[joeshcosmo]

I wasn't entirely sure which forum to post this in because I have multiple problems that cover multiple areas. These could be unrelated or all parts of the same problem I'm not sure but they all happen with in a day or too.

It started with my mic not working. For some reason I assumed I had a bad mic so I went out and bought a new mic. When I plugged it in it didn't work. I tried playing with the volume settings on the volume control panel switching on and off all the different bars but nothing. So then I went into sounds and audio devices properties and checked that my sound card (sound blaster x-fi) was selected on all the devices on the audio and voice tabs. Still nothing. So I clicked on test hardware on the voice tab. At the microphone test the volume bar for microphone was jumping up and down and when I spoke into the mic I didn't get anything. I don't remember but I think the play back portion was grayed out. Up till now I had my mic plugged in the jack on the front of my computer so I tried each of the jacks on my sound card in the back (because I wasn't sure which one was the mic jack) while the microphone test was running. None of them worked and as I was tying them all of a sudden a blue screen came up saying something about my hardware malfunctioning. I then powered off my computer using the power button.

When I turned it back on at the time everything seemed to be alright if I remember correctly. I tried to figure out what happened by searching around on the internet but couldn't seem to find anyone who had the same problem as me. I tried to see if I could get my mic to record using Sound Recorder but when i did an error message came up saying "not enough memory available to complete this operation. Quit one or more applications to increase available memory, and then try again." No applications were open at the time. After that I went into a game and tried to mess with the mic settings there. I did manage to get sound but it was what seemed to be just feedback.

I had given up at the time and was playing a game when I lost all sound. Around this time I don't really remember in what order things happened. When I went into sounds and audio devices properties though all the default devices where changed. I tried updating and even rolling back the drivers for my sound card but it seemed to have no effect one way or the other. I also found a Trojan while scanning my computer. Windows XP froze up on me as well and when I tried to reboot it, at the loading screen, it would freeze and the blue bar would just stop or one time it just kept going until I finally shut the computer down. I rebooted in safe mode and removed 3 more Trojans with another program then I scanned with previously.

That pretty much leaves us with my current situation. Now 9 times out of 10 windows will freeze at the loading screen. When I do get windows to load it seems to work fine but has frozen up on me. Usually there's no sound and when there is sound it will stop working after a while and just make a high pitch constant beep sound. I have no volume control panel in my task bar usually and when I go to sounds and audio devices properties I will find one of three things. Either my sound blaster x-fi sound card wont show up at all in the "default device" drop down menus on the audio and voice tabs, or it will show up as SB X-Fi [CCE0] or SB X-Fi [FFE0]. What does the cce0 and ffe0 mean and whats the difference? I'm not sure which one I have but my moneys on cce0 because that's the one that usually shows up when the sound is working.

When I play any sound such as a CD or mp3 it will show as if it's playing and making sound in windows media player but I don't hear anything with my speakers or head phones. I have found one thing that will make sound I can hear though. When I go into Creative Diagnostics and test the speakers I hear the voice that says where the sound is coming from. For example is says "left" and the sound comes from the left speaker, it says "right" and the sound comes from the right speaker, and so on and so on. Although I can't get into Creative Diagnostics if my sound card doesn't show up on the default device drop down menus.

All in all from the day when this all started till now I've had and removed 6 Trojans. I'm not sure if any of this means anything or not but some things about the Trojans that were interesting to me was 2 of the infected files started with "C:\System Volume Information\_restore..." followed by a long string of letters and numbers. One was a .exe file and the other was a .dll file. Another Trojan had a file name of "C:\WINDOWS\system32\~.exe."

With all these problems I'm not sure what the relationship between each is if any so I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed. It all happened around the same time so that's what makes me think some of this might be related at least. Any help or insight on my situation would be very much appreciated. What I would really like to know is what would be the best way to determine what the actual problem is or what the problems are? At this point I'm leaning toward just resetting the computer back to how it was when I got it and going from there. I'd rather not just because of the hassle of reinstalling everything, but if that's my only option then that's what I'll have to do. Thanks.

[Rik]

You need to post in the malware removal forum and get rid of your malware before tackling any other problems as the malware is most likely the cause.

Trying to fix everything else while your pc is infected would probably be a complete waste of time.

[joeshcosmo]

As far as I can tell I have removed all malware. I've done the whole turn off and on system restore thing but no change. I've even ran CCleaner to try and clean/fix any registry problems I might have had. After I did that it seems Windows XP isn't freezing as much but still no sound.

[Rik]

System restore absolutely does not remove malware in any way. Indeed, if you had any kind of Trojan then its most likely it will have infected all your restore points.

You really need an expert in the malware department to examine your logs.

I have had a fair bit of experience in online malware removal, i know what I'm talking about.

[evilfantasy]

Please follow Rik's advice. System Restore is Registry based only. It does nothing for fixing System Files where the malware is also located.

[Razer]

As Rik said, post in the malware forums for this too, you might think you have removed all malware but they can ensure you have. Better to be safe than sorry!

If I were you, id back up as many of your files as you can, leaving ALL exe's, .dll and anything thats not an average file (picture, movie etc) and format.

While you are removing malware, it might be best to disconnect from the net and print out your guide, just in case the virus downloads itself from the web again.

[joeshcosmo]

Ok I have removed all malware and you were right. It seems that was my problem. Windows runs fine, I have my sound back, and I even got my mic to work. thanks.

[Rik]

I knew it. :)
My hunch was correct.