Strange symptoms of Win 7. Possible infection or hacker???

I hope somebody might be able to help in any way before I set about doing a complete reinstall of Win 7.

I am trying to resolve some issues on my fathers Pc as follows:

1, Initially he was getting a constant pop up on each boot saying that windows was not genuine and required activation.
The software is genuine and had already been activated.
A check in control panel/system shows 'windows activated'

2, Then the updates started to fail. They would download but then on restart when the updates would be configuring it would then say 'updates failed, reverting to previous....'
The Pc would then reboot and on start up say updates were available to download (the same ones previously). Attempting this again just ended in a constant loop which was only broken when I select updates to never.
I tried running the update troubleshooter which would say the updater was then fixed but it made no difference.

Downloading the microsoft fixit program also failed as it would not even run.

3, Some more delving and I also found,
The system restore tab from 'system' is missing.
Typing 'create a restore point' does not open restore.
Navigating to rstrui.exe in system32 wont launch.
Also services.msc wont launch at all.
I can see that the updater service is stopped but cannot restart it.

4, Running repair from both bios bootup and from the Win 7 DVD has failed to fix any issues.

5, Sfc /Scannow found issues but could not repair them

6, Chkdsk failed to find any issues

7, Avast antivirus and malwarebytes have not found any issues

ALTHOUGH my dad fell foul of an email hoax with an attachment he opened.

I suspect this could have been a virus.

I have tried numerous other things found on the internet but to no avail.

Im left now with reinstalling the OS unless any of you clever people have any idea's of anything else to check.




***Apologies if this is in the wrong section***

TableLeg, My personal recommendation would be after you have copied all the files that you wish to save to an external usb drive, then a boot of the windows 7 dvd. Remove the existing partitions and do a complete install of the OS. this way, if you only do a restore or upgrade, it will carry some bad guys with it.

It will most likely be the path of less aggrivation, although some will advise other methods. A clean install usually will put you on a level playing field.

Rich

no thanks

TableLeg said:

Thanks Rich for the reply.

Do you think it sounds like a virus infection?

Tableleg, you seem to already have run Malwarebytes and found nothing but it is not a 100% av.

My recommendation will most likely be less aggrivation. I know some that want you to run all kinds of external program all of which take valuable time and care to make sure that you follow directions to the penny.

My solution most times will take you less time and get you on the path to a working system without downloading any external programs.

It is a matter of personal preference which method you use and My take on it is that you have or had a virus that changed some of your priveleges or files.

Bottom line: Read all the recommendations and then proceed with whichever procedure you think will be the less aggrivation. And get you back on track soonest..

Rich

richnrockville said:

TableLeg, My personal recommendation would be after you have copied all the files that you wish to save to an external usb drive, then a boot of the windows 7 dvd.

Remember to scan your files for malware once you have copied them.

Regardless of the method you use to fix your problem, once your PC is running properly, create a backup HDD image.
Re-imaging a PC is a lot faster, than reinstalling everything "from scratch".

Tutorials
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Imaging with free Macrium

I prefer to use Macrium Reflect.