Spybot and Ad Aware and desktop are all locking up?

The last week or so I was occasionally having problems of my whole desktop locking up. I regularly run maintenance programs every 2 weeks such as Norton SystemWorks, CWShredder and Pest Control which run ok. But when I ran my usual Spybot and AdAware they both locked up which has never happened (last run on 10/19). I've run them both several times and they lock up at different places each time.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I guess I could try a restore but I'm not sure how far back to go. I'm running XP-Home behind a router.

 

well i suppose i shouldn't ask this question, but i will: are you running those programs at the same time? if so, you need to run each program individually. when one finishes, then you start the other one. now, you have norton systemworks, so i think you have an anti-virus in that as well. you should have the anti-virus turned off, as norton has a way of "mucking" things up a bit.

 

Hello robls99,

My take on this is that at some point, one of the maintenance programs took out reg entries/files that is causing this.

Another point: CWShredder should NOT be used unless there is a problem, bad idea to run it as a maintenence process.

From what you're writing, you should do a restore to about 2 weeks ago, maybe a little earlier, or go though the maintenance backups (if kept) and restore those and go from there.


Regards - Charles

 

They are run separately, of course. I've never had to turn Norton off and never had a problem before. Also, I was incorrect on my original post in that Pest Control locks up also. I also tried them all in Safe Mode but that didn't help.

 

Hi robls99,

I don't think this a NAV problem either, but for the sake of eliminating any question, turn it off and try.

I also tried them all in Safe Mode but that didn't help.
That reinforces my original thought, either a missing reg entry(s) or a corruption in the OS - in safe mode no apps running including NAV, just the OS and drivers.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks guys for your response. It turned out that the cpu fan was acting up and overheating. Maybe it was only a coincidence that Spybot ran ok. I replaced the fan and everything seems to run ok now.

 

LOL - makes life exciting anyway

Thanks for the post back.

Regards - Charles

 

Charlesvar,

Can I ask why you shouldn't run CWShredder unless you think you have a problem, even in just scan mode? Just curious. Thanks.

 

Hi Tony,

There is NO danger in using cwshredder in any mode at any time.
Disagree because there is a history of higher than normal false positives with this program - the cws varients change so quickly.

If it does find cws - it should be double/triple checked before attempting removal.

If its used as an indicator of possible problems, fine, but I wouldn't let it fix anything w/o checking very thoroughly.

Regards - Charles

 

Good to know about the false positives. Same principal as anti virus software telling you that you are infected with a virus etc. Sometimes false positives do occur( for example, sometimes when virus definitions are updated. ) I do the triple check and research before doing anything.

Thanks for the info.