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odd win 7 issue

gallandof

gallandof

Android Expert
not sure whats the main cause here, but my grandmothers PC wont open programs after shutting one down. but after about an hour of non activity (but being on) it will let you open another one.

so essentially IE is opened and closed. nothing can be opened for an hour or until a reboot.

tried running anti virus/spyware/malware and nothing negative came up.

trying to avoid a reformat as much as possible.
 
yeah went back 1 month to the oldest she had. what doesnt help is she doesnt know wether or not it was happening before that.

i threw in my ubuntu live cd and everything worked fine there so that in my mind rules out any hardware conflicts.


her system is a intel i3 processor, 4 gb DDR3 ram, geforce 210 card, 1tb hard drive. 650w PSU, (was a good barebones deal i found so built it for her)
 
gallandof said:
yeah went back 1 month to the oldest she had. what doesnt help is she doesnt know wether or not it was happening before that.

i threw in my ubuntu live cd and everything worked fine there so that in my mind rules out any hardware conflicts.


her system is a intel i3 processor, 4 gb DDR3 ram, geforce 210 card, 1tb hard drive. 650w PSU, (was a good barebones deal i found so built it for her)
Click to expand...

Actually the Ubuntu Live CD will help to rule out hardware problems, except for the hard drive. You should probably run a hard drive diagnostic tool from the manufacturer.
 
gallandof said:
not sure whats the main cause here, but my grandmothers PC wont open programs after shutting one down. but after about an hour of non activity (but being on) it will let you open another one.

so essentially IE is opened and closed. nothing can be opened for an hour or until a reboot.

tried running anti virus/spyware/malware and nothing negative came up.

trying to avoid a reformat as much as possible.
Click to expand...

What malware programs did you run? I always suggest to run superantispyware then malwarebytes, then repeat.

Have you checked out the taskmanager to see if you have anything running that may be to blame?
 
x2 on Malwarebytes. Great free program.

I'd also look into CCleaner to clean up your cookies and registry.
 
+1 on using CCleaner. I manage an environment with at least 50 computers and CCleaner has solved quite a few quirky issues. It's amazing how temp files can affect a PC.
 
Gnomad said:
Actually the Ubuntu Live CD will help to rule out hardware problems, except for the hard drive. You should probably run a hard drive diagnostic tool from the manufacturer.
Click to expand...

Yep yep, I was just gonna suggest using a HDD diag tool.
 
so got it straightened out. defrag, disc cleanup etc did nothing. end up just running system recovery from my windows disc. fixed what ever the issue was.
 
1) Maybe she has Windows 7 Starter. Starter only allow 3 running apps at any given time

2) Maybe she has a bootkit. Google "Bootkit"
Here is an article on a bootkit:
http://www.stoned-vienna.com/

Basically, if you got a bootkit. No virus/malware program will detect it. It writes a small virus on your MBR (Master Boot Record). So it loads up before the Windows 7 kernel.The OS doesn't even know it was infected.

A bootkit is a boot virus that is able to hook and patch Windows to get load into the Windows kernel, and thus getting unrestricted access to the entire computer. It is even able to bypass full volume encryption, because the master boot record (where Stoned is stored) is not encrypted. The master boot record contains the decryption software which asks for a password and decrypts the drive. This is the weak point, the master boot record, which will be used to pwn your whole system. No one's secure!
Click to expand...

The scary thing, 64-bit OSes will get infected. I got a bootkit from just browsing a website with Chrome.
 
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