Sudden Reboot followed by unability to run any programs

Hello SF!

I just ran into a problem that seem to be very simular to the one described in this thread: No programs open/start

Difference is I havnt had any virusproblems, havnt tamperd with any drivers recently and havnt installed any new software or hardware for several months. I was just doing nothing in particular when my Dell Laptop suddenly rebooted. When it then started up, I noticed a very long delay just before the windows 7 startup logo appears with just the "windows starting" text being presented (In safe mode the same delay appears just after loading hal.dll). The reboot in total took about 60 seconds more than the 15-20 seconds it usually need. I directly noticed that none of my autostarting applications (nothing fancy, dropbox, mIRC and winamp-agent) had started. *aha, virus!* I thought and directly went for avast! to do a scan, avast didnt start. I tried Lavasofts ad-aware with the same reponse, and same with Total Commander. I checked taskmgr and saw no new processes and then promtly turned of internet and went to safe mode to scan.

In safemode I have the same problem, no applications run, when I run one it eventually pops up in taskmgr for a few seconds before dissapering. The only applications that run are microsoft ones like calculator, regedit, paint (yay!), notepad, Internet Explorer and other stuff integrated in windows 7, Mediaplayer will for example not run. Another difference is that if ending the explorer.exe process, explorer dont automaticly self-restart and when trying to start it manually from run, it still won't.
I have tried windows clean boot without success, system restore wount work giving me the msg that whatever restore point I choose, it tries for about 10 minutes and then reboots and says the restore point was deleted during the restoring (!).

As I said, no strange new processes around. Hard Drive checks in fine. System is fairly new (about a year). last windows update was 3 days ago installiling some critical update. The cpu aint overheated. I also tried to see if the same problem apears when I create a new user wich is the case.

So please SF, any clues?

TY very much

I just wanted to clairify, the sudden reboot wasnt a BSOD. Screen just went black for 2-3 secs and computer then rebooted to bios. I did though get a sudden BSOD in safe mode calling for an IRQ issue when troubleshooting but it can also come from me removing some usb devices during reboot as a memory stick.

Hi Rhub and welcome to the Forum. It looks as though you have done a number of proper things to find you problem. Good work. Have you scanned for malware?
A product many of here at the Forum use is called Malwarebyes and is a free download. See link below. Download and install, use the Update tab to make sure use have the latest database and then do a Full Scan. If it finds anything just follow the prompts. Get back and let us know.

Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.50.1 - FileHippo.com

Cheers
JohnnyA

Hello Johnny and thanks for your very fast reply. I have several antivirus and malware scanners (lavasoft ad-aware notably) but as I stated in my first post. No applications not integrated in windows 7 will run, not even in safemode. I will try malwarebytes though, but I think it will give the same result. Ill get back to you right away with an answer

yep negative reply, it didnt run, not even in safe mode.

Wow that is strange. While I am by no means an expert, the fact the you cannot run any of your Virus/Malware programs, and System Restore failes oddly, still makes me think of Malware. I have seen this behavour before. Have you tried any of the on-line Virus Scanners available? There are several such as TrendMicro Housecall, Bitdefender, Kaspersky etc. Also, boot to safe mode, find the Malwarebytes .exe file and rename the extension to .com and then try to run that renamed program by double clicking on it.
Get back to us. We have many much more experienced members at the Forum and I am sure they will jump in with wise advice.
JohnnyA

TY again for your reponse. I'll try the .com method right away (didnt know about that one!) Ill get back asap

Trendmicro housecall gave me the following reponse: An error has prevented trend micro from running on your computer: (E:1082066538:0)

renaming the malwarebytes to .com (with the DOS commandprompt rename command) worked, running it still gave the same result (not launching). I did though get a bluescreen when booting to safe mode and this is the bluescreen:

BCCode: 1e
BCP1: FFFFFFFFC0000005
BCP2: FFFFF80001E628EF
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 000007FFFFFA0000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Wow, with my limited knowledge, I am running out of ideas. Again a program "Trendmicro" is not being allowed to scan your hd???? Malware???
By the way, did you create a set of Recovery DVD's that as a last resort you can restore your system back to Factory, or directly from the Restore Partition?

Any chance your Hard Drive could be virus/malware scanned on another system?

JohnnyA