Win XP machines keep crashing

[RSwire]

Hey everyone, I have a SERIOUS problem on my hands, all my XP machines keep crashing. When I start or restart all that loads is my wallpaper, no icons, no start menu, nothing. I can acess the task manager if I catch it quickly, otherwise I can't do a thing. If I get the tskmr to come up I got a svchost.exe running at about 50% or more and explorer.exe isn't even started. I first thought it was a bad OS disk(cracked of course ) so I bought an Original XP pro ( a nice legal copy ) and I still have the same problems. I ran Malwarebytes, Microsoft malware tool, scans and finds things, removes them, than all hell breaks loose, add/remove programs stops working if I can get the systems to last that long. I just don't know what is wrong and it is a recent problem I'm haveing and not sure what else I can do. I do have a couple screen shots sort of, I had to take a pic of it with phone. They are of the tskmr, you can see how much of the memory is being used by the one. If I disable the one that is highlited my icons and task bar return, but no options for connecting to my wifi and things like that. I some times get error messages stating " Windows is shutting down, NT/athurity and RPC(remote procedure call) errors than my machines will shut off and I'm back at square on. Tried stopping all non ms/windows services and running that way to see if it would boot up but that didn't work either. Any help would be AWSOME, I'm at wits end ready to smash all my machines with XP And wouldn't you know it I HATE Win7 but it is the only thing I got working and I upgraded this machine from a crashed XP and it is going strong.
Is it possible for a virus or malware to stick around even after formatting a harddrive?

[lee_hdi]

You tried scanning for viruses and adware in safe mode?

[Egren71]

If you can get into safe mode, and if you have antivirus software and anti spyware software installed then i would suggest you boot up into safe mode and run scans of both your antivirus and anti spyware software.
However viruses and spyware tend to compromise the programs that are supposed to protect against them, and some can't be found and removed while the operating system is running. But i would try to run them first first anyway.
If you can't run them in this case what you need to do is either
1. Take the hard disk out of the infected machine and attach it to another machine say as an external drive and use antivirus and anti spyware in that OS to scan it. This runs possibility of infecting this new machine which is not good, unless you have a machine that you have built especially for this purpose.
or
2 Run a live CD with antivirus and anti malware software on it. Which i would say was a better option.

A quick check on the internet gives this software which is from AVG which will boot from a live CD or USB stick and can scan your computer for viruses and it says for malware. I haven't used it although i have used AVG in the past so i can't say how good it is or what the pitfalls are. If it was me i would go for the USB version and update the virus and malware definitions before i started possibly on a clean PC. But as i said i have not used it.
There are probably other antivirus softwares that are capable of doing the same thing. Their are also some live cd linux distributions that can do the same, and i have seen in the past some stand alone anti malware products that can do the same. So i would suggest you find one you like the look of and use that one.

In answer to your other question yes there are some viruses that can stick around after a format as they live in the boot sector but decent antivirus software will find them.

[pop magoo]

hi, i've been having some boot-up problems too (vista) so i recently used a rescue CD from Avira, this will scan your PC for problems and viruses before it starts up, here is a tutorial and a download link for it,-

[Rescue CD] Tutorial for Avira Rescue CD - Tipps und Tricks - Avira Support Forum

i believe my problem is a hardware one rather than anything else so i hope you have better luck than me.

pops.

[cunny]

Hey everyone, I have a SERIOUS problem on my hands, all my XP machines keep crashing. When I start or restart all that loads is my wallpaper, no icons, no start menu, nothing. I can acess the task manager if I catch it quickly, otherwise I can't do a thing. If I get the tskmr to come up I got a svchost.exe running at about 50% or more and explorer.exe isn't even started. I first thought it was a bad OS disk(cracked of course ) so I bought an Original XP pro ( a nice legal copy ) and I still have the same problems. I ran Malwarebytes, Microsoft malware tool, scans and finds things, removes them, than all hell breaks loose, add/remove programs stops working if I can get the systems to last that long. I just don't know what is wrong and it is a recent problem I'm haveing and not sure what else I can do. I do have a couple screen shots sort of, I had to take a pic of it with phone. They are of the tskmr, you can see how much of the memory is being used by the one. If I disable the one that is highlited my icons and task bar return, but no options for connecting to my wifi and things like that. I some times get error messages stating " Windows is shutting down, NT/athurity and RPC(remote procedure call) errors than my machines will shut off and I'm back at square on. Tried stopping all non ms/windows services and running that way to see if it would boot up but that didn't work either. Any help would be AWSOME, I'm at wits end ready to smash all my machines with XP And wouldn't you know it I HATE Win7 but it is the only thing I got working and I upgraded this machine from a crashed XP and it is going strong.
Is it possible for a virus or malware to stick around even after formatting a harddrive?

