Strange Behaviour

[stonarda]

I have a home-built PC that has been running ffor some time now quite well. However, a few months ago after performing a routine disk clean-up and defragment the OS failed to start. The only way to fix this is to do a system restore via the start-up recovery part of the windows OS.

If it is of any significance, avast found a rootkit in the C drive under Xaramin's software directory, under the name dynDNS.exe (I think but not sure, definitely had DNS in the name!). Could it be an infection causing this? Disk check was supposed to be launched during boot but I have seen no evidence of it happening.

The full PC details are below:
- AMD 8350 CPU
- Gigabyte 7950 Radion HD graphics card
- 16GB RAM dual channel at 1866mhz
- Asus m5a99x motherboard
- OCZ vertex 3 120GB SSD
- Western Digital Green hard drive
- Generaic CD drive
- Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (virtualisation enabled via hotfix for bulldozer CPU's)

Any ideas of why this could be happening? Also is any more information needed?

Thanks guys!

 

[St1ckM4n]

You didn't defrag your SSD, right?

Otherwise, it may be a good idea to visit the malware forums and get your rootkit cleaned up.

 

[stonarda]

Oh no, only the mechanical drive! Do you think it is malware?

 

[St1ckM4n]

If you found signs of infection but didn't clean it up or do any checks after that, yes I do think malware could be an issue.

 

[stonarda]

I've asked the guys at the malware to check and apparently Im all clean, guess I will just have to live with it! Thanks anyways guys

 

[St1ckM4n]

I'd suggest wiping your OS and re-installing it to remove the problems. Im not familiar enough with all the tiny little files to suggest a fix.

 

[stonarda]

Thanks!!I've reinstalled the OS many a time, but the problem still exists!!!

 

[St1ckM4n]

Then you're probably looking at a hardware problem. Was this all with the one HDD?

 

[stonarda]

Oh different HDD, windows is on and SSD I've used two different models, but same issue!

 

[fimbles]

What happens when windows fails to start? do you receive any error messages, blue screens ect?

What make/model power supply do you have?

You say the problem persists after a clean install of windows on 2 different hard drives?

Restore your bios settings to default. Remove all unnecessary hard drives and perform a clean install of windows to start troubleshooting.

Let us know how you get on

 

[St1ckM4n]

Also change your SATA cable and SATA port on the mobo.

 

[stonarda]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the reply guys! Im really sorry, I can't perform a re-install on my PC because I need everything to be set as it is it. Re-installing will take a few days (upwards of around 150 programs), and many of the programs are set up correctly for my studies.

When Windows fails to start, it pops up windows failed to start and starts start-up repair, which fails. The only way t get it to boot properly is to do a system restore!

I have a 880W Power supply, brand G7 power extreme (from Maplins). It appears to perform fine when gaming or using lots of CPU. After resetting BIOS to default, and changing the cables the issue still persists!

Alex

 

[fimbles]

Have you tried running check disk?

 

[stonarda]

I have just tried it, as per the advice from broni! I am waiting for the defrag to finish before cheking to see if the PC is fixed!

 

[mailpup]

You are running a parallel thread for this problem in the Virus and Malware Removal forum. This thread will be closed until that one is completed.