Persistent Firefox/Taskbar Malfunction Help Request

Hello,

I wonder whether someone might be kind enough to help?

I was chatting to Jintan in the Malware Team, and he recommended I asked for some advice from people on this forum:

Rather than replicate everything, I thought it'd be best to provide a link here to the original post on the other part of the WTT fora site, which has more details and some images of what I'm experiencing .

Essentially, there are a lot of minor, subtle malfunctions going on as (I believe) in part a result of the FF upgrade beyond v. 2.0.0.4


A brief list of the errors I'm experiencing:

- the programme/window boxes not appearing on the taskbar at all, or in an unusual form: such as being confined to the right-hand end in a stunted form with up and down buttons to scroll through the list of open windows/progs - I've managed to move them to a more normal position, but there are a couple of draggable taskbar seperators that shouldn't be there - I expect it to revert back to it's malfunctional form on reboot;

- FF stalling before loading quite badly, and every time you open a new web page or try to fill in a form box like this one;

- IE7 runs mostly alright, but the mouse seems hypersensitive, and I get two empty tabs for even the gentlest click for one tab;

- pop-up alerts stating IP addresses (e.g.: [removed] or [removed]) have "sent an incorrect or unexpected message: Error Code -12263", these occur every time you open FF, and intermittently thereafter ;

- key malfunctions, just now by typing the IE7 frame went funny, and minimised just by typing in letters! I also have difficulty selecting text (i.e. keeping it selected), and doing CTRL+C, which it ignores;

I'm not sure whether there's anything else to mention.

Please could someone advise. In a way, I half-expect this issue to arise again, so it'd be good to have a fully worked thread to refer back to for self-help purposes.

thanks in advance,

Jack

Hello Jack,

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing, hopefully we can get them all resolved in a timely manner. To do this, we should work on each issue separately so that we can find out whether or not they are related. After completing the step, please determine whether one or more of the issues have been resolved and post an update.

Let's start out with the Firefox error:

- pop-up alerts stating IP addresses (e.g.: [removed] or [removed]) have "sent an incorrect or unexpected message: Error Code -12263", these occur every time you open FF, and intermittently thereafter ;

In FireFox, select Tools | Options | Advanced | Encryption, click on the Verification button and make sure that "Do not use OCSP for certificate validation" is selected. Using OCSP can cause errors to appear in Firefox.

Again, after performing the fix, please post an update.

Regards,

Ax

Hello Ax, Thanks for your time. The OSCP thing was selected as you recommended. I thought I'd add a bit more info: I'm back to having nothing on my taskbar, and my minimised language toolbar in the centre of it! Along with the "hypersensitivity", I'm getting effects like multiple tabs selected on FF when I click normally; and the hotkeys for switching sound on and off aren't useable due to the hyperfast switching on and off that appears to be happening, and other little things like when I click on the text here it highlights a whole word in blue, rather than anything else (I can't select & manipulate text properly). I've uninstalled a couple of addons to FF (noscript and keyscrambler), but I'm not convinced that they are the source of the issues; I think they just played up as a result of the real problem. I think I remember when I had a similar set of issues not long ago (perhaps this is a hangover from that), part of the solution might have involved the system restore as well as reinstalling the earlier, stabler version of FF - clearing the sys-restore memory or summat. I haven't done any system restores, as I remember that this didn't really do anything; though it did used to resolve the funny sudden taskbar change i was getting for a while before this problem arose (image on the other thread). It'd be good to have an established thread on this, because not only have I had it before; my mate might be having some similar problems - what appear to the unintiated to be viruses, but actually not; just some bugginess in WinXP perhaps: brought out into the open by browsers. cheers, Jack (I'll check back in about 12+ hours)

Jack,

I have seen around in other forums that the FireFox noscript add-on gives the error that you described. Possibly in the long run it will help not to have it installed. Let's take a different route and look at the minimized programs issue.

Try going to Kelly's Korner, in the following link:
Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP

Click and run the following script:
240. Programs Aren't Minimized in the Taskbar

Regards,

Ax

Morning(?!) Ax, Cheers for the link. That script did fix that particular problem (though I'm yet to reboot to see if it stays fixed); I don't think the whole set of issues is sorted out yet… the other issues are still there. Having thought about it, I wonder whether a solution might be to do with running HJT or Silent Runners; inspecting the log and removing some thing(s); (uninstalling FF;) and switching off system restore and rebooting, then switching it on again? I remember being advised to do summat like that twice before (once on this laptop; and once on a desktop a couple of years back), with successful results. I remember that in those cases I'd tried to use system restore to resolve the issues, and it never really worked. What d'yer think?

whoops!

Jack,

Glad to hear the script fixed your taskbar issue, you'll have to let me know if it stays that way.

