System Comes To A Halt

Hi there. I have a computer that is misbehaving. After boot up and log in to windows, the machine seems to become unresponsive after 30 seconds or so. I have run HJT and run several scans for viruses/malware, and all have turned up clean. I can boot into safe mode with networking, and things run fine. I think I have localized the problem to a system service through msconfig by booting up to normal windows with SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, and Start-up programs, but using minimal system services. Is there any good way to track down the offending system service other than just turning them on one by one and rebooting? Thanks for any help you can give. -linmoo

Hi, Sorry to hear about the problems with your computer. I see that you have also posted an HJT log in the malware removal forum. It would be wise for us to refrain from providing advice here on this forum until a malware removal expert has declared your machine "clean". (we don't want to make his/her job more difficult by recommending system changes here that could potentially conflict with malware testing and/or removal) If you still experience issues with your machine after it has been declared clean, please post back here in this thread, and we will do our best to help. Regards paws

Thanks paws. Unfortunately, that thread has been looked over. If it helps, I'm pretty sure that the log is clean.

That said, I've located the offending service. It appears to be none other than the Windows Update service itself. I scanned the system logs, and sure enough, the windows update module (wuauctl.exe, wuaucpl.cpl, etc) was upgraded to version 7.0.6000.374 on June 4th…exactly when my problems started.

I did a bit of reading up on this, and it seems that some systems have been choking on this update to WU. An article can be found here, and the microsoft "fixes" are here and here. Unfortunately, I have followed these instructions and I still can't run windows with windows update service turned on.

If anyone has experience with this, please let me know. Thanks.

Hi, If your HJT log has not received a response after 5 days then you can find a link on the malware removal forum for the action you need to take to request a response from a malware removal expert. Your Java is badly out of date and could provide a route for malicious code to have invaded your machine, However please do not do update this now, please wait until you have had a response from a malware expert, as we should not make any changes that could interfere with the malware tests or scans. Hopefully you will be proved correct and there will be no trace of undesirable elements on your machine. When your machine has been declared clean then if you are still having issues with it please post back here in this thread and we will do our best to help. Regards paws