please help.need help with destop items, start and task not showing on wallpaper

Viruses and worms
1

I need some help with my computer… my computer does not show a desktop items or startup button or taskbar …i was trying to run a virus cleaner tool like the website suggested to see if i had any virus’s on my computer but this is what the cleaner said after it ran…i just copied and pasted the words…

i actually ran two cleaners just in case the first on didnt work so this is the results of two scans i think…any words of wisdom on what i can do to restore my computer? i did do a system restore and it wont let me do a restore to fix the problem…

avast! Virus Cleaner Tool - version 1.0.211 Unicode

Creating log file: C:\Documents and Settings\Joyce\My Documents\aswclnr.log

9/7/2009, 1:47:50 PM
Memory scanning started…
No virus body found in memory.
Memory scanning finished (262.7s).

Files scanning started…
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\TEMP\avguard.tmp… file could not be scanned!
C:\Documents and Settings\Joyce\Local Settings\Temp_avast4_\unp183300135.tmp… file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CatRoot2\edb.log… file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CatRoot2\tmp.edb… file could not be scanned!
No virus body found.
Files scanning finished (52330 files, 0 infected, 3024.2s).
Drives scanned: C:

9/7/2009, 2:45:03 PM
Memory scanning started…
No virus body found in memory.
Memory scanning finished (289.5s).

Files scanning started…
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\TEMP\avguard.tmp… file could not be scanned!
C:\Documents and Settings\Joyce\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\r51cmjsi.default\cookies.sqlite-journal… file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CatRoot2\edb.log… file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CatRoot2\tmp.edb… file could not be scanned!
No virus body found.
Files scanning finished (52319 files, 0 infected, 1872.0s).
Drives scanned: C:

btw i am running windows xp sp 3 operating system…thats bout all i know about this computer

I also get a blue screen stop error where my system restarts without warning but a blue screen shows up first then it restarts on its own during different times…no warning…just restarts with a blue screen with numbers and stuff but i cant make out the numbers to tell me what it is saying…so if anyone knows anything about that

2

Hi, joysga, welcome to the forum.
It appears you have Avira installed on this system. Have you kept it updated and run a scan with it, as well? Has it warned you of any malware on your system at any stage?

(Note that you can only have one installed antivirus running. More than one can cause conflictions. The cleaner tool you have run doesn’t qualify as an installed AV; it is a demand scanner, so that is OK, in this context.)

The Avast virus cleaner is incorporated into the main program, and is useful against a few viruses that are a bit old now, it isn’t really an appropriate tool unless you know you have one of the viruses it can clean. There is a list of the worms.virus it can clean here.

I’d try a scan with the very good MBAM used by many here. Download, install it, update it, run a quick scan. Have it remove anything found, and if it prompts you to restart to complete the removal, do so promptly.
Post the scan report in your next post, unless you have questions/problems first.

3

Tarq you should see here.

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\TEMP\avguard.tmp… file could not be scanned!
C:\Documents and Settings\Joyce\Local Settings\Temp_avast4_\unp183300135.tmp… file could not be scanned!

Does his log showed that he got Avast! 4.8 and Avira installed as a Anti Virus ?

Mr.Agent

4

sorry-but yes i did download 2 different virus protectors and the first one didnt show any virus’s on my computer which was the avira antivirus scan…then i downloaded the avast scan and am currently runnning that scan now…should i go ahead and delete the avira antivirus right now?

just in case, i’ll do that anyway…i am having serious issues with my computer…but this was before i downloaded either antivirus programs…the desktop items, startup button and taskbar was not loading at all before any of this…only the desktop drive with the other drives on them…that is the only way i am able to get online because the favorites bar is on them and i can go to my homepage with the favorites file on top of the box…

any reason why only that would load and not the actual icons with the start button and taskbar(which shows the clock/date, running programs at startup, etc?

5

Yes, you need to uninstall the AV you don’t want to use. That could be a problem with no start button. Do you have any icons at all on the desktop?
Is it a possibility that the taskbar (lower) has been moved down off the desktop so is there but not visible?
Can you righ-click on the desktop, select “arrange icons by” and then check to see if the “show desktop icons” area is ticked?
If we can get the “my computer” icon up, that will provide a way in.
Another way is to press the “windows” key, if you have one (looks like the Windows logo) which should bring up the start menu.

