

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Alot of times when the anti-virus program register a crack or keygen as a virus, its cause of the compressor. It uses crypted codes to hash the application to be smaller in file size. And yes, 30-50% of the time, those keygen, cracks "can" be viruses.

As in your situation, I think it maybe a virus, not spyware, cause of the activities that is happening on your PC. Last resort would be a reinstall.

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well we will see when i get home i guess. If i can still access wireless then i can bring up the laptop and get the spyware programs on my flash drive and go the route. I had wireless yesterday but today who knows. I really want to try EVERYTHING before i format the drive. That is just a weeks worth of work to get everything back to the way it is.

Of the above spyware programs which would you say is the best free option? I have use spybot and Ad aware in the past

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AVG Anti-Spyware provides a free 30 day trial, get it here: AVG Free Advisor - AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition

Ad-Aware and Spybot are free. I recommend "acquiring" a copy of Spyware Doctor, it is very thorough. Ideally you should scan with all those programs, and post a HJT log here. Get HJT here:

Trend Micro HijackThis - Reviews and free Trend Micro HijackThis downloads at Download.com

I would.

1. Download and install HJT.

2. Run a scan and save to a logfile.

3. Post the log here.

4. Wait for us to look over the log or look it over yourself and see if there are any signs of malware.

5. Run HJT again in safe mode and remove any questionable entries.

6. Update to the latest spyware definitions and scan with AVG Anti-Spyware, Spyware Doctor, Spybot S&D, and Ad-Adware SE to flush out any baddies.

7. Run a scan with Avast.

8. Post another HJT log.

Hopefully that resolves the issue.

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we shall see, all this depends on the laptop and if i have any access to the net at home. If not i have to try to bring the flash drive here and get them. And this is only if my computer is well enough to even install those programs.

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Yeah it's not bad normally, but if you have no net access, it's a pain in the ***. Honestly I think every time I have given these instructions, people have ended up formatting lol.

But it's not that bad if you can get the internet working and there are no issues with installing the software, just a bit time-consuming waiting on the scans to finish. You can scan all the AV and anti-spy apps at once to save some time. It's not necessarily recommended, but that's how I always do it.

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Update:
Well the Windows recovery i tried worked. At least it seems to have worked. Everything i have tried is working with the exception of Windows updates, they are all failing. I ran to spyware scans and deleted what they found. Today i will be installing a different anti-virus and giving the PC a good scan.

Not sure why the windows updates are all failing though, even the IE7 update is not working.

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Well LS you were correct, The NOD32 did not work. Invalid username/password error. So i just got AVG Pro 8.0 and installed that. Hopefully that is also goo. I ran a scan with NOD32 and it really did not find anything so i will run AVG tonight. And somehow even though all of my updates say they failed i have IE7? Not sure how but i do.

Well so far so good i guess. At least everything else is working and if windows updates doesn't it is no real huge deal since i had it disabled before this all happened anyway.

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Update:

well i have given it a few weeks and a few scans and now it has me a bit worried. Windows updates will still not install. They will download via either the auto update program, or the auto update online. But when it gets to the install point they all fail. Not one has been able to install. I tried shutting down windows firewall, my AVG antivirus and the AVG spyware program but had the same results.

Isn't there some sort of files that you can download to install the monthly updates? I know this will take much longer as the last time i did this each monthly update took about an hour, but unless someone knows why these auto updates are failing it is my only choice.

Programs that i download and install seem to work just fine. And everything else i have used on the system also seems to be working fine. Has me sort of baffled as to why only the Windows updates are having a problem.

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