Computer Acting Bizarre

I have a client whose computer started to freeze up. It is a Windows 2000 Professional machine. It boots up fine but a few minutes after booting up it just freezes.

I have gone to Safe Mode and ran Spybot Search & Destroy as well as AVERT Labs Stinger utility. Both found minor malware, but nothing serious. Stinger found something called Pate.B but that virus doesn't seem to exhibit this sort of behavior.

We also noted that the clock had been changed to 1:41 am or so and that the date had been changed to February 23, 2003.

Any clues what might cause this sort of behavior???

Thanks

(suggestion) Bad coin battery. Or user error maybe someone went into the bios and just started changing things ,is this a buisness comp? Im assuming here that your in the comp reapair buisness or network security and comp repair. Maybe it was freezing on your client before you got there. And maybe someone in the office with little know how went into the bios like they new what they were doing.Tyring to fix the frozen comp. You could always use Aida32 they claim to help in ruling out problems in the bios.

As far as I know, the AVERT suite is designed to remove viruses and trojans NOT normally removed by McCafee AntiVirus. It is possible that Avert simply missed them as they would have been picked up by McAfee. I don't see any other antivirus programs on your list there.

So my guess would be a virus. Try running a more mainstream AV product and see if that works.

/edit
I wouldn't think it's the battery. I have heard of computers refusing to start because of a dead battery, or opening a BIOS setup screen every start, but in most cases, the BIOS is shadowed to normal ram since that is much faster, so once the computer is up and running, the BIOS chip could disappear and it should still work fine. But check anyway. See if all the hard drive paramaters are still in there. If not, then I think !mitationRust is correct.
edit/

I had a W2K machine exhibit this type of behavior after the user went in and changed the BIOS Power Management settings.

"Microsoft confirms this is a problem blah blah blah"

There are some Tech Knowledges on this........

I even tried just to set the BIOS back to the original settings, repair......ended up reinstalling.

Could also be some piece of hardware failing.......cpu running hot, harddrive going....... bad memory stick ???

Maybe some service or device hanging on start up/

Any errors in the event log??

Morgan

Try with another OS like knoppix (a boot CD, nothing to install). If it freeze, the problem is from the hardware. If not, it's Windows. not 100% accurate but a good start imo. :)

A couple of weeks ago, I read a news artical that was saying some programs have a date that is like the Y2K thingy, and won't work past that date. And it was in Feburary, but I don't remember the exact date. (I also can't find the original artical now) It was only with certain programs, and the companies that released them was updating the software.
I'll continue to look and try to find that artical. (it was in google high tech area)
*Edit OK the date is Jan. 10 2004 and one of the articals is HERE

Quote:

---

Software maker PTC, a specialist in product lifecycle management applications for engineers and product designers, has rekindled memories of the Year 2000 bug, or Y2K, as it scrambles to patch a glitch that will render most of its products inoperable after Jan. 10

---

I have seen this before... Check the Program Files\Internet Explorer folder just for the heck of it. Look for a file named "Setup" or something similar (I can't remember what the name of the file was, but you should be able to tell that it doesn't belong there). This was the cause when I came accross the problem and I had to manually remove it from the directory and the Registry. I hope this helps...it could be just about anything though, check those reg keys and startup files/services...Good Luck!

Hi Tony,

I have come across this type of thing before. It happened to be something to do with the sleep/power saving stuff.

I would try going into BIOS and the display settings and making the machine always on and killing any screensaver.

It does sound a bit like a "deadly embrace" though.............what is running in the background as a scheduled job?

Happy New Year

EDIT: Watch out for AV software doing "background scanning" :eek:

hi, just remember just becuase your running spybot doesn't mean that it gets rid of every spy ware that you have and spyware could damage your computer in that way but spy ware is just to spy(duh!) on you not to hack your system(usually not always). I think that someone has hacked your system, becuase if your clock is changed it shouldn't becuase that only changes manually. Hope you fix the problem!!!

Still having problems.

Did a full virus scan and found nothing. Reinstalled Win2k over itself (not a reformat or clean install).

Computer works fine indefinitely in Safe Mode (with Networking) and it works fine indefinitely in normal mode...until you start a program. You can leave it sitting in Windows and it will be fine- no freezing. As soon as you start any program at all it freezes within a few seconds.

Perplexing

Whats in the event log???

Morgan

It sounds like it's calling a corrupt system file, from Safe Mode go to a Command Prompt and run the system file check utility ( SFC /SCANNOW ). Hopefully it will ask for the Windows 2000 Cd to restore a file. Also, go to System Information and run the File Verification Utility. Even though you reinstalled, this could still be the problem. Try my other solutions from my last post also......Good Luck

Also..apply all service packs and updates.....if you can??

There has got to be some error generated....somewhere

Try a parallel install and see if it still happens....
thats usually how I check for failed hardware

Morgan

I think that Wazz has a good suggestion.

Couple of other thoughts:

1. Is there a firewall program running, if so how many of them.
2. Is there more than one AV?

If nothing the other guys have suggested works you might try killing the AV and firewall from startup. When something goes wrong with these very strange things can happen. I know that the AV works in safe mode..........but the real time/interactive scanning is off?...that's the bit that would cause the problem.

I would re-install/update the videocard drivers. Corruption of those can produce funny results, and safe mode loads some sort of catch all generic driver. If you have the option to boot in VGA mode, you might like to try that, to check if it is the video?

Cheers

In safe mode you aren't running all of the devices, drivers and services. Did someone update a driver or service?

Tony,
Have any of the drivers been updated reciently as this sounds like there is a dodgy driver loading. Use msconfig to trouble shoot the system.

Any luck yet Tony???

that is strange tony... what virus software are you using, and is it fully updated? also if you can check your system resources, see how much ram is in use. you can bring up task manager and see, and at the same time check if there are any odd processes running, esp ones that eat up resources. i saw something similar once on a friends running aol... it started aol as a background process and would eat up like 60% of the resources... one fix (if it were a program you needed) is to use part of the hard drice as ram, giving it more resources to play with.


Maxx... with win2k the clock is not manual, it can be set to auto... ad since microsoft has issues, i have seen times when it is set on auto that it will change timezones and stuff accidentally

I had some similar problems a little while ago, I finally managed to get on my desktop and it would reboot on me constantly, turned out to be some new mblast virus, w32 or something, I don't know the exact name of it but updates are available. Probably not your problem but may be worth a look since that's an annoying problem.

I had a similiar problem of windows 2000 freezing afer startup.. now I was able to link the problem to Low Memory in my PC... check how memory is installed on client PC....

Secondly check what all unwanted services are running.... Try giving ctrl-alt-delete and wait may be for longer time ... it will clearly display which process is eating into ur comps CPU and memory.....

The best bet would be to install windows 2K with minimum services...(Try uninstalling IIS, FTP, Network Management and other such services.. )


As regards date problem... as mentioned earlier.. it seems clearly a case of BIOS battery change and the problem shall vanish....

KALP