Problem with duplicate smss.exe processes

[LookinAround]

Just some thoughts of things to try that might help the situation

You can't save the logfile

• Have you renamed the hijackthis.exe file to something else? Some infections look for the Hijackthis executable filename. Just wondering if infection is interfering based on filename.
• As work arounds, can you copy/paste the logfile into an email and send it to yourself? When you receive your email, can you save email? Or paste directly into your TechSpot post?
• The simple copy/paste approach assumes you are at least getting the file into notepad so copy/paste is, ummm, simple!. If you aren't even getting it into notepad, install Sysexporter. That'll let you grab the text right out of the Hijackthis window and you can then paste it somewhere else.

You can't boot into safe mode (i.e. a stable mode)
You can build your own bootable UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows) recovery CD with your own custom tools which would help if you didn't need it right now. But you do. So you might be able to use images built by others which include some removal tools that might help. You can find these online. Booting from CD should let you boot into a stable system. Then, you can

• Scan the drive with the tools on the CD or
• Try to download/run your own tool as the CD boot should include what's needed to get a network connection. However, you will be limited in what you can run because you;ve booted into a system which is running entirely out of memory. Here's a downloadable image if you can use someone's computer to burn it

 

[tomrca]

is hijack this an up to date version? how about un-installing it and getting a fresh one? try deckards systems scanner from here

from geekstogo:When ComboScan is run for the first time, it will produce a full set of logs. Each subsequent run will only produce a HijackThis log along with a file and registry dump (no restore point or cleanup is performed). If you want something else -- like the driver dump -- you will need to run ComboScan with /config. If you download and run a newer copy of ComboScan, it will produce a full set of logs again the first time the new copy is run.

 

[watercrazed]

Hi, I have tried several hijack reinstalls, and DSS. The Problems do not seem to have made it to my data files. I can back those up.

"Looking around - Those look like useful tools - I will save them for future use "

Thanks for the effort so far.

But I think that starting clean will be best solution given the nature of the remaining problems.

I am going to do a full system reformat and start clean.

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