Strange problem with my BOX

[scratchONtheBOX]

Strange problem with my BOX

Greetings!

I just went to the office this afternoon finding that I have a problem with my BOX. It became strangely unstably slow and don’t work at all for some reboots (Maybe around 5 times).

My BOX details below:

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DUMb
System Manufacturer GBT___
System Model AWRDACPI
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~868 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 26/07/1421
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale Saudi Arabia
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
User Name GUESSWATT
Time Zone Arab Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 256.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 55.25 MB
Total Virtual Memory 880.29 MB
Available Virtual Memory 345.43 MB
Page File Space 625.80 MB

I have a separate normal user account “GUESSWATT” that I used normally aside from Administrator. The scenario (problem) occurs at around 4:30 PM, 2nd half of our time, when I start my BOX and login successfully. At startup, it will load bunch of tools (the usual) – Zone Alarm (version:5.5.062.004, TrueVector version:5.5.062.004, Driver version:5.5.062.004), the Adware/Spyware tools, NAV Auto-Protect and Qwik-Fix Pro by PivX Solutions.

The strange slowness and hanging of the BOX suddenly happened! (I have no fu**** idea what the hell had happened!). I do the normal, checked the tasks but cannot get through it also. So, I power it down – soft shutdown like I normally do. Turn on and normally it should do a scan disk for the incident but it did not, why? I don’t know! After a series of this boring stuffs, I switched to Administrator mode and check what had happened, but did not find any strange thing, I run a HijackThis (v1.99.0) but could not find any unusual?!? See attached log (hijackthis.txt).

I’ve crossed this problem after I had done some series of maintenance. The details were as follows:

“THE FLASHBACK”

Yesterday (Sunday - since working days start here in the Mid-East from Saturday and ends at Thursday, if you mind asking), I run Trend Micro’s online tool -> HOUSECALL, for almost two hours it scanned my BOX but I ran out of time, the office is closing, so I cancelled the SCAN process (for almost 2 hours it din not find any single problem, well, not yet!). Disconnect the net, Shutdown the BOX and went home.

Today, in the morning, I continue my maintenance by doing the following:

- Start my BOX in SAFEMODE under Administrator account
- Disable System Restore
- Run the common adware/spyware SW that I had:
o Spybot S&D 1.3 -- by Patrick M Kolla (Safer Networking Ltd.)
o Spy Sweeper V3.0.0 (Build 118) Spyware Def. 365 -- (Webroot)
o Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition Build 1.01 -- (Lavasoft)
Note: These tools find some (the common ones that keep on coming back) and remove it again… and again…
- Run Norton AntiVirus (Norton System Works Pro 2004), and found an Adware and a Trojan and successfully deleted it (manually)!
- After these maintenance, I do a restart and logged on as the normal user (Not Admin). I’ve been able to use my BOX up to the end of my first shift (up to 2PM).

The QUESTION is, what is the PROBLEM? What exactly had happened back there? The strange thing was, now it is normal, I’m using it now upon writing this… Occasionally it is slow but very very rare!

Sorry for the LONG message, just can’t figure out what had happened and I kinda like to solve these issues and learn from it.

My hint is “I NEED TO RUN SOME UPDATE ON MY OS” (it’ll take some time since I used dial-up), I’ll go for it…

Even though I used lots of security tools; it’s not safe enough to have these great tools in order to have a stable BOX.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Yo!

[scratchONtheBOX]

I think I’ve found the reason for this problem… a good research and reading really gives you the solution and the right thinking (I guess)…

As I had maintained my BOX last time, I ran on the settings of Spybot-Search&Destroy and change something I believed is for the benefit of the system (I HAD APPLIED THE TOOLS FOR ADDING THE Spybot-S&D Hosts List). Well, today, I read the FAQ for S&D and found this part:

FAQ #012 : After inserting the hosts my network reacts very slowly!

This link (which is shown in the S&D FAQ also) shown some related scenario for the issues in my BOX.

Explanation can be found HerE

Well, now the problem is gone. I just restore my good-old-fashioned HOSTS FILE.

Yipeeeee!

Yo!

[nihil]

Hi,

It sounds like something I have come across before. The latest SpyBot (1.3?) has a resident spyware blocker, and I believe that this can cause conflicts with Norton AV and possibly some other AV and maybe firewall products.

I have no problem with people having multiple security tools, but I do advise caution regarding what you run interactively, as opposed to on demand (when you turn off conflicting items).

Norton is particularly prone to this sort of problem for some reason

[scratchONtheBOX]

I believed that Norton has some setbacks.

I had tried AVG (the free version) but it had a conflict with Zone Alarm for some reasons I just can't figure out during that time, so I switched back to NAV (included in Norton System Works Pro 2004).

I agree that EXPERIMENTING with the VAST tools around could get you knocked & drives you nuts sometimes, but it's worth learning and it adds to the experience.

That's why sites like AO exist to guide us.

I will also try one of these days to use alternative AV.

Thanks for the thoughts, nihil.

Yo!