lexusdominus

Thanks for the quick replies! This is my progress: I followed your malware guide & now i can get back onto all my accounts. thanks :) Before i did the checks, my background was locked on a blank blue background, and i couldnt change it in any of the accounts (all of the image backgrounds were locked) now they all work for all accounts but my main one. in my main account, i can now click them, but when i press apply a window pops up saying "the visual styles could not be applied". Applications think that they are booting for the first time - so the cd keys that i had entered at the time of installation are still there, but some still ask for the cd key. I noticed that the latter types of application (at runtime) seem to ask for a cd key each individual account. i guess mabye user specific info on my main account may have been permanently lost. :( Also thanks for the links to all the useful software! i can definetly see them coming in handy in the future & Ive backed up all my important stuff so am ready to give my computer a real makeover (aside from a format, if possible). I may as well move onto my next problem... BSOD. 90% of the time on boot, i get a BSOD error saying: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL but surprisingly the other 10% of the time, it boots up, no problem, everything working (sound, video, wireless, LAN, ect) It also boots up fine in safe mode, though without sound ect. ive tried reinstalling most of my drivers. The BSOD also gives me hex numbers. Is there any way of finding out exactly where the problem is occuring?

ok, i got rid of the virus by ending disabling the service from the adminastrative section in control panel then running hijackthis, as far as i know, im virus free - but my problem still remains unfortunately. Ive never really touched the registry manually before, and dont really know how it works, but i am aware that ntuser.dat is a hive file. is there a seperate registry for each user account? if i could copy my main ntuser.dat file into a new account profile would it do much damage (i also have ubuntu linux on a seperate partition :) )

my computer is broken in just about every way possible, but surprisingly ive managed to squeeze enough life out of it to get onto these forums. my system: 3.4ghz dual core P4 1Gb RAM ATI radeon x300 linksys wireless card windows XP pro sp2 When i start up windows, it gives me this error : (Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights. DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. for C:\Documents and Settings\Cypher\ntuser.dat For more information, see Help and Support Center at Events and Errors Message Center: Basic Search.) It then loads a temporary profile (Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. For more information, see Help and Support Center at Events and Errors Message Center: Basic Search.) I checked the windows support, but it just says to create a new profile. That would be fine, but a load of my programs are now asking for cd keys which ive lost or thrown away ect, and i dont want to lose all of my settings. The file, ntuser.dat is indeed being used by some process, as windows wont let me copy it. (from my "temporary" or any other user account). Is there a way to find out what process is using that file so i can terminate it & copy it into a new account or something? I have a virus which i think may be the culprit (sopidkc.exe) - i delete the virus, then run hijackthis, but it wont get rid of the startup entry. Thanks!