Solved Windows 7 slows/freezes on normal startup, works in Safe Mode

[Terrek]

Hello everyone,
My computer was working fine yesterday. This morning when I start it, it becomes unresponsive. The mouse works on the desktop, but nothing responds when I click them. I have restarted in safe mode, and everything seems to work. I looked under my system restore and all the restore points are gone. I ran MalwareBytes and SuperAntispyware just yesterday and neither detected anything and I have not installed or downloaded within the last few days.
I have tried running error-checking on C: drive, but it fails to run when I restart. It says "Cannot open volume for direct access. Autochk cannot run due to an error caused by a recently installed software package." It then says to use system restore, which I cant because all points are missing. The only thing I have installed in the last week was Adobe Photoshop CS4.
I ran CCleaner yesterday as well and I think something of photoshop was flagged for cleaning, and I let it clean it... However, I restored the changes today using the CCleaner restore file to see if it fixed it, but no change.

I just tried opening Photoshop in Safe Mode and got a message saying that Liscensing for the product has stopped working and requires my computer to be restarted before it can be launched.....Error: 148:3
I suspect this might have something to do with the problem...but no Adobe program is set to run on startup....so I'm not sure why that would be bogging it down. I cannot check Task Manager during normal startup to see if it is running, it is not in safe mode.

I am in the process of running Microsoft Safety scanner as well as Malwarebytes in safe mode, to see if I can find anything....will update later today

 

[paul1149]

In Safe Mode you can call up MSCONFIG via Start/Run or WinKey-R, and see what's starting behind the scenes. Selectively turn off a few things at a time and see what happens. You can also go to installed updates in Control Panel/Programs and Features and sort by date to see what's new from MS.

 

[Terrek]

Malwarebytes and Super Antispyware failed to find anything again. I did find "Flexnet Licensing Service" stopped in the services, which I believe is part of Adobe photoshop....I have a hunch that whatever I did using CCleaner might have screwed up Photoshop and may be causing the issue. I'm going to try uninstalling photoshop and see if that clears things up at all....

Though that still doesn't explain what happened to my restore points...

There doesn't appear to be any recent updates to Microsoft listed, most recent was early February. And doesn't appear to be any new things running at start up.

 

[paul1149]

Services is the one thing I usually do not allow CCleaner to touch. The restore points could be a victim of disk optimization.

 

[Terrek]

I don't think it came up as a service when I ran ccleaner, I think there was a registry thing it changed....but it doesn't seem to have fixed it when I opened the ccleaner back up file from yesterday.

 

[Terrek]

It seems that Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium is involved, but whether it is the cause or merely a symptom I'm not sure. It will not let me uninstall it. Every time I try, the uninstaller fails. Does anyone know how to remove it?

I have tried using the Clean Script utility at Adobe - Adobe CS4 Clean Script, but it fails to work correctly because it says it needs the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, which is no longer available from MS. Their Program install and uninstall troubleshooter does not fix the problem...

 

[Terrek]

Well, I believe I managed to remove Adobe CS4 using the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool, but my computer still freezes on reaching the desktop under normal start up. Even the clock stops. the mouse moves around but nothing I click will run, not even the start menu....I am now at a total loss as to what to do....

 

[Terrek]

Trying to run Microsoft Fix It tools and keep getting error code 80072F8F. Tried running MS Automated Troubleshooting Services Diagnostic and it says "Check for connections to URLs used in SPD service"....



Attached is DM Debug file just in case. I haven't gotten BSOD, but figured I would try to supply as much info as possible

 

[RolandJS]

Some time ago, something similar happened to me, I used msconfig to unselect all AVs, AMs, all nonMS security programs, rebooted. Then, reactivated security programs, however, went into each one and dialed back some of the running protections and/or monitoring settings. Finally, reached a balance of functionality and security. ?Maybe this might work for you?

 

[Terrek]

so far that hasn't worked....anyone else out there have some ideas?


I have uninstalled ZoneAlarm Firewall, Ad-Aware Antivirus. Only things left are SuperAnti Spyware and Malwarebytes. Windows Firewall is now running.

The only Non-MS services running are
ASUS Com Service
ASUS HS Com Service
ASUS System Control Service
Intel PROSet Monitoring Service
Nvidia Network Service (Have tried turning this off)
Nvidia Display Driver Service
Nvidia Steroscopic 3D Driver Service (Have tried turning this off)

And the only Startup program now running is
Realtek HD Audio Manager

I also tried performing a clean installation of my Nvidia Drivers, but it didn't help.

 

[Terrek]

Update:

Used the steps here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/117840-uninstall-remove-software-safe-mode.html to uninstall Adobe Air and other programs that were also installed the same day as Adobe CS4. I also attempted to uninstall Ad-Aware Antivirus Free version. It seemed to uninstall nearly all the way, then I suddenly got BSOD. I didn't get a chance to read the message though. My computer then proceeded to reboot in safe mode, but seemed to get stuck while loading Windows drivers, so I hit the restart button. It then started to run the Error Checking, which I had tried to do before but it always encountered an error and failed to run. After 7 hours it completed and I reached the windows log in screen. I didn't see if it had detected any problems though...I attempted to log in, but it just stayed on the welcome screen and never loaded the desktop. After 10 minutes I just shut it down and went to bed. This morning I booted in safe mode again and it seems to be working. I'm going to check and see if Ad-Aware is fully uninstalled and then try to boot in normal mode again.

I'm suspecting that Ad-Aware has been the problem this whole time, as I never got any BSOD until I tried to remove it. Attached is new DM Debug.

 

[Terrek]

Second Update: No change, Ad-aware is not in remove programs anymore, but computer is still freezing. I have two yellow entires under Autorun.exe for the registry adawarebp_DATA_FOLDER and adawarebp_INSTALL_FOLDER, both say; File not found: rmdir. Is it ok to delete them and would it even make a difference?

I'm rapidly running out of ideas folks, and I'm afraid I'm only making things worse....


New CBS log attached, had to compress it

 

[Terrek]

Issue appears to be fixed after trying a startup repair with my windows disc.

Thanks for the tips Paul and Roland