Okay, I couldn't really get the descriptive title down, because well.. I'll just describe all of my symptoms.
First thing I noticed is other computers on the network no longer can access the root directory of my shared folders to see what folders are BEING shared. However, knowing the name to any shared folder, you can still access them perfectly fine. Just not get a list of all of them at once anymore.
Next thing I noticed was my Task Manager. It opens just fine, sure. However, the processes screen is completely grayed out. And it's not from needing to double-click the border or anything, I can switch through the tabs fine. The only thing wrong is when I switch to the Processes Tab, the list of running processes between the tabs at the top and the radio box "Show processes from all users" + "End Process" button is not there. It's simply a blank area the color of the rest of the border.
So I tried to run HijackThis. Doesn't work. I moved it and renamed it. It opened this time, but closed almost instantly. The same goes for msconfig, regedit, etc.
Starting to get annoyed, I rebooted into Safe mode. Everything is exactly as it is in normal mode: no access to processes in task manager, many helpful programs will not run no matter what I do, etc. I honestly have no clue at this point what's going on, it's gone beyond my knowledge.
So I start up Firefox and go to google. My first search was fine, but I forget what keywords I used. My next attempt, I included the word virus, and the moment I hit enter (or clicked the submit button, I went through this a lot), my browser closes. So I load up Internet Explorer, just to check the same search. Closed instantly when I did the search. I've since found two more words that close my browser instantly when googling: monitor & security
I actually found 'monitor' on accident because I was using FTP to transfer files a bit ago and one of the file names was something like "al_lhmonitor_tel". Everytime that file tried to transfer, the FTP client would be closed. I reopen it and move that file further down the qeue, the other files transfer fine, until that file is reached again. Closed. Renamed it, transferred it fine. And I have moved this file before across via FTP when it worked fine, about 16 days ago or so.
Well, I think I have mentioned everything that I know so far. I've never had to actually ask for help because I've always been able to find it before, so this is a first. Anything you need I can provide quickly, whether it be screenshots, video recordings of it going on, whatever. I do this stuff normally, so it's not an inconvenience. It just seems like anything I try to do to even identify what the problem is has been thwarted before I ever got to that point.
PS: Adaware 6, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot Search and Destroy could not find anything.
Edited to add more stuff: Doug's emergency utilities does me no good. Also, I've tried using Process Explorer. Closed the instant it opens, safe mode or not.
Also, I believe this computer is being used in a DoS attack. My other computers started timing out earlier, but the moment I pulled the plug on this one (just the ethernet, not power ), everything else ceased to time out.
First thing I noticed is other computers on the network no longer can access the root directory of my shared folders to see what folders are BEING shared. However, knowing the name to any shared folder, you can still access them perfectly fine. Just not get a list of all of them at once anymore.
Next thing I noticed was my Task Manager. It opens just fine, sure. However, the processes screen is completely grayed out. And it's not from needing to double-click the border or anything, I can switch through the tabs fine. The only thing wrong is when I switch to the Processes Tab, the list of running processes between the tabs at the top and the radio box "Show processes from all users" + "End Process" button is not there. It's simply a blank area the color of the rest of the border.
So I tried to run HijackThis. Doesn't work. I moved it and renamed it. It opened this time, but closed almost instantly. The same goes for msconfig, regedit, etc.
Starting to get annoyed, I rebooted into Safe mode. Everything is exactly as it is in normal mode: no access to processes in task manager, many helpful programs will not run no matter what I do, etc. I honestly have no clue at this point what's going on, it's gone beyond my knowledge.
So I start up Firefox and go to google. My first search was fine, but I forget what keywords I used. My next attempt, I included the word virus, and the moment I hit enter (or clicked the submit button, I went through this a lot), my browser closes. So I load up Internet Explorer, just to check the same search. Closed instantly when I did the search. I've since found two more words that close my browser instantly when googling: monitor & security
I actually found 'monitor' on accident because I was using FTP to transfer files a bit ago and one of the file names was something like "al_lhmonitor_tel". Everytime that file tried to transfer, the FTP client would be closed. I reopen it and move that file further down the qeue, the other files transfer fine, until that file is reached again. Closed. Renamed it, transferred it fine. And I have moved this file before across via FTP when it worked fine, about 16 days ago or so.
Well, I think I have mentioned everything that I know so far. I've never had to actually ask for help because I've always been able to find it before, so this is a first. Anything you need I can provide quickly, whether it be screenshots, video recordings of it going on, whatever. I do this stuff normally, so it's not an inconvenience. It just seems like anything I try to do to even identify what the problem is has been thwarted before I ever got to that point.
PS: Adaware 6, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot Search and Destroy could not find anything.
Edited to add more stuff: Doug's emergency utilities does me no good. Also, I've tried using Process Explorer. Closed the instant it opens, safe mode or not.
Also, I believe this computer is being used in a DoS attack. My other computers started timing out earlier, but the moment I pulled the plug on this one (just the ethernet, not power ), everything else ceased to time out.