What are you using to backup your files? I'd scan those before putting back onto the pc.

After an instal of windows XP (make sure you format first, not the quick option) download avast and instal. Disconnect from the internet and let it do a bootime scan of all local drives.

Just make sure all backup sources like HDD's dvd's nas drives are all scanned for viruses before you copy anything over

[apmcomp]

When I have problems with a machine booting, I remove the hard drive from the existing machine and connect it through an external drive enclosure to a machine that I know is working.

Normally, I'll at least get the data off. Then, I can put the drive back in the original machine, put in the Windows CD, boot from the CD, delete and re-create a new partition, and install windows "fresh".

This will normally work the best for any of the things I've needed to do.

[malecm]

hello. Try in manager : file-> run-> explorer.exe . Then repair system ( time point )

[Reapers]

unfornately the svhost.exe error can be caused by many things.

if you look at the service the one above you highlighted thats at 50% of your cpu and can be causing the issues.

its possible it's a memory leak.
like malecm said on task manager
file - run

cmd.exe
then type start explorer.exe to boot the os back
up

have you had any problems with windows update or software youve used?

do you get errors from event viewer?

Try these update updates first before looking at lower part.

Update for Windows XP (KB927891) - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237

restart after the updates installed for them take effect.

if still has not worked services and dlls might have to checked and redone

Method 1
Leave the svchost.exe - Application Error dialog box open, and then follow these steps.
Step1: Check whether settings for the Automatic Updates service and for the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) are correct
To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
In the details pane, locate and double-click Automatic Updates.
Click the Log On tab.
Make sure that the Local System account option is selected and that the Allow service to interact with desktop check box is cleared.
Make sure that this service has been enabled in the Hardware Profile list. If this service has not been enabled, click Enable to enable the service.
Click the General tab, and make sure that the Automatic option is selected in the Startup Type list. Under Service status, click Start to start the service if it is not already running.
Repeat steps 2 through 6 for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).

Step 2: Reregister Windows Update components
To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL, and then press ENTER.
When you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message, click OK.
Type the following commands in the Open box, one after the other, and then press ENTER after each command:
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL

[RSwire]

hi, i've been having some boot-up problems too (vista) so i recently used a rescue CD from Avira, this will scan your PC for problems and viruses before it starts up, here is a tutorial and a download link for it,-

[Rescue CD] Tutorial for Avira Rescue CD - Tipps und Tricks - Avira Support Forum

i believe my problem is a hardware one rather than anything else so i hope you have better luck than me.

pops.

If you can get into safe mode, and if you have antivirus software and anti spyware software installed then i would suggest you boot up into safe mode and run scans of both your antivirus and anti spyware software.
However viruses and spyware tend to compromise the programs that are supposed to protect against them, and some can't be found and removed while the operating system is running. But i would try to run them first first anyway.
If you can't run them in this case what you need to do is either
1. Take the hard disk out of the infected machine and attach it to another machine say as an external drive and use antivirus and anti spyware in that OS to scan it. This runs possibility of infecting this new machine which is not good, unless you have a machine that you have built especially for this purpose.
or
2 Run a live CD with antivirus and anti malware software on it. Which i would say was a better option.

A quick check on the internet gives this software which is from AVG which will boot from a live CD or USB stick and can scan your computer for viruses and it says for malware. I haven't used it although i have used AVG in the past so i can't say how good it is or what the pitfalls are. If it was me i would go for the USB version and update the virus and malware definitions before i started possibly on a clean PC. But as i said i have not used it.
There are probably other antivirus softwares that are capable of doing the same thing. Their are also some live cd linux distributions that can do the same, and i have seen in the past some stand alone anti malware products that can do the same. So i would suggest you find one you like the look of and use that one.

In answer to your other question yes there are some viruses that can stick around after a format as they live in the boot sector but decent antivirus software will find them.

I might have got it sorted out, Thanks all. I picked up a nasty virus somewhere the name was WIN32/Almanahe, nasty little thing, it infested EVERY thing it could, it was running in the boot sector, had to reformat all machines and install antivirus( Nortons) before I did anything else, it found it killed it in everything I got. Took along time to get it all clean but now all is good. Again thanks to all!!!

And I will be downloading that "live" antivirus program for future insurance/issues.