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This is indeed caused by the Kiwee Toolbar. Please follow these instructions to clean your computer of any malware: Your computer appears to be infected with Malware. Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a combination of the words malicious and software. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. It is in your best interest to note the following: Please disable your resident security applications (such as AVG, Spybot, WinPatrol, etc.) before performing the below procedure so that they do not interfere with the process. Perform all the steps in the order listed to avoid any conflicts. If unsure, please stop and voice your doubts. You might be required to go offline during the disinfection process. Therefore, it is recommended to print off the instructions below for ease of reference. If you stick to the above guidelines, all should go smoothly. ================================================ STEP 1 Download ATF-Cleaner by Atribune. Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click on the file to run the program. On the Main tab, check the Select All button. Next, click on the Firefox tab (if applicable) and check the Select All button. Note: If you would like to preserve your saved passwords in Firefox, then click No at the corresponding prompt. Now, click on the Opera tab (if applicable) and check the Select All button. Note: If you would like to preserve your saved passwords in Opera, then click No at the corresponding prompt. Press the Empty Selected button and click OK to acknowledge the corresponding prompt. Click on the Exit button to quit the program. ================================================ STEP 2 Please click here to download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. At the end, make sure a check mark is placed next to: Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware [*]Click Finish. [*]The program will download and update itself if it finds the necessity to do so. Please allow this. [*]Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. Note: Depending on your computer specifications, the scan may take some time to complete. Please wait patiently and do not interrupt the process. [*]When the scan is complete, click OK, and then Show Results to view the results. [*]Make sure that every entry is selected, and click Remove Selected. [*]Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 3 Please click here to download SUPERAntiSpyware (Free Version). Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click SUPERAntiSpyware.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. Open SUPERAntiSpyware. Under Configuration and Preferences, click the Preferences button. Click the Scanning Control tab. Under Scanner Options make sure the following fields checked: [*]Click the Close button to leave the control center screen. [*]On the main screen, under Scan for Harmful Software click Scan your computer. [*]On the left, make sure you check mark All the Fixed Drives. [*]On the right, under Complete Scan, choose Perform Complete Scan. [*]Click Next to start the scan. Please be patient while it scans your computer. [*]After the scan is complete, a Scan Summary box will appear with potentially harmful items that were detected. Click OK. [*]Make sure every entry has a check mark next to it and click Next. [*]A notification will appear that Quarantine and Removal is Complete. Click OK and then Finish to return to the main menu. [*]Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 4 Please visit the ESET Online Scanner, using Internet Explorer to initiate the scan. Note: If you are running Windows Vista, then you will need Administrative privileges to complete the latter part of the procedure. To do so, right-click on the Internet Explorer icon in the Start Menu and select the Run As Administrator option in the shell context menu. Check mark the YES, I accept the Terms of Use box. Click the Start button. Click the Install button on the following screen. Click Start. This will will initialize and update the scanner engine. Check mark the box beside Remove found threats. Click the Scan button. This will start the scan. Please be patient while it is in progress. Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 5 Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and select System Restore. Choose the radio button marked Create a Restore Point on the first screen and click Next. Give the restore point a name then click Create. The new point will be stamped with the current date and time. Keep a note of this so you can find it easily should you need to use System Restore. Next, click on Start > Run, type Cleanmgr and click on OK. Click on the More Options tab. Click the Clean Up button in the System Restore section to remove all previous restore points except the most recent one. This will remove any infected files that have been backed up by Windows. The files in "System Restore" are protected to prevent any programs changing those files. This is the only foolproof way to ensure the deletion of those files. Note: Do not clear restore points on a regular basis as doing so will clear all previous restore points even those that you may need. System Restore is a useful tool to revert your computer back to a working condition if something goes wrong. Re-enable all your security applications and please return here and tell us how the computer seems to be operating. Close browsers before scanning Scan for tracking cookies Terminate memory threats before quarantining

From your description of what happened, I think you should try completely removing trend-micro: Uninstalling Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 Windows firewall will not be an issue here, as it does not affect outbound traffic. I think something may have gone wrong with your install of Trend Micro. If you uninstall it, re-boot, and then still find you can't connect; try running the winsock fix again.