You may try uninstalling Firefox and going back to a previous version to see if that helps. System restore should not be causing any ill-effects with your system though, but you can delete the restore data if you aren't going to attempt to restore your computer and if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Having thought about it, I wonder whether a solution might be to do with running HJT or Silent Runners; inspecting the log and removing some thing(s); (uninstalling FF;) and switching off system restore and rebooting, then switching it on again?

These logs can only be analyzed in the Malware removal forum, which is where you came from in the first place. I noticed that you posted a new reply there so let's just put this thread on hold until you are declared "clean" by Jintan in your previous HJT thread.

Regards,

Ax

Hello again Ax, Well, Jintan seems sure that there are no virus issues and that it's a matter of tweaking and wrestling with the firewall settings; any ideas please? Jack

Hello again Ax,

How are you doing?

Jintan has now gone through a few different log tests and cleared me as being virus/malware free; however I'm still experiencing a range of problems detailed further in on the thread reached by clicking here; as well as earlier on this thread.

Please could you help me with some tweaking & pruning?
It appears that that may be mostly what's required.

Thanks in advance,

Jack

PS: I just wanted to add that every time I open a pdf link on IE7, it crashes; with FF2, I've got a PDF addon that seems to work more often… but does occasionally freeze up.

Hello Jack, I'm doing great thanks, how about you? Sorry to hear you are still having problems. I apologize for not being able to get back to you sooner. Much of what you are describing to me seems hardware-related, in that what you input into the computer doesn't always correspond to the desired output and it is not just affecting your browsers. You mentioned in the other thread MS Word as well. Let's try looking at this from a hardware standpoint. Have you tried using a different keyboard/mouse? If not and you have one available to you either on-hand or through a friend, please try this and let me know what happens. Please try to use a standard keyboard and mouse with no extra functionality, such as extra buttons, hotkeys, etc. Regards, Ax

Hi Ax, I'm fine thanks. My computer is a laptop; the only peripherals I use are a printer, scanner, digital voice recorder, and mouse (all USB 2) (and ADSL modem if it counts!). The hardware is the same as when it was working. I'm not sure what I else I can tell you! Jack (after a bit of thought…) I think I might have a USB keyboard knocking around somewhere - i dunno if it'll work by just plugging it in though?!

If you use the mousepad on your laptop, rather than the USB mouse, do you have better luck with the system's operation?

You can give me more information by running the PC Pitstop Full Tests and posting a TechExpress Link here.

Regards,

Ax

Hello again Ax,

here you go:

http://www.pcpitstop.com/techexpress.asp?id=RHGPHWPA7XVS4STV

The mouse sensitivity not as bad as it was, but text selection is not working right as detailed earlier. Both browsers are slow, and IE7 crashes on PDF links.
Text-related malfunctioning in browsers is the most evident problem; and the speed in opening web pages - it seizes up when you've switched tabs, and then click back to another browser tab, making surfing reminiscent of dial-up in '95!

It has all the hallmarks of adware ("malware lite") or FF installation malf' or clash, to my limited knowledge; though, I was hopeful that you'd have some suggested "tweaks" as before that might resolve it (though whether or not that's papering over cracks is another matter).

cheers again,

Jack

Jack,

Thanks for the TechExpress link. Please go through each of the tips in the Customized Tune-up Tips section. In the meantime, I'll look at the system specs.

Do PDF files open fine when you're not using IE7? If it is just happening in IE7, try resetting your browser by going into Tools | Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and click the Reset button.

This should disable the PDF add-on, see if it works for you. If it still doesn’t, you may want to try uninstalling your PDF reader and reinstalling it.

I was hopeful that you'd have some suggested "tweaks" as before that might resolve it (though whether or not that's papering over cracks is another matter).

It would be great if there was a tweak for every problem encountered on a system, but some issues take a little bit of troubleshooting. Please be patient as we go through this process. You have brought a host of issues here and if you remain patient through the process, we should be able to resolve each one in turn.

Regards,

Ax

hello again Ax, I finally got some time to look at this laptop again… …well, no joy really. i've run through the few minor tweaks (the IE7 pdf reset and reducing system restore size), but these don't seem related to the main issues: slow browser; browser text; and the "-12263" pop-up I keep getting. i went through browsertune.com, and on test 2 it crashed the firefox following a message about a script that may slow down the computer. i ran the PCpitstop optimisation prog (up to the registration anyway), and it displayed this: [attachment removed: probs_october07.GIF] i wonder what it could be it seems like I should be uninstalling something; removing something… i really wanted to keep this laptop clean and simple and well-protected after the last time… what can you do to keep the pests off your pc? is there some box you could have inbetwixt your modem and computer to filter all the nasties out?! Jack