Problems with browsers crashing

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 23 Jul 2014 3:06 pm

My Dell desktop is having some severe problems. When I would open Chrome, or Firefox, they would crash within a minute after firing up. The error message was that windows encountered a problem with the program and had to close it. Then I was getting the "blue screen of death". After 2 or 3 times of that, and trying safe mode, as well as reverting to an older time when stuff worked, now when I click on an icon for any of the 5 browsers, they don't open. The mouse pointer just sits with the hour glass. It's been about 10 minutes now, and Chrome hasn't opened. It is totally locked up now. I can't even pull up Task Manager.

This is an Xp computer. My problems all started immediately after I renewed my subscription to Trend Micro Titanium Internet security. Everything worked fine prior to that. In fact, Trend has crashed a couple of times.

Any idea of what happened?

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 23 Jul 2014 3:12 pm

Something new just cropped up. I tried to open a different program that wasn't a browser. This message came up:

This system is shutting down. The shutdown was initiated by NT Authority....

The error window disappeared before I could get the rest of it.

At almost the same time, Malwarebytes crashed. This was the same old "Malwarebytes has encountered an error and needs to shut down"

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 23 Jul 2014 9:32 pm

Gosh, your PC is seriously infected and the malware has corrupted critical system files. I'm sorry Richard, but a reinstall of Windows may be necessary.

Try in in-place upgrade, booting from your latest version of XP. An in-place upgrade reinstalls the operating system and drivers, but leaves your personal files and installed programs mostly intact.

You may need to call Microsoft on the phone to reactivate Windows after the in-place upgrade.

If an in-place upgrade doesn't fix the problem, a full format and install may be necessary. Trend Micro didn't cause your problem. A bootkit or rootkit probably did. This is serious shit.

You can get professional one-on-one help on the Malwarebytes help forum.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Jul 2014 8:07 am

I ran Malwarebytes and it didn't find anything. But I recently replaced my video card in preparation to upgrade to Win7. Turns out that it is the driver that the card was using. I out the old card back in and it's doing fine now. It's strange that the problem didn't pop up sooner. The card has been in there for about 2 weeks, before my Trend update. I know it wasn't Trend, but for the past few years I renew, and my computer starts doing weird stuff that I have to go in and fix. I keep threatening each year to try another brand, but after I get the few problems solved, Trend works fine.

I have a new Hard drive on the way to put in my computer to install Win7 on. I'll put the new video card in when I first do the install. Well, I have to put it in, because the only thing that failed when I ran Microsoft's Win7 compatibility wizard, was the video card. If Win7 doesn't work on my computer, then I have the old hard drive still intact and can get my computer back to where it is right now.

What is strange is, that I couldn't even download the driver for the card, or get it to install from the CD. Everything would start to install, but fail. Hopefully, Win7 and the new video card will work out.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 24 Jul 2014 8:45 am

I'm happy that you figured out the problem without having to do a reinstallation of the OS.

When the new hard drive arrives, do the following things:

Empty out temporary and unnecessary files. CCleaner does a great job at this. It can also check the Registry for references to missing paths of files that are gone and other clutter.
If you don't use CCleaner, use the built-in Windows Cleanup program, but don't allow the option to compress old files.
With junk files deleted and the recycle bin emptied, run a full defragmentation on the C disk.
Schedule a Checkdsk error checking operation at the next boot-up. This will check for and fix certain hard disk errors, like cross-linked files that can happen during bad shutdowns.
After you get back into Windows, go to Control Panel > Backup and Restore (concealed under System and Security in "Category" view.
Use the link on the left to create a System Image and save it to a different drive, large enough to hold about the full used size of your C drive (excludes free, unused space). It will shrink down by 50% or so when the image is complete.
Alternately, use Acronis True Image to save a system image to the external drive.
The new drive may or may not come with a stripped down version of True Image, set to clone your existing drive onto the new one. If included, use it.
If the new drive didn't include True Image, create a "System Repair Disk" from Windows, or, an Acronis bootable restore disk, if you use that program.
Power down and unplug the computer. Open the case.
Install the new hard drive and connect it to power and the motherboard.
If you will be cloning the new disk with supplied bootable cloning media, leave the old drive connected, insert the cloning disk into an optical drive and power up the computer. Check your BIOS to ensure that the optical drive boots first, or it will simply boot into Windows with nothing done.
Boot into the cloning program, accept the recommended options and proceed. When done, unplug the old drive, but perhaps leave it in the case for emergency use.
If you are going to clone using a saved Windows image, reboot tapping F8 and go through the recovery options until you find the link to restore from a saved image. The location must be accessible from a raw boot (physically connected). Choose the last image you created and proceed to restore it to the new disk (Careful!).
If using Acronis, boot from the Acronis bootable disk and find your save .tib image file, then run a clone onto the new disk. This transfers everything, including the disk ID and Windows activation.

Good luck Richard. Let us know how it goes.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Jul 2014 9:41 am

My plan of attack is:

1. I don't really need to back up the C drive I am removing, as nothing will be happening to it, although I will take your suggestion and run Ccleaner right before taking it out. I do backup all my drives to a 2tb external on my desktop. Even the internal and external drives I have on my laptop.

2. Install a new install of Win7 Professional on the new drive.

3. After I get Win7 installed on the new drive, I can remove my slave hard drive and put in the one I took out as the slave drive. Then start copying over any data/files folders/files. This will be good, as I have installed several programs that I don't use any more. I hardly ever keep anything really important on the drive with the OS. Learned the hard way, several years ago, that your dead if your HD crashes. I have a slave drive on this computer where critical files go, and even most of the Applications I install.

4. After verifying that Win7 is going to work on my computer (maybe the Microsoft compatibility checker miss something else besides the video card), I can start re-installing all my programs, as I am sure they need to be re-installed to be able to get the files & info needed to put in the registry and Windows System directory.

So, if Win7 doesn't fly on this computer, I can always put the old drive back in and everything should be the same as it was before trying too update to Win7.

I don't use Acronis, but I have a backup program that is set to back up each of my drives on a certain night of the week for each.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Jul 2014 10:11 am

Since this is a Dell, I remember Jack Stoner telling me that after installing a new hard drive (my C drive has crashed and become unusable before), that I first need to boot up and run the utilities disk. It contains drivers, and software for the Intel chip set.

Am I remembering this correctly?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Jul 2014 11:13 am

You don't need to do it for Windows 7. Just connect the PC to the internet and then install Windows 7. All the hardware that is compatible (including chipset drivers) will be installed. If you are lucky, Windows will install drivers for all the hardware.

After installation, the sound will need the correct driver, if one is available. A Vista driver will work on Win 7 but an XP driver will not, even if its installed in an XP compatibility mode. Vista/Win7/Win8 handle some sound functions differently than XP and the reason the XP sound drivers are not compatible.

Back to the sound driver. If the sound chip is compatible, Windows will install the generic, basic function, "HD Audio Codec". This will give you playback sound but may not give you any recording sound options. That is the reason you need the correct driver, if available. On the Dell forum, we saw a lot of users installing a separate PCI sound card because the old Dell sound chip was not compatible.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Jul 2014 12:59 pm

A separate sound card was in the back of my mind. I don't drink any more, but if this all works, I might just have a beer.