Windows 7 Windows 7 Ultimate... multiple programs not responding

[alphaomegacode]

Hey there,

New to these forums, but need some help with my HTPC. Thanks ahead of time!

Out of nowhere I received messages saying that multiple appdata local files were corrupt and then all programs became non-responsive or would start but became non-responding after a few seconds. I ran chkdsk and after some time it finished repairing the errors. However, now my system gave me 4 warnings saying that none of my security features were working. I use AVG Internet Security 2012. When I click on the AVG Icons or try and repair by clicking on the warnings, nothing happens.

I have read that I should reinstall Windows 7 Ultimate to solve the problem. Sadly I did not partition my hard drive went I built the PC, and of course I do not want to lose any programs, files, etc. So what are my best options?

1. Back up my hard drive and bring everything back over once Windows in reinstalled?

2. Buy an SSD drive for one of my extra bays and install Windows 7 Ult there? Is this even an option since I already have Windows 7 Ult on my PC?

3. Is it possible to partition the drive and move Windows to this section? Then reinstall Windows without affecting other programs and files?

4. Is reinstalling Windows even the solution to this problem?

Please let me know what your thoughts are and please give any suggestions that I have not suggested above.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks!!

 

[Saltgrass]

You may want to start by opening an administrative command prompt and typing SFC /scannow to check your system files. Hopefully, it will repair any problems and help get your system running.

Different types of security applications seem to be aimed at certain areas. Do you have anything beside an internet security utility? Or does yours include an anti-virus. You might try downloading and running Malwarebytes. If you have problems going to some sites or cannot get it to run, it might be a virus preventing such things. They can block certain types of programs from running based on a name or some other identifying information.

Have you been having any other types of problems that might be related, such as drive warnings or corrupted data messages?

 

[helpifIcan]

After you verify as Saltgrass says that you have no nasties in your system, you can try an inplace reinstall of win7. Make sure you back first just in case things go south on you.

 

[alphaomegacode]

Sorry for the delay in response, have not been able to work on the PC until now.

Ran SFC /SCANNOW and it came back with:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.



I have been having other issues as well to answer Saltgrass:

- DVD drive is not responding, will not even open to put in a disk. Even when I try to right click the DVD drive in the computer folder it will just freeze up and go to not responding
- I had several appdata local files that had come up corrupt. I ran chkdsk and they seemed to have cleared up, although I am not certain
- It will not let me turn on my AVG firewall on

I was able to run a scan with AVG and it found 3 problems, but that still did not fix anything. Malwarebytes froze up when I tried installing it, quick scan found nothing. Doing full scan now. The computer is taking a very long time shutdown and boot.

Specs
i7 950
Windows 7 Ultimate
12GB Corsair Dominator Ram
4 X 2TB WD Caviar Black - 7200 RPM

Just got a Vertex 3 SSD to replace mc C: drive once this issue is solved.

Again, thanks for all of your help!!!

 

[alphaomegacode]

Help please

 

[Saltgrass]

I would disconnect all but the OS hard drive. If it refuses to boot, you may have an install where the boot files are on one of the other drives. Checking where the System partition will tell you where the boot files are.

Take out at least 4 GB of memory.

Download, burn, and run the Windows Defender Offline Anti-virus. Maybe it will find something. Renaming some install programs for anti-virus programs might also allow them to install. If Malwarebytes does not finish, where in your system does it seem to hand or stop?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

What problems did AVG find?

If you are going to switch to an SSD, you probably do not want to use the old system, but a new, clean install. You might just go ahead and do that. Later you could try to re-connect the other drives, one at a time, if you need them.

I have heard of viruses causing DVD drive trays to open and close, but not causing them to refuse to run. Maybe disconnecting the other drives will help in this area, but there is always a possibility of mechanical failure.

 

[alphaomegacode]

Well, I did an in-place reinstall of Windows 7 and that only took about 15 hours. Of course this did nothing except create an exception that now tells me:

Windows 7
Build 7601
This copy of Windows in not genuine

Programs still not responding and DVD drive still not functional. So I guess I have ruled out that Windows was corrupt.

I put Windows Defender Offline on my USB, but it will not boot even though I changed the settings in my Bios to boot from a removable drive.

I ran regular Windows Defender and of course it freezes up after about 5 minutes of scanning.

What next?

 

[Saltgrass]

You probably have to re-activate the Repair install.

I think I would try to download, burn and boot to a Linux Live CD. Running your system outside of Windows may isolate some problems.

If you have some type of virus, doing an Repair Install may not remove it. Maybe using one of the other drives to do a test install would tell you for sure, you do not have to enter the key unless you decide to keep it. But get everything out that could be holding on to any malware, like all other hard drives or memory cards/drives.

 

[alphaomegacode]

Well... I have installed my SSD and attempted to install Windows 7. Has not gone too well... It has almost been 24 hours and it is still installing. It seems to take quite a while, hours, to get past each section. So It is still trying to install.

I have tried this a couple of times now and have gotten frustrated and stopped the process. I even tried to plug my old hard drive back in and start windows so I could reset by bios, something I read on another site. However, it would not let me start Windows normally and forced to do a repair start up. Of course this would freeze and then restart and repeat process. So that did not work either.

So now I wait and see if this 24 Windows 7 install will work... I will let you know.

Any suggestions? I am guessing that is was not the hard drive so would it be the motherboard?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Fred77]

I have had similar frustrating problems for over a year. Having searched a number of forums and unsuccessfully tried various solutions as a last resort I changed the value of ActiveWndTrackTimeout from 0 to 1 using Regedit. The problem stopped and has not come back for several weeks. Out of interest I changed it back to 0 and almost straight away all the programs hung again. I don't claim to know what I am doing but my blood pressure has improved.