6

Yes, you need to uninstall the AV you don’t want to use. That could be a problem with no start button. Do you have any icons at all on the desktop?
Is it a possibility that the taskbar (lower) has been moved down off the desktop so is there but not visible?
Can you righ-click on the desktop, select “arrange icons by” and then check to see if the “show desktop icons” area is ticked?
If we can get the “my computer” icon up, that will provide a way in.
Another way is to press the “windows” key, if you have one (looks like the Windows logo) which should bring up the start menu.

sorry-had to copy and paste what you wrote in order to answer your questions…no-the taskbar isnt lowered off the screen…there are no, none, nil…lol-desktop items showing on the wallpaper…only the wallpaper shows…there is a box that shows with all the items listed on my computer and i can locate the desktop that way but it is thru the file system…when i try to select a desktop item to put a shortcut on the desktop itself where the wallpaper is, it only adds another one in the file box(does that make sense?) this has been like this for about 2 weeks and i have tried everything i could do to fix the problem…did a system restore-didnt fix…actually the system restore will only go back to august 15 or so

on that file thing that does load when windows loads it will allow me to do a search in the search box and it does show a file at the top where i can access my favorites and get online that way…which is how i am accessing the internet to download different virus programs and finding ways to fix this problem…i even tried restarting in safe mode and it wont even load the desktop icons in the safe mode either…it loads the same way in safe mode…i did try a system restore in safe mode as well but it only shows system restore back to the same date as regular system restore started in regular mode…i can get to the my computer thru the search box tho if you can give me some pointers on what to do from there…so very frustrating…i know a little about computers but not much…i do know that the it will restart for no reason with some kind of blue screen but it goes away so quickly that i cant understand what it says on the screen…its been doing that for some time…seems like when i would do certain actions…not sure what actions yet…havent pinpointed them down yet that causes it to happen…i did use avg antivirus and it would do that when i would try to do a virus scan for sure on that problem tho…couldn’t get but about 20 minutes into a scan and that blue stop screen would cause the computer to restart…anything you might have knowledge to help me with on those issues?? lol-i am so frustrated i’m about ready to pull my hair out!!! sometimes when i am online it will do the blue screen restart thing too…and something when its just sitting there…never an obvious reason why it does it…

oh-it does nothing when i try to right click on the desktop …nothing shows up-like normally it would ask me if i would like to rearrange the icons, etc. but it does nothing like i didnt even right click on the wallpaper…

7

Download AVG remover from here. It will be the first download (32bit).Save it somewhere you can find it again. (I would suggest making a new folder in C: called “Tools”, and save it there. It will be easy to navigate to.)
Once it has downloaded, run it by clicking the windows key, click “run”, or type “R” and in the dialogue box that opens type (without the quotes) “C:\Tools\avgremover.exe” then click “OK”.Let it do its thing. Reboot afterward.

If you can open a particular folder on the C drive, by pressing the windows key and then “my computer”, find C:\Program files\Avira , and see if you can find a file in there ending in “.exe” with the abbreviation “unins” somewhere in the file name. You are looking for the uninstaller. If you find it, double click it. Let it do it’s thing. Reboot.

Post back and let me know if anything has improved. I think we might be in for a bit of work, here. Whatever caused this is quite likely malware related (unless another user has been messing badly with your settings) and so some of these steps might not work.

8

i’m gonna have to send three posts it looks like to be able to show you what happened when i did the avg removal tool…here is some of it… the second post will be the second part of the message…it was too long to post on one post…i dont know much about the tech part of a computer and i have no idea what this message means either about the avg remover. I also tried to run a scan with avast today and my computer wouldn’t let me run a scan …it would shut down after about 10percent into the prograrm…it was doing that blue screen restart thing again…it seem to do it with any antivirus program i use…it did it with avg too…it would only let me run a scan about 1 time all the way thru and it wouldnt after that…would restart after scanning for so long. maybe this message can give someone some idea what might be causing my computer to restart for no reason and why my desktop items are not showing up on my desktop and no start button or taskbar either…i mentioned all that in my previous posts…thanks if any one can help me sort out this problem…oh-and today it wouldn’t even let me run an update thru avast all the way thru without restarting the computer again!

i’ll post half the message on one post and the other half on another post on what the message said about the removal of the avg program…

