DevMgr empty, internet icons missing, My Computer slow

Sorry this is so long but wanted to be as thorough as possible. And I'm sure I still forgot some things.

Computer info:'

Systemax Venture S519J RTS PC desktop; purchased July, 2005

DXDIAG Report (can attach copy if there is other info you might need):
• Time of this report: 2/14/2011, 11:40:30
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
• Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
• System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
• System Model: P4M800-8237
• BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
• Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.06GHz
• Memory: 1534MB RAM
• Page File: 1356MB used, 2074MB available
• Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
• DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
• DX Setup Parameters: Not found
• DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

Problems:

1. When I try to start My Computer, it is very slow to start with the animated flashlight/folder. If I try to open a file and have to navigate to the C drive, it does the same thing. As long as I don’t go to C, I can move around in folders quickly.
2. My device manager is empty.
3. My internet connection works but I have no icons.
4. I can no longer view .DMP files.

In context:

My PC crashed in December (was getting a lot of BSOD’s) and I had a tech shop rebuild it from scratch. When my PC was rebuilt, the tech person loaded ASP.NET and I no longer had an icon in the system tray. I was able to add that, though.

The tech shop also loaded MS Security Essentials which I had tried in the fall and didn’t like so went back to AVG 8.5. Had also tried AVG 2011 in the fall and had problems. That’s why I went back to AVG 8.5. But then I ran into a problem with it so started looking for a new AV package. I think the problems started when I tried Avira. That’s when I noticed the internet connections were missing. Is it possible that it was caused by my trying to change the ASP.NET to a different password? I removed the password and still the same problems.

When I tried to solve the missing internet icons problem, I found that my device manager was empty. I found a solution that sounded exactly like what I was experiencing, the AproposMedia virus so but wanted verification that that’s what I had so started a ticket in the “Viruses, Spyware & Malware Removal” forum (http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=117042). After working with me on that, it was determined that I did not have a virus and that I should open a ticket here. The following is hopefully a synopsis of everything that I have tried so far and everything that is in the above ticket.

I had also found this (http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-xp-tips/device-manager-empty-or-blank/) about fixing these problems but I was unable to do some of the suggested changes and/or my changes did not work the way they suggested so did not do them. I did message the forum on 2/8 but my message is still under moderation.

What I have tried:

From the ticket above, this is what I have tried:
1. Installed Avira, then Avast, then AVG 8.5, MS Security Essentials and finally AVG 2011. That is what I am running now.
1a. February 8th, I ran a quick and full scan in AVG 2011 and found nothing. 9th was a full scan and also good. 10th it found a corrupted executable in System Volume. I have HEAL turned off so it was still there. 11th’s scan was good so it must have been a false positive.
1b. February 9th, I ran a quick and full scan using HouseCall from TrendMicro but both came up empty.
1c. February 10th I ran a quick and full scan in MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. Quick scan was good. Full scan locked up my PC. Restarted, uninstalled, reinstalled, reran. PC locked up again about 39 minutes into the scan. Every time I try to run it, that’s what happens. Even after downloading updates.
2. Ran Microsoft’s FIXCSS.exe in safe mode. Did not help.
3. From HelpDeskGeek suggestions above:
3a. Tried the Plug and Play suggestion but mine was already set the way they suggested. Found another suggestion that Universal Plug and Play should NOT be started and mine is set to MANUAL.
3b. Tried the MSCONFIG fix but, as shown in the screen shot, the ENABLE ALL is grayed out and I cannot select it.
3c. Tried the ENUM permissions fix but the users and permissions suggested are already there plus others with my name on them. When I tried to do what was suggested, I ran into problems on the ADVANCED screen because the first box was checked so I did not do that.
4. Found another solution to run “MMC /a” and update it with the device manager snap-in but could not find the snap-in so that was a bust.
5. When working in the other forum, I did post HiJackThis logs.
6. I did try the aproposfix.exe but it did not help. Log is posted in the other forum. BSOD twice after running it but after reinstalling AVG and running SFC, have had only a couple of BSOD’s.
7. Suggested I uninstall AVG 10 which I did but then said that that probably was not the issue.
8. Ran “scf /scannow” February 10th.
9. Ran “chkdsk /r” February 10th which I had done through Accessories about a week ago.
10. After running the last 2, it seems that some things that were really not a problem are better. For example, my Task Manager now shows that Firefox uses a lot of CPU cycles where it didn’t before. It used to be almost totally System Idle even when it was running like a dog.
11. Last suggestion was to try a system restore which is what I tried when my PC crashed in December. Not really anxious to try that again. Was a very expensive choice.

If there is any more information you need, please let me know. And thank you in advance for any and all help!

Reason for edit: Add link to Malware thread: http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?sh…=117042&hl=

Hi TopazMystique, welcome.

First question. Do you have your data backed up? If not, please do so before continuing.