Ok, try re-setting winsock: WinSock XP Fix - fix XP internet connectivity download, reviewed and rated from Spychecker.com - Once you have applied the fix, re-start and try to browse to google.

Thanks for checking that Bob, at least we now know this isn't related to the condition of your hard disk. What worries me is the error 'The system cannot find the file specified' regarding the windows firewall and connection sharing service. If you use a 3rd party firewall (I notice ZAPro in your signature) then you won't need this service running, but the fact those system files are missing is odd. It would be best to restore them. Open 'My Computer' and find your CD drive. It should have a letter associated with it, for example, D: Use that letter in place of X: in the following two commands. Try this to restore the missing files: * Insert the Windows XP disk into the CD drive. * Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK * At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER. expand X:\i386\ipnathlp.dl_ %systemroot%\system32\ipnathlp.dll * Similarly, expand ipnat.sys file to the Drivers folder. Use the following command: expand X:\i386\ipnat.sy_ %systemroot%\system32\drivers\ipnat.sys Once you've done this, open the command prompt again and type services.msc Look through the list to find ' Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)' Right-click on it, and select properties. Change its start up-type to 'Disabled' and Stop it if it is running. Another thought could be conflicting programs. Does AVGPro have a firewall as well? If your computer freezes again, then try disabling AVG, and seeing if the problem goes away.

Hi Chellery, Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Unfortunately, it sounds like the hard drive could have been damaged when the computer was shut off abruptly. Do you have another computer you could put the drive in?

When you pinged a web address, did you type exactly ping www.google.com and receive something that looked like this: Pinging www.l.google.com [209.85.229.103] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 209.85.229.103: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=55 Reply from 209.85.229.103: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=55 Reply from 209.85.229.103: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=55 Reply from 209.85.229.103: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=55 Ping statistics for 209.85.229.103: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 31ms Try typing this into the address bar of your web browser: 74.125.95.104 And hitting enter. If google appears, then the problem is with your DNS configuration. If not, then scanning your computer for malware should be the next step.

Ok, the system file checker doesn't seem to have picked up on the missing files. Are there any recent red crosses in the 'Application' log as well? Could you run a disk check to make sure there are no bad blocks that might be preventing windows from finding those files: Go to my computer, then right-click on drive C:, and choose properties. Go to the 'Tools' tab. Under 'Error checking' select 'Check now' Select both of the options 'Automatically fix file system errors' and 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors', make sure you have no open programs, and then start the scan. It will probably take a while to complete.

Hi there, AVG tends to have these kinds of problems, from what I've seen. If you wish to keep it (not my recommendation) then there is an option inside the security centre that will allow you to choose 'I will monitor my own firewall' or something similar. You could also disable security centre's alerts: To turn off Security Centre alerts 1.Click Start and then click Control Panel. 2.Double-click Security Centre. 3.In the Security Centre, under Resources, click Change the way Security Centre alerts me. 4.In the Alert Settings dialog box, clear the Firewall, Automatic Updates, or Virus Protection check boxes, and then click OK. When you use this procedure, the Security Centre still displays your status, but does not send you alerts. I would advise a combination of Avira Antivir: Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus and comodo firewall (installed in firewall mode only): Free Firewall - Download the Best Firewall Protection and Anti-Virus Scan Software from Comodo but of course it's up to you.

If you have connectivity through ping, then the problem will be with some settings in IE8, or possibly windows. First check IE's connection settings. Click 'Tools', then go to the 'Connections' tab. If there is anything in the box under 'Dial-up and Virtual Private Network Settings' then remove everything, so the box is empty. Make sure 'Never dial a connection' is highlighted. Now click 'LAN settings' at the bottom. Make sure nothing in here is ticked. What security software do you run? Do you run both an antivirus, and a firewall?

