Help with a friend's Toshiba laptop

[LiquidSnak]

Specs:



I'm working on the heat issue, she has no canned air, nor a vaccuum with a hose attachment. She is not exactly computer savvy, and lives 2500 miles away, so most of the suggestions I will try through teamviewer, unless I can text her simple directions.

The main problem is that windows tend to spazz out, like, the tabs go away in chrome, or the menu bar will dissappear. I have a hunch it's malware or a virus, but I was hoping for a direction to go in.

Steps taken:

I have installed MSE and removed Norton NIS 2011, AVG 2011, and McCrapfree which were all previously installed by other "helpers." She torrents a LOT of stuff, which I tried to discourage, but she will have none of it because several other bone heads have told her it's the "safest way" to get stuff. I have tried to inform her that this is incorrect, but it's not getting through. UAC is enabled, ran a full scan with MSE and Malwarebytes, and the issue went away for a couple days.

The issue also tends to go away with pressing the control or shift button, or a combination of the two. But, that issue was persistent until the malwarebytes scan. I doubt she will be all for a reinstall, and I doubt she has the media. I am currently uninstalling toshiba's OEM crapware, along with countless toolbars and the like, as well, and have disabled all but about 10 startup processes.

 

[theog]

As she torrents a lot, this could be malware or a virus.
I would reinstall Norton, than download Norton Power Eraser & Bootable Recovery Tool.
http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/overview.aspx?ssdcat=221&serviceid=81&pName=N360&origin=stmnu&env=prod&layout=esd&tooltype=both&osver=%25WINNTVER%25

 

[LiquidSnak]

I can't stand Norton, but I'll give it a try if the issue persists after another malwarebytes and MSE scan. Update: Toshiba bloatware uninstalled, SP1 installed, and windows firewall turned on.

 

[gregrocker]

You are on the right track. Some ideas:

Sometimes cleaning up bloatware damages system files: Clean up factory bloatware

See if achieving a clean boot helps:

Uncheck everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets. Then after several restarts check msconfig>Services, choose "Hide All MS services" to see what's running without your knowledge and uncheck those.

Keep checking back after restarts to see what writes itself back in and turn it off in Program prefs or uninstall.

If heat is suspected, install SpeedFan to monitor CPU temps and compare against maximum allowed for that CPU. It may need cleaning or heatsink repasting by a Pro.

Use the resources given here to check for problems: troubleshooting steps

 

[theog]

I personally only use Norton. MS leave Norton to sort out all malware & virus for them.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Overnight Memtest I will run after MSE and malwarebytes, and nothing came back on a reboot under services...