Thanks for any help anyone can offer…
Joy

9

2009-09-08 13:47:45,854 DEBUG Avg8Uninstall\Directories key failed to open (error: e0010013)
2009-09-08 13:47:45,904 WARN AvgDir param empty.
2009-09-08 13:47:45,914 WARN AvgDataDir param empty.
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO AvgRemover runs in attempt number 1
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO ***** Services *****
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Processing service avg8emc
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Service avg8emc is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Service avg8emc RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Registry keys for service avg8emc are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Processing service avgfws8
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Service avgfws8 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Service avgfws8 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Registry keys for service avgfws8 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Processing service avg8wd
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Service avg8wd is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Service avg8wd RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 DEBUG Registry keys for service avg8wd are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,607 INFO Processing service AvgMfx86
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgMfx86 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgMfx86 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgMfx86 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgMfx64
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgMfx64 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgMfx64 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgMfx64 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgLdx86
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgLdx86 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgLdx86 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgLdx86 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgLdx64
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgLdx64 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgLdx64 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgLdx64 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgTdiX
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgTdiX is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgTdiX RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgTdiX are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgTdiA
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgTdiA is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgTdiA RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgTdiA are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgWFPx
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgWFPx is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgWFPx RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgWFPx are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgWFPa
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Service AvgWFPa is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Service AvgWFPa RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgWFPa are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,617 INFO Processing service AvgRkx86
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Service AvgRkx86 is not installed
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 DEBUG Service AvgRkx86 RegCleanup
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 DEBUG Registry keys for service AvgRkx86 are not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO ***** Registry keys and values *****
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Processing registry SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 DEBUG Value SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions:{3f963a5b-e555-4543-90e2-c3908898db71} Remove
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Value SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions:{3f963a5b-e555-4543-90e2-c3908898db71} is not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Processing registry SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 DEBUG Value SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions:{1d5287d1-8a92-0001-1f31-1cec198018d8} Remove
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Value SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions:{1d5287d1-8a92-0001-1f31-1cec198018d8} is not present
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 INFO Processing registry SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application\Avg8Alrt
2009-09-08 13:48:22,627 DEBUG Key

10

the whole file is too large to send even thru the attachment so if anyone can help me i can send them an email of the file to see if anyone can help me please!!! i’m so frustrated with this crap that i cant get anything done anymore!! cant even run a scan with avast now…

Thanks…
Joy

11

Was it AVG version 8 you had installed? Because the uninstaller is for that version, bu no remnants were found. (That’s basically what the log is saying.)

The symptoms your computer is showing, according to your description, point as much to a hardware failure as to an infection.
How long since you took it apart, blew the dust off the CPU? How old is it?

Can you access a working computer in order to download and burn a rescue disk?

12

yea- i do have access to another working computer but how would i go about making a rescue disc out of that computer for this one?? this computer is pretty old but it has been updated to the windows xp sp3 and i still have the disc for the windows xp sp2 but when i tried to reload the windows it wouldn’t let me because the windows xp that i have is only a service pack 2 edition…can i somehow delete the windows xp sp 3 back to the windows xp service pack 2 in order to reinstall that on this computer?? there is alot more to that file than what i was able to show and if i can email you that file can you tell me exactly what is wrong with it?? thank so much for the help!!!

Thank you!!
Joy

13

also - i have a computer that is alot newer than this computer but it all of a sudden wouldn’t even load windows anymore one day…i tried to reinstall the windows xp disc that i have to try to fix that problem but it wouldn’t let me do it on that computer…it is a newer one than this computer…it just goes to where it tries to load windows and then it keeps going back to loading windows over and over…never getting past the loading windows message part…what could be the cause of that happening?? i cant even get the desktop to show on that one anymore…it just happened out of the blue one day…and i didn’t have near the problems this computer is giving me on my other one…which i would rather use but at least this one lets me access online and my files…

14

If the problem persist try to format your drive C: and backup all your important files don’t forget to backup your drivers. And after all its now bang! a problem will solved…

15

A rescue disk is a bootable disk with virus recovery tools included. I’ve never used one, but it’s often a way to get a non-booting computer (that’s non-booting because of malware) disinfected and working again, without the drastic measure of formatting and reinstalling.
The link Here, by Tech, contains links to several rescue disk providers. Any would do, I don’t know which (if any) is likely to be most user friendly or effective, if it was me I’d try Avira or DrWeb first, only because I have read a success story or two about both of them. Instructions on the “how to” would be on each site linked.
Avast also has a bootable recovery disk, it’s a pay for job, available here.

To carry out a repair install using a SP2 disk, it would be necessary to uninstall SP3 first. There have been numerous updates since SP3, so I don’t actually know if that will work. Might be necessary to uninstall all updates since (and including) SP3, in reverse order. (It’s getting almost as easy to format and reinstall Windows!)

Once again, how loong since you blew the dust out of the internals?

16

No problems with quoting… but more than one is quoting an old canned text of mine.
I have changed the order of the CD suggested to a new one, as you’ve said before, Dr. Web and Avira are the first ones.

Read the instructions, download and burn (maybe from another computer), finally use one of this rescue CD’s:

  1. Dr. Web
  2. Avira
  3. BitDefender
  4. Kaspersky
  5. F-Secure
17

Thanks for the update/correction.
Hope it’s useful for the OP to get the 'pooter up again.