Hi there, Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. What is the exact error message IE is giving you when it can't connect? Open up the command prompt on the affected machine by holding down the windows key, and pressing 'R'. Then type in ping www.google.comand press enter. This will check for basic internet connectivity. Let us know the results by right-clicking on the window after the command has completed, and choosing 'Select all', and then pasting it into your next reply.

That your computer cannot find that file seems odd, as it is an integral Windows component. Try running the system file checker to make sure your system files are correct and intact. Note that you might need to insert your windows CD during this process: 1. Click Start, click Run type sfc /scannow, and then press ENTER. 2. Follow the prompts throughout the System File Checker process. 3. Restart the computer when System File Checker process is complete. Let us know how you get on.

No problem, If you have red crosses in your 'System' log, then these are the ones we need to check first. Try to think back to the last time your computer crashed. Then look at the date column of the log, to see if there are any that happened around the same time. If you can't remember, or there aren't, then just choose the most recent red cross. Right-click on it, and choose properties. You should now get the properties window for that event. At the bottom will be a description, simply highlight it, then copy it by pressing Ctrl-C, and paste using Ctrl-V. Check the others as well; if they have the same description then it could be the source of the problem.

Hi Bob, If the PC is just freezing up without restarting or displaying a blue screen of death, then the problem may be one of your background processes, or possibly an unstable driver. The first thing I'd do is check the windows event log for errors or warnings. In XP, go to Control Panel, then Administrative tools, then Event viewer. There will be several logs, but the main ones to look at are 'Application' and 'System'. If there are any red crosses or yellow triangles with a time stamp that seems to match your computer's lock-ups, then right-click on them and select properties. Paste the contents here so we can have a look. Did you update any drivers, or install anything new before this started happening?

Thanks Ant, you're very welcome ;) Please check the following link for FPCH recommended security products: http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/malware-removal-av-firewalls-etc/3597-free-pc-help-recommended-security-products.html Personally I run Kaspersky internet security, but if you would prefer a free solution then Avira free edition is a very good virus scanner. Comodo has a decent firewall, but I wouldn't rely on its antivirus. A combination of Avira antivirus and comodo (in firewall mode only) is a good line of defence. If you install Avira, then I would boot back into safe mode and give your computer a full scan with it just to be sure. As always, make sure to keep windows updated.

It sounds like there are several things going on here. First you'll need to stop Winifighter, and then get malware-bytes running, as it can remove it. First, boot into safe mode by re-starting and pressing F8 during boot up, until you get the option for 'Safe mode with networking' Once there, press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open Task Manager. Look for the following processes: WiniFighter.exe, setup2.exe, uninstall.exe, [Random string].exe such as 958z6spy787.exe And kill each of them by right-clicking and selecting 'End Process tree'. Now try to run malware-bytes. If it won't run, then navigate to the malware-bytes folder inside 'Program Files' and re-name the malware-bytes executable, then try it again. Try the other steps above as well, to clean as much as you can while in safe mode.

