More Computer Issues

[dagun]

I mentioned I had some computer issues in a post I made yesterday, and I briefly talked about this in another post about a month ago. I thought I had solved the problem but now something new has occurred. To summarize I got a virus. I did tons of virus scans and restored my computer to an earlier date and it seemed to be fine.

Soon after I started getting an error message. For example, I use Google Chrome. I have uninstalled it multiple times. Every time I re install it I get to use it for about about 15 minutes (After about 15 minutes the program will crash) or until I close the program. Then next time I try to open it I get this same error message. This seems to happen with a lot of programs, but it seems like it doesn't happen with the default programs (ie. Internet explorer). I have tried installing to a different directory with the same result, and from what I read online the specific path is not the actual problem. This is not a permissions error, I am running as administrator and these programs have run successfully before.

I did a little digging online and I found that 90% of the time you just need to run a virus scan. Seems like a pretty simple fix, but when ever I attempt to run a virus scan I get that same error. I have tried installing multiple virus scanning programs, but about a minute into the scan they will crash and if I try to open it again I get the same error. I have tried running in safe mode and I get the same result. It also seems to block McAfee from doing its automatic scans.

Anyone know how to fix this?


Error Message (Windows 7) -

Spoiler: show

PROBLEM 1.png (10.26 KiB) Viewed 5184 times

McAfee Error -

Spoiler: show

PROBLEM 2.png (31.44 KiB) Viewed 5184 times

[fl00d3d]

Moved to 'Help Desk'.

Just because you're an administrator doesn't mean you can't have a NTFS permission issue. For example: I can set a folder to DENY access to Administrators (as an Administrator) and then it wouldn't let you in. Usually with the error you're getting it is because a permission is MISSING. Go to the folder permissions and see what's there (or what's not). I'm willing to bet it is a permission error. Probably a missing Administrator or System entry.

Your McAfee error could be related as well. If it goes to scan a folder it doesn't have access to, it may crash. I'm not entirely sure how McAfee would handle that.

[danpaul88]

Sounds to me like you might still have gremlins in your system f*cking around with the NTFS permissions... something running in the background which, every X minutes, goes and modifies the permissions of a given set of folders to deny you access...

This is typical virus behavior, especially the kind that pretends to be a virus scanner and suddenly pops up ads to 'fix' your computer for $$$... if you pay, it will either do nothing or it will undo the file permission changes. Setting the permissions to deny is a good way to convince computer novices that their system is broken and needs fixing


McAfee probably crashes because it just assumes that the SYSTEM account (under which its scanning engine service likely runs) has access to anything on the PC and doesn't bother to handle the permissions failures. On a normal installation this is not an unjustified assumption, since SYSTEM normally does have access to everything, but its still bad design to make the assumption.

EDIT: Looking at your screenshot... McAfee isn't actually crashing, although it could be a lot more specific about WHAT the problem was (ie: the file it last tried to access, the result of the access attempt etc)

[dagun]

This is typical virus behavior, especially the kind that pretends to be a virus scanner and suddenly pops up ads to 'fix' your computer for $$$...

That is the type of virus I ran into. Do you know any way to fix this?

[fl00d3d]

Did you check the NTFS permissions?

[dagun]

Alright so after a lot of searching I found what I was looking for.

Spoiler: show

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=197645

This explains my exact problem and a very lengthy way of how to fix it. I don't have the energy at the moment to do all of this but I think this will fix my problems when I do get around to doing it.