Also I was wondering if you could help me with my friends laptop, he'd be posting but the problem is he can't run the hijackthis program, downloaded the .exe HJT program and once clicked on shows up in the task manager, but no HJT window appears like it should, like somethings blocking it. So i downloaded the install file and tried to install the .msi file for HJT and the install freezes everytime right at the start.
Heres some wierd things about the laptop:
-his DVD drive is intermitently not working, detects sometimes in windows Vista Home Premium 32bit, detects it always in BIOS menu, sometimes doesnt boot from the Windows Boot DVD cause of DVD drive hardware failure errors but sometimes will work (i can only guess that the DVD drive is on its last legs)
-USB flash drives don't seem to work (more USB devices to be tested soon)
-cant uninstall or uninstall programs they seem to freeze everytime (not responding and having to go into taskman and end them)
-I've tried to get into some configs like msconfig, but wont open, I can only get into CMD prompt
-It wasn't letting him into Itunes or allowing him to download anything in Chrome or in Firefox, internet Explorer seemed snail slow and like it was going to crash, but now he can download in firefox ok for some reason.
-more than one explorer.exe processes running at the same time and processor percentage high in taskmanager but the processes arent showing a sign of drawing that much processing power. when I add up the CPU percent of the processes in the task mananger its at 20 - 42 percent total at times, but at the bottom of the taskmanager window its showing like 70 - 80 percent, I think it could be a process hider tool perhaps a virus?
Due to all these crazy things happening I thought I'd try to get an anti virus on there cause he said he had crazy problem with windows live one care and he took it off or tried to, seem to be there still. Tried, AVG for free, avast for free, failed install attempts, Got malwarebytes on though, but during a quick scan 5 seconds in it stopped responding.
He thinks he would like to reinstall windows, but the problem is we got to back up his stuff and cant if we cant get USB or DVD drive working
any suggestions for me and my friend so we can get HJT going and maybe some other advice on what to do would be great! thanks