Great to hear that it helped, for the next step please do the following to clean your computer of malware. If you are unable to complete any of the stages, post back here and we'll try to sort it out. Your computer appears to be infected with Malware. Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a combination of the words malicious and software. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. It is in your best interest to note the following: Please disable your resident security applications (such as AVG, Spybot, WinPatrol, etc.) before performing the below procedure so that they do not interfere with the process. Perform all the steps in the order listed to avoid any conflicts. If unsure, please stop and voice your doubts. You might be required to go offline during the disinfection process. Therefore, it is recommended to print off the instructions below for ease of reference. If you stick to the above guidelines, all should go smoothly. ================================================ STEP 1 Download ATF-Cleaner by Atribune. Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click on the file to run the program. On the Main tab, check the Select All button. Next, click on the Firefox tab (if applicable) and check the Select All button. Note: If you would like to preserve your saved passwords in Firefox, then click No at the corresponding prompt. Now, click on the Opera tab (if applicable) and check the Select All button. Note: If you would like to preserve your saved passwords in Opera, then click No at the corresponding prompt. Press the Empty Selected button and click OK to acknowledge the corresponding prompt. Click on the Exit button to quit the program. ================================================ STEP 2 Please click here to download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. At the end, make sure a check mark is placed next to: Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware [*]Click Finish. [*]The program will download and update itself if it finds the necessity to do so. Please allow this. [*]Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. Note: Depending on your computer specifications, the scan may take some time to complete. Please wait patiently and do not interrupt the process. [*]When the scan is complete, click OK, and then Show Results to view the results. [*]Make sure that every entry is selected, and click Remove Selected. [*]Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 3 Please click here to download SUPERAntiSpyware (Free Version). Save the file to your Desktop. Double-click SUPERAntiSpyware.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. Open SUPERAntiSpyware. Under Configuration and Preferences, click the Preferences button. Click the Scanning Control tab. Under Scanner Options make sure the following fields checked: [*]Click the Close button to leave the control center screen. [*]On the main screen, under Scan for Harmful Software click Scan your computer. [*]On the left, make sure you check mark All the Fixed Drives. [*]On the right, under Complete Scan, choose Perform Complete Scan. [*]Click Next to start the scan. Please be patient while it scans your computer. [*]After the scan is complete, a Scan Summary box will appear with potentially harmful items that were detected. Click OK. [*]Make sure every entry has a check mark next to it and click Next. [*]A notification will appear that Quarantine and Removal is Complete. Click OK and then Finish to return to the main menu. [*]Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 4 Please visit the ESET Online Scanner, using Internet Explorer to initiate the scan. Note: If you are running Windows Vista, then you will need Administrative privileges to complete the latter part of the procedure. To do so, right-click on the Internet Explorer icon in the Start Menu and select the Run As Administrator option in the shell context menu. Check mark the YES, I accept the Terms of Use box. Click the Start button. Click the Install button on the following screen. Click Start. This will will initialize and update the scanner engine. Check mark the box beside Remove found threats. Click the Scan button. This will start the scan. Please be patient while it is in progress. Restart your computer. ================================================ STEP 5 Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and select System Restore. Choose the radio button marked Create a Restore Point on the first screen and click Next. Give the restore point a name then click Create. The new point will be stamped with the current date and time. Keep a note of this so you can find it easily should you need to use System Restore. Next, click on Start > Run, type Cleanmgr and click on OK. Click on the More Options tab. Click the Clean Up button in the System Restore section to remove all previous restore points except the most recent one. This will remove any infected files that have been backed up by Windows. The files in "System Restore" are protected to prevent any programs changing those files. This is the only foolproof way to ensure the deletion of those files. Note: Do not clear restore points on a regular basis as doing so will clear all previous restore points even those that you may need. System Restore is a useful tool to revert your computer back to a working condition if something goes wrong. Re-enable all your security applications and please return here and tell us how the computer seems to be operating. Happy Safe Computing! http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/../images/additional-smilies/thumb.gif Close browsers before scanning Scan for tracking cookies Terminate memory threats before quarantining

Ok. We can try to tackle your malware problem first. Go this link and download the EXE file association fix: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/xp_exe_fix.zip And the LNK fix: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/linkfile_fix.zip Unzip both to your desktop. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager. Once there, click File, then hold down the CTRL key and click New Task (Run). This will open a Command Prompt window. Enter REGEDIT.EXE and press Enter. Click File, then Import. Locate the .reg file that came inside the EXE fix file, and double-click it. Do the same for the LNK fix file. Can you now run programs normally?

What make and model of computer do you have? The driver CD just contains the software for your computers particular hardware. It is not a windows recovery disk. Do you have any other disks that came with your computer? A recovery CD will be essential if you have to return your computer to factory settings, and it is always a good idea to have one handy just in case things go wrong.

