Blue Screen: 0x0000007B

[ParisYankee]

I tried to run the Disk Cleanup accessory to free up some HD space; and then started having a few odd things happening with my computer. It would crash when I ran the accessory, and it gives me this error code:

***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78E4524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I also now get warning notices from McAfee Security Center that there is a PUP or PRC on my computer. Neither sounds like a good thing.

I'd like to try to reformat the drive; though I'm not really sure how to do that. I tried booting with the OS CD (XP Professional Media Center); but it crashes with the same error code as above when it gets to the "starting windows" stage.

I've run through all of the virus/malware removal steps in the sticky at the top of this forum. I didn't finish the online scan (it was estimating 12 hours to run), and the third tool in Step 10 led to what seemed to be a dead link when I tried to download the file. Otherwise, all steps were completed.

The Panda Antirootkit program found nothing, and the HijackThis, SAS, and Combofix logs are all attached.

I'd like to clean the drive well enough so that I can simply reformat it (doesn't seem as though that should be too lofty a goal!). Thanks for any help you all can provide.

PY

 

[Garfield]

hey you got wat we call blue screen of death wat you need to do first is try a quick fix boot to the OS cd then when it ask you if you want a new installtion press enter or to repair windows press R you need to press R then select your OS normal 1 then your admin password when the dos screen is sitting an "C:\windows\" type chkdsk /r and hit enter this will perform a repair on windows and hopefully fix your blue screen.. email me at gdparkinson@gmail.com

 

[ParisYankee]

I've tried booting to the OS Install CD. I get to a point where I get the message, "hit any key to boot from CD" or something like that. I press a key; a series of files are checked or loaded (per the messages in the lower left corner of the screen); then it gets to "starting windows" and I receive the same blue screen message as in the original post above.

I don't mind reformatting my HD. I have back ups of all of the files I'd like to hang on to, so I'd actually prefer to reformat. It just seems as though this virus (if it is that) is preventing me from reformatting and re-installing the OS.

Any thoughts on how to manage the reformatting anyway?

 

[Blind Dragon]

It could be hardware related, usually the only infections that cause crashes are known as SDBot's please do the following if possible (can you boot to safe mode?)

Download and Install SDFix

• Download SDFix and save it to your Desktop.
• Double click SDFix.exe and it will extract the files to %systemdrive%
  (Drive that contains the Windows Directory, typically C:\SDFix)

Boot into Safe Mode

• Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard.
• Select the Safe Mode option when the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, and then press ENTER.

Run SDFix

• Open the extracted SDFix folder and double click RunThis.bat to start the script.
• Type Y to begin the cleanup process.
• It will remove any Trojan Services and Registry Entries that it finds then prompt you to press any key to Reboot.
• Press any Key and it will restart the PC.
• When the PC restarts the Fixtool will run again and complete the removal process then display Finished, press any key to end the script and load your desktop icons.
• Once the desktop icons load the SDFix report will open on screen and also save into the SDFix folder as Report.txt
• Attach Report.txt back here

 

[ParisYankee]

Thanks! I downloaded SDFix and ran it while in Safe Mode. I'm attaching the report here.

The computer doesn't crash unless I try to reinstall now. When I first started getting the McAfee warnings, the computer would crash to the 0x0000007B error above when I tried to run the McAfee virus scan, AdAware or tried to reinstall or run disk cleanup.

A few of the steps in the Malware sticky found and eliminated problems though (SAS), and after that McAfee and AdAware scans have run without any problems. I still get red McAfee warnings about PUPs and PRC Viewers, though, which I've never heard of before, and the computer still crashes to the error code above when I try to re-install the OS. Otherwise the computer runs fine.

I'm concerned that there may still be some virus there; and so I'd like to re-install the OS if I can find a way to make that work. Otherwise I may just run with things as they are and make sure not to use the machine for any purchases, banking, etc.

What are the risks of doing that? And any thoughts on how I can try to reinstall the OS?

 

[Blind Dragon]

I can try to get you to a point where you can reinstall. You don't want to do any online banking just to be safe until you format and reinstall.

Download Sophos Anti-Rootkit & save it to your desktop after filling out the questionaire and reading the EULA.

Note: You will need to enter your name, e-mail address and location in order to access the download page.

• Double-click sarsfx.exe to extract the files.
• Click the Accept button at the EULA, then Install to the default directory
• At the next prompt, click Yes to start the program
• Make sure the following are checked:
  • 
    [*]Running processes
    [*]Windows Registry
    [*]Local Hard Drives
• Click the "Start Scan" button.
• Allow the program to scan your computer - please be patient as it may take some time
• Once the scan has completed a window will pop-up with the results of the scan - click OK to this
• In the main window, you will see each of the entries found by the scan (if any)
  • If the scanner generated any warning messages, please click on each warning and copy and paste the text of it into this thread for me to review
  • Once you have posted any warning messages here, you can close the scanner and wait for me to get back to you
• If you have not had any warnings, any entries which can be cleaned up by the scanner will have a box with a green checkmark in it next to the entry
• To clean up these entries click on the Clean up checked items button
• If you accidentally check a file NOT recommended for clean up, you will get a warning message and if necessary can re-select the entries you want to clean up
• Once you have cleaned the selected files, you will be prompted to re-boot your computer - please do so
• When you have re-booted, please post a fresh HijackThis log into this thread and tell me how your computer is running now

 

[ParisYankee]

I downloaded and ran SARSFX but it came up with nothing. I reran HijackThis (renamed as "Crusty") and it provided the attached log.

I know very little about this stuff, but I've searched a bit regarding the error code with the symptoms I've noticed along the way in mind (mentioned in the post above). Is it possible that there is a boot sector virus that is preventing me from reinstalling the OS?

 

[Blind Dragon]

It is possible that it corrupted your MBR - print this out and give it a try, after I would try to format and reinstall.

Fix your MBR
1. Restart your computer with the Windows XP Setup disk in the CDROM drive.
2. If you are prompted to press a key to start the computer from CDROM, do so quickly. Otherwise it may try to boot from the hard drive.
3. After a few minutes, you'll see a prompt to press the R key to start the Recovery Console.
4. When Recovery Console starts, it will prompt you to enter a number corresponding to the Windows XP installation that you need to repair. In most cases, you'll enter "1" (which will be the only choice). If you press ENTER without typing a number, Recovery Console will quit and restart your computer.
5. Enter your Administrator password. If you don't enter the correct password, you cannot continue.
6. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type fixmbr and then verify that you want to proceed.


Your damaged MBR will be replaced with a new one, and you should then be able to boot your system normally. In some cases, you may need to repair the boot sector in addition to the MBR. If your system still doesn't boot properly, repeat the steps above, but issue the fixboot command instead.

 

[admiralrich]

0x0000007b

I got this same error installing xp on a DEll 710 xps. Reinstalling xp do not work, but installing ubunto worked. I don't know why the pc wouldn't take a windows install but it would take a linux install.

 

[Blind Dragon]

Did you try running fixboot?