Excellent suggestions! Definitely running spybot or adaware couldn't hurt at this point.

I do something similar for backups... I wrote a perl script that runs every day and copies all of my data onto a server in my basement!

And then I just now had this completely random window popup while I was trying to browse my "Documents and Settings" folder to delete all that temporary stuff:




Not sure what that'* all about. And my mouse pointer is acting a little "jerky" right now. It keeps freezing and "lagging" in place, then takes a second to catch up to the last place I moved it. Very irritating. Something weird is happening and I don't like it at all.

And by the way, I didn't have a "Local Settings" folder in the specified directory. Trying to find it right now.


EDIT: I can also send a HijackThis logfile if you guys want to see it. From what I can tell there isn't anything threatening, but I'm not completely sure.

Bah, I lost a post in there somewhere.... I'll recreate it here:


When I ran AVG Virus scan last night, it came back with three files that have "changed". They are:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\user32.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe


I also got this security alert from my firewall this morning:


Date/Time :2007-04-28 09:42:16
Severity :High
Reporter :Application Behavior Analysis
Description: Suspicious Behaviour (svchost.exe)
Application: C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
Parent: C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
Protocol: UDP In
Destination: 192.168.1.100::1033
Details: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WgaTray.exe has tried to use C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe through OLE Automation, which can be used to hijack other applications.


Any idea what'* going on here?

And finally the stats from the "All Info" request:

WGATray.exe is the Windows Genuine Advantage verifier. Probably not a virus.

As to the others, I would think that something as simple as a windows update would change these files, so I am not sure whether I would tell you to panic or not. I'll defer to our IT experts on that one. In any event, you can right click on those files, look at the version numbers, look at the file sizes, look at the file date, and google it to see if it'* a cause of suspicion or not...

Was kindof hoping to see the entire log as opposed to a screenshot of the end of the log You can copy the text of the window by right clicking on the middle of it and the selecting select all. Then press enter. This will place the contents of the window on the clipboard.

Thinking everything is fine there with the HDD, but wouldn't hurt to rule it out.

Sorry about that last one... lol. Here is the log in its entirety:


smartctl -a hda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-mingw32-xp-] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar SE family
Device Model: WDC WD800JB-00ETA0
Serial Number: WD-WMAHL1051864
Firmware Version: 77.07W77
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Sat Apr 28 11:14:58 2007 USMST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
Enabled status cached by OS, trying SMART RETURN STATUS cmd.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed

without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (2361) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off supp
ort.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 37) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_
FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always -
0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 093 089 021 Pre-fail Always -
1866
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 040 Old_age Always -
693
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 199 199 140 Pre-fail Always -
1
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always -
0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 077 077 000 Old_age Always -
16958
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always -
0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always -
0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
597
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 111 253 000 Old_age Always -
32
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 199 199 000 Old_age Always -
1
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always -
0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always -
0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000a 200 253 000 Old_age Always -
0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 200 085 051 Pre-fail Offline -
0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA
_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 569 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Looks pretty healthy. One reallocated sector in 16958 hours of use

(by the way, most western digital drives of that era have a bug when logging the power on hours value for self tests, that is why your self test says it was executed at 569 hours)

So what else could be causing the machine to hang at that boot screen? It seems like it'* running crappier than a few days ago.

Did you try the memory trick? Pull one, reboot, see what happens. Replace, pull another, repeat...

That would probably be your last free test. Power supply and mother board, as far as I know anyway, would require replacement parts to test.

And don't worry too much about spyware or a virus causing this issue (keep testing for them of course). The symptoms you describe sound like they are happening before any programs could be loading.

Speaking of loading, though, do Start>Run>msconfig Examine and/or Goggle everything on the startup tab and get rid of anything you recognize as unnecessary