Hi Steve, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. This may sound like a bit of a patchy solution, but you could try re-naming the I: drive to D: temporarily, then uninstalling the problematic programs. Once the programs that sill reference the D: drive are gone, you could change the letter back to I: to prevent further problems. Changing the drive letter in XP is done as follows: How to change a drive letter To change an existing drive letter on a drive, on a partition, or on a volume, follow these steps: 1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance. 2.Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane. 3.Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths. 4.Click Change. 5.Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK. 6.Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change. The drive letter of the drive, the partition, or the volume that you specified is changed, and the new drive letter appears in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool. Once you've done this, and the drive now comes up at D:, uninstall the problem programs, and re-boot. Use the above procedure to change the drive letter back to I:, then install the newer versions of the programs you want.

AVS video converter is indeed known malware. Do you run a program called 'Ad-Watch'? I ask because several people on other forums have reported this problem when running Ad-Watch. I would strongly advise you back up any important data you have to an external hard drive, USB pen drive, etc before we try to tackle this problem. Do you either have the recovery CD that came with your computer, or the CD that you created from its recovery partition?

farmski, This has become a bit of a mess from our point of view. If you are already copying folders using a method you have tried yourself, without our advice, then the possibility that the drive may fail altogether is now more likely, and you have decreased your options for more controlled data recovery. Hiren's boot cd contains unregistered versions of commercial programs, and we therefore cannot offer any more support on this subject if you have used such software. All I can advise at this stage is that you keep trying to retrieve your data, and wish you all the best with it. This thread is now closed due to violation of Forum Rules 3 & 4.

The startup screen, depending on which distro you are using, will display a list of procedures necessary for the operating system to load and function correctly, with [Pass] or [Fail] beside them as you describe. It sounds like X is loading too quickly for you to read the output of this. You could try viewing a different tty consol, by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 during the startup process. This should take you to a simple bash shell login. I think the default tty for most distributions is F6. So if you wanted to get back into Gnome once your computer has started, press Ctrl-Alt-F6. Have you checked your system log to see if any errors are reported there? Your other problem with the beep code sounds hardware related. Do you have the manual for your motherboard? It should contain a list of beep codes that you can look up to find out where the problem may be.

Hi DECSGROVE, When you changed to your new router, did you also change the wireless receiver you use? I ask because this sounds like a like driver issue. Blue screens of death are usually caused either by faulty hardware, or driver problems. In this case I would guess that a new driver you installed for a wireless receiver is to blame. The first thing to try is updating the driver for your wireless receiver. This can be found on the manufacturers website. Let us know if that solves your problem.

Hi farmski, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. This definitely sounds like a bad situation, but there may be some hope yet. First we'll need to know the file system that the affected hard drive uses. Is it NTFS, or FAT32? Did this just seem to happen, or was it after you installed any updates, a new program, etc? One important thing: Don't write any new data to the drive, such as copying files to it. This may affect your chances of file recovery if you have to try it.

Well, there is one other thing you could try. The idea will be to create a new user account, with a hopefully new and complete start menu, and then copy this across to your own account. First you will need to create a new administrator account. Do the following: 1.Click Start and click Control Panel. 2.Click User Accounts and Family Safety. 3.Under User Accounts, click Add or remove user accounts. 4.Click Create a new account. 5.Type in any account name you want. Select the account type: Administrator. 6.Click Create Account. NOTE: make a note of these instructions before you log off. Once you have done this, click Start, and click the small arrow to the far right of the shutdown button, and select 'Log Off' You should see your new account in the welcome screen. Select it and it will bring you to the desktop. Now we need to copy your programs folder onto the C:\ Drive so your other account can access it. Right-click on the desktop, and create a new folder. Right-click on the start menu, and select 'Open all users'. Once this window appears, press Ctrl-A to select all, and then Ctrl-C to copy. Open your new folder on the desktop, and then press Ctrl-V to paste the contents of the start menu into it. If everything worked so far, then open 'Computer' from the start menu, and double-click your C: drive. Drag your folder from the desktop into the C: drive. Press continue at any prompts that appear. Now you can log out of this account, and log back in to your old one. Once there, open Computer again, go into the C: drive, and find the folder you copied. Open it, and press Ctrl-A to select all, and then Ctrl-C to copy. Right-click on the start menu, and select 'Open all users', and then press Ctrl-V to paste. Hopefully this works, let us know how you get on.