Windows 7: freezing

my windows 7 64 keeps freezing. it seems to be random now, but can hang at 3 seconds or days. i run the ultimate troubleshooter and it tells me that several items that are important to windows cannot be found.

lsass.exe
sppsvc.exe
spoolsv.exe

all are in the system32 directory. when i go to the system32 folder, i find all of these files, however the names have been changed- all of the .exe extensions have been dropped. i assume that means they are not working.

my system has been problematic since i installed it last year. it was infected at one point, but i did find the trojan and kill it. it still required a repair of windows. windows then worked great until about 2 months ago. i am not infected currently- i have run numerous scans. i repaired windows again 2 days ago, but the same problem remains. it is very frustrating.

thanks in advance for any help.

michael

You may want to run SFC /scannow

See SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker For More Information

Hope This Helps,
Josh

Download a copy of Malwarebytes (free), open it, update it, and run a quick scan.

Your are correct about those files. Without the .sys extension, they will not load.

i have run malwarebytes numerous times and it finds nothing. not even in safe mode. btw, it will not freeze in safe mode, if that helps.

thanks.

michael

Not freezing in the safe mode indicates that something is conflicting in a normal boot. Safe mode only loads minimal, basic drivers. I agree with Josh; run SFC/scannow and let's see if it repairs those files. Those are MS driver files.

In Control Panel > File Options, is the Hide known file extensions option unchecked?

Open Event viewer. Type Event Viewer in the search box in the Start menu. Click on Event Viewer. Look for red errors. Lets know what you find.

running a scan now as suggested above. thanks for your help. i'll post back with results.

michael

box was checked. the extensions are there. so that is ok i guess, except that the ultimate trouble shooter does not see them.

event viewer is bleeding with red errors, but many seem to be programs that i have blocked from start up or from hard reboots. i have never found anything significant there

At least we know the files are there and intact. The box is checked by default. I always uncheck it.

OK, it was worth a try.

Run msconfig. Under the General tab, select Diagnostic Startup. Under the Boot tab, you might want to check Boot log. Apply and exit.

Reboot and see what happens with a diagnostic boot. Don't forget to change it back to the configuration you had originally.

You can also follow these instruction. Even if you don't have any dumps, maybe we can find some clues in the other information.

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

scan found nothing