Try creating a new User account. Pick a name you can live with as it's possible you may be keeping it

Follow the directions here to create a new account and copy all your user data over to it:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Or follow these directions posted in GeeksToGo.com

• Boot to Safe Mode, login as Administrator
• Show all files by opening My Computer, Tools menu, View tab, check Show Hidden Files/Folders then uncheck Hide extensions for known filetypes and Hide protected operating system files [Recommended]. Click Apply then OK.
• Create a new Administrator level account via Control Panel / User Accounts.. Pick a good name as you may be keeping it.
• Reboot the computer.
• Login with the new account so the folder structure under Documents and Settings gets created, then log off.
• Boot to Safe Mode, login as Administrator
• Browse to c:\documents and settings\OldUserAccount
• Select everything in that folder, including sub folders, except the three files called ntuser.dat, ntuser.dat.log, and ntuser.ini.
• Copy all those files into c:\documents and settings\NewUserAccount. Reply Yes or Yes to all when duplicate folders or files are found.
• Reboot the computer and login with your New user account.

Once you confirm that all your documents are located in My Documents of the New user, you can delete the old profile.

Thanks, Rich. I will work on this tomorrow since backups wil take some time. Will go back to the name I was using before my computer crashed.

Will try to get backups done today but it takes awhile and have some other things to do. Something else I remembered that I did and don't know if it could be part of the problem. I made my folders in Docs & Settings private. I did it on my name folder I guess because when I tried to remove it I had to do it on that folder. Could that be part of the problem?

I don't see how doing that could cause this problem, but to make sure, undo it and see what happens.

This sounds more like a corrupted registry or user account. We can proceed once your data is backed up.

Do you have System Restore enabled? If so, you could try doing a System Restore to a time before all this started, before you Installed Avira, then Avast, then AVG 8.5, MS Security Essentials and finally AVG 2011.

To see what System Restore points are available, click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools then System Restore.
Select Restore my computer to an earlier time then click Next.
That will give you a calendar where you can see what restore points are available.
Select one before all this started and see if that helps.

Data is backed up so will be trying one of these options later today. As for system restore, that's what crashed my PC in December and caused me to have it rebuilt so am not anxious to try it again. In all the years that I have had a PC, I have never done a restore point before that. So it may have been my fault when I did it. What happened was… I did not have a manually created restore point so I went back to a system-created restore point. After the restore, I did not have internet access among other things so I did a reboot. That's when my hard drive crashed and I could not boot off it. Nothing, nada. Ergo… rebuild. If doing the reboot is what caused the problem, then it was my fault. But like I said, never having done a system restore before, I thought the reboot would fix anything that was screwed up. And I can still use the hard drive so do not think that was the problem… I checked for restore points and have system restore points on 2/1, 2/2, 2/3, & 2/5. On 2/6 when I started all this, I have: System Checkpoint (7:58:36), Avast (11:17:37), Avira (11:22), Avira (11:57) and AVG 8.5 (12:41). I think I will do a little searching on the internet to see if I can find some info on system restores so I better understand what is going on. I just hate doing this kind of thing when I don't know what I'm doing.

I did go back and undid the "make folders private". I also removed my password from my Windows signon thinking maybe that was part of the problem. Neither helped. Just wondering if I backed up my data because I could lose access to it? LOL

I would use the 2/3 restore point which is a few days before all this started. I know you're not comfortable doing it but I think it's the best solution to your problem.

I am willing to try the restore point and hoping that you can tell me if what I did in December might have crashed my PC. I just want to be sure I understand what I need to do before trying this again… I did the restore point but when I came back in, I had no internet connection among other things. I did NOT go back and undo the restore point, I just rebooted. Could that have crashed my Windows system and made it unbootable? From what I have been reading on the internet, if I do this and have problems, I should undo the backward restore point and NOT reboot first. Also, I have a lot of data saved outside of My Documents. Should I move all that into My Documents before doing this? Thanks for all your help!

I checked to see what I have done since the 2/3 checkpoint that has not been undone. I have installed HiJackThis, AVG 2011, and several Software Distribution Service 3.0's (assuming this is auto-update stuff?). Do I need to uninstall those before doing the restore point? If I don't, will I be able to uninstall at a later time if needed?

It wouldn't hurt, especially if you feel more comfortable doing it that way.

If you go that route, after you uninstall what you want, create a new restore point that you can return to if necessary.

Now would be a good time to backup your data, before doing anything else. Then if System Restore doesn't help, you could try a Repair Install and if that doesn't help, a Clean Install.

I opted to try the new user first and totally screwed it up. Instead of "copy to folder" which I had never done before, I did my normal "copy and paste" totally forgetting that since they were on the same drive, it would move the files instead of copying them. I realized I had screwed up before it got too far, stopped and tried to put the original user back the way it was and then did the "copy to folder". Must not have gotten everything set correctly because I did lose some data when I came back in on the old user in Windows. So now I need to go back and compare the two users and make sure everything is still in my original user's folders and then delete the new users. I also had a problem which effectively stopped the "copy to folder" in mid stream so this may not be an option that I can use. Unfortunately it was on a .TMP file in the TEMP folder. Since the instructions said to copy everything except the NTUSER stuff, that's what I did. The error I got was something like this and think the only option was to quit the copy process (?): ~DFECBF.tmp Cannot create or replace en-us. Access is denied. Make sure disk is not full or write protected and not currently in use. 'Temp' to 'Temp' Since I need to check these users against each other and clean up and delete the new user, can you just close this issue and let me reopen when I am ready to try again? Not sure if I will try the user again although now I know what NOT to do. Thanks for all your help and maybe I'll get this figured out yet.

Ouch!!!!! If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.