autoplay starts when windows loads

For the past week when I turn on the pc, windows loads and then an autoplay dialogue box shows up on the screen. I have 2 usb external drives, each partitioned into 4 drives. Autoplay goes through 3 or 4 of these partitions, but not always off the same external drive. eg: 1 drive has the letters Q, R, S, T and the other U, V, W, X. It usually goes from T to U, to W and occasionally to X. They all have music on them except for T, so the audio/video starts to play, plays half way through and then moves onto another track, not necessarily on the same drive. I ran avg, malwarebytes, superantispyware & spybot & destroy in safe mode, but only a few tracking cookies were found. Is this a sign of a virus/spyware/malware and if so, how can I find out what it is? If not, does anyone know why is it happening and how to stop it? If any more details are required, please ask. Thank you for reading and in advance for any help offered. hedley

Look in the root of each partition for a autorun.inf file, delete (or rename) it if found.

Thanks for the reply. Not technically minded, I'm afraid. How/where do I find the root of the partitions. hedley

Root is the start of each drive/partition.

C:\
D:\
E:\ etc.

In your case it would be: Q:\, R:\, S:\, T:\ and the other U:\, V:\, W:\, X:\

Make sure you have all files being shown:

Open Control Panel then Folder Options and click on the View tab.
Select "Show hidden files and folders"
Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (recommended)" (click Yes when prompted)
Click Apply and OK

Once you are done with this problem, you can check "Hide protected operating system files (recommended)" again.

Thanks for the reply. Nothing like that found. Is there anything I should try? Thanks for the help. hedley

Start msconfig (Start / Run / type msconfig / press Enter), click on the Startup tab and see what is set to start at boot time.

Sorry for delay in replying. Nothing with reference to drives, autoplay. Just programmes set to start. Thanks for the help. hedley

Do you get this if you disconnect the external drives while powered down, then power up?

If not, then try Autoruns. Save the output (File / Save) then zip the AutoRuns.arn file and upload here so I can look at it.

Use the Browse and Upload buttons below the message input area to upload.

Autoruns file as requested. hedley

Here are some you can disable and see if it makes a difference: HP Software Update ExitLauncher2.lnk HP Digital Image Monitor.lnk DriverCure mso-offdap mso-offdap11 FileShredder All AusLogics entries Folder Marker YsiShellExt Yahoo (all) Spybot (all) Also, it looks like you have Online Armour and AVG installed. Pick one, or dump them both (my recommendation) and install Microsoft Security Essentials. Remember what you uncheck so you can turn back on if needed.

Thanks for the reply. Disabled as listed above. Makes no difference to autoplay starting at boot up. I take it these items can remain disabled in any case? Anything else I can do? Will try MSE. Thanks for the help. hedley

Uninstalling Online Armour and AVG and installing MSE will make a performance difference for sure. Let me know how it runs after that.

I never asked and should have, what does the Autoplay dialog box say?

Also, give this a try, see if you can find the culprit: How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

Thanks for the reply. Haven't replied before now as I was giving MSE a try. I haven't had any problems using MSE. Still have my firewall. Also at this point I hoped I would be able to say that autoplay no longer started. After installing MSE it stopped. Until last night. It just started to play from one of the above mentioned drives and the pc had been switched on since early yesterday morning. If it plays a song or a video there is no autoplay option box on the screen. If it opens for the other drives with no media on them it gives the option to view folder to see files. Thanks for the help. hedley

Might be worth having one of our malware Guru's take a look, even though MSE says all is well. Go to the Spyware / Malware / Virus Removal forum, read the info there and follow the posted directions. Once you receive a clean bill of health, come back here if you have any additional questions or concerns or it turns out not to be a malware problem.

Please be patient as that is a very busy area. If you do not receive a response in 3 days, post a message here: What To Do If You Have No Response In 3 Days?