Windows installs nonfunctional files upon crashing

I'm not sure if I have two separate problems that seem to work together or if they're related somehow. When I try to play any type of movie, either online or saved to my hard drive, my computer freezes. It happens at any point during the movie, and no error messages appear, the screen just freezes. When I restart my computer, I have programs with random names (such as k8b5zy15.exe and other strings of numbers and letters) in windows/all users/ start menu/ programs/ start up. More of these programs install as I am using my computer. I just checked, and since rebooting about 15 minutes ago, 9 more have been installed. When I first reboot, my computer searches for the files and can't find them, and they don't do anything. Any ideas on either problem? Thanks.

 

Welcome to WindowsBBS!

I suggest you do some online virus scans. eTrust scanner in my signature.

RAV

Housecall

Also recommend you download both Spybot and Ad-aware, install, immediately update and run both. delete all they find.

 

Thanks, that got rid of the files. I'd done virus scans before, but they obviously didn't catch them all. Movies still cause my computer to freeze though. I've been able to play them fine in the past, and have plenty of free resources, but any player will randomly stop playing and freeze, no matter how many programs I have running in the background.

 

What virus(es) were found? Some are known to damage system files which could be affecting functionality. Have you deleted Temps and TIFs? Scandisk? Do some subsequent scans with a different scanner to be doubly sure you are not still infected. Are you up to date with windows updates? Did you run Spybot and Ad-aware? Anything else misbehaving, slowed down?

 

I had several trojan viruses. Pup.exe and over.exe were two that I had deleted before, but they came back. They seem to be gone for good now. I've cleaned out most of my temporary internet files, but I'll go through and get rid of all of them if that may help. I've run about 3 different virus scans, ad-aware and Spybot, but they haven't found anything else. Movies seem to be the only things that are having problems... The computer was sluggish until I deleted the viruses found. I've tried to get the norton updates, but there was... something... that was preventing it. Some internet glitch, if I can remember correctly. I'll try again when I get time.

 

Here are some links for you to read through. I think you'll find all you need.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/trojwinpupd.html
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=TROJ_REVOP.A
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=23650
http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?showtopic=13242
http://www.helpscreen.com.au/index.php?msgid=921867023&cid=7
http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/42106.html <<< pay attention to response #7

Should you still have problems, post back, with details of what has been done.

 

Thanks, I read through those, although I'm pretty sure I got rid of pup and over when I did the virus checks- no problems from them since Sunday, no trace of the virus. The only problem left is playing movies. I think this might have started even before I got the virus, although I'm not sure of the dates for either problems' origins.

 

From what I've read to date, Windows Media Player is the only player affected by these viri, and deleting the file wmplayer.exe and reinstalling MP, either by download from Microsoft (MP 7.1 for 98 First Edition, MP 9.0 for 98 SE), or another trusted source, or by finding the MP setup file on your harddrive and double clicking. Make sure to install Windows Critical Updates, including the ones for MP.(just go to Windows Update after reinstalling) However, I suppose it's possible that other players may have been affected also, and may need to be removed and reinstalled. (probably just the executable as with MP).

Does this happen with any movie or just particular ones, and are they stored or streamed?

 

It happens with all types of movies, stored and streamed, on any player. I'll get busy removing/reinstalling and see if that helps.

 

I realize I haven't replied for a while, but I'm going to have to bring this up again - It's driving me nuts! I've tried reinstalling windows media player, but I haven't had any success. I'm pretty sure this problem isn't linked to the virus I had - I think it started before I acquired it. Is there any other reason my computer would be doing this? Sometimes, a video will play all of the way through, but then playing it again or playing another one will freeze my computer. Most of the time, it crashes within a few seconds of playing the movie. I never receive any error messages and my computer is virus-free.