Cannot load Ad-aware or Spybot!!

**The Violet Storm** · April 14th, 2006, 11:01 AM

I have had Ad-aware and Spybot search and destroy on my laptop for quite some time now and they have both always worked very well for me.

The last little bit when I try to load either of them to do a scan as soon as the window loads it immediately disapears. There are no other applications that are behaving this way.

I have tried to uninstall, so that I can re-install and when I go into the control panel to do that, as soon as the uninstall window opens it immediately disapears.

I have wondered if its a pop-up issue, and as far as I know all pop-up blockers have been disabled, (as far as I know).

Any ideas as to what is happening here?? My laptop has a Celeron M and is running on XP, my anti-virus is Kaspersky and is working just fine.

**lifehacker** · April 14th, 2006, 11:11 AM

Do ad-aware and spybot just dissapear or are they still running in the processes after they dissapear from the screen? Go to ctrl+alt+delete and see if ad aware and spybot are still in the process list.

**multi** · April 14th, 2006, 11:19 AM

see if they will start in safe mode maybe ?

http://castlecops.com/t142468-Comput..._wont_run.html

does your antivirus program work ?

**shawners** · April 14th, 2006, 07:05 PM

Alot of times, virus will disable anything that could remove it from the pc and to control your pc. Boot up in safe mode and install a virus scanner or use what you have to clean it, and may have to google the causes to find out what virus thats doing the damage and manually remove it in safe mode.

**Muffin_Man** · April 14th, 2006, 08:28 PM

What you're describing is usually virus behaviour. As a quick check, try bringing up a command prompt, msconfig, and the task manager and see if the same thing happens to any of them. Your antivirus and firewall may be disabled, as well.

With any luck you might be able to stop it from happening by disabling the right startup items in safe mode, but some of the nastier ones will compromise your security software, bind to the network or other critical system processes, and even load up before windows. In the first case you might get off by rooting out the offending software and reinstalling your security software (just in case), but in the second it's usually easier to just reinstall the os.

**The Violet Storm** · April 14th, 2006, 08:49 PM

No it is not still running when I push ctrl alt del. They just seem to vanish. Kaspersky is working fine and they do not run in safe mode either. Oddly enough just today, now I have noticed that sometimes when I try to open a Firefox window, it just seems to vanish after it opens. Sometimes I can get into a website, and then I click on something and poof, its gone again. It does not do this with IE.

**multi** · April 14th, 2006, 10:57 PM

so a full system scan with the latest definitions with your anti virus turns up nothing?

it might be worth getting a second opinion

maybe try some of these places

Originally Posted by Krell's sig

Jotti's malware scan . . Panda Active Scan . . PC Pitstop . . Freeware online Trojan scanner . . Symantec Security Check . .

McAffee Online Virus Scanner . . TrendMicro HouseCall

**adidas_os** · April 14th, 2006, 11:00 PM

Do you have another computer into which you can put the hard drive from this computer? If you do then you could swap it out and run a virus check, adware et all check, and maybe even a rootkit check. I think F-Secure BlackLight is a free to use beta at the moment for performing the rootkit check. This way you don't have to worry about anything trying or being able to stop you from removing it from the hard drive. Maybe a friend or relative's computer, if you don't have another one yourself. If you have another hard drive try putting an O/S on it and booting from it instead. A small unused hd would be perfect for this, as other larger ones may already be in use. That way you can do the same thing from a spare drive, instead of swapping out the hard disk. I have heard of what Shawners mentioned maybe you are infected with something that is disabling anything that may be able to eliminate it. Ad-Aware has a free version you can use for adware, and the free NOD antivirus trial. That's what I would recommend anyways. Good luck!

**multi** · April 14th, 2006, 11:02 PM

its a laptop...
not that what you suggest still isn't possible
but slightly more difficult and expensive

this sort of problem does sort of reak of rootkit

**lifehacker** · April 15th, 2006, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by multi

so a full system scan with the latest definitions with your anti virus turns up nothing?

it might be worth getting a second opinion

maybe try some of these places

No Kaspersky is a good AV, better than every single one listed in that list. There is no need to get a new AV. Are your sigantures properly updated? Also as I already said check if the program still has its process running by going to ctrl+alt+delete.

**The Hunter** · April 15th, 2006, 09:59 AM

Trend micro, has often found things that others have missed. No antivirus is perfect, so a second opinion is a valid option.

**lifehacker** · April 15th, 2006, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by The Hunter

Trend micro, has often found things that others have missed. No antivirus is perfect, so a second opinion is a valid option.

Im just wondering, what others?

**The Violet Storm** · April 15th, 2006, 10:48 AM

Yes, it is a laptop so it would be quite hard for me to do that.
I ran a Hijak This Log, and I am not sure, I am still a learner here, but I think there might have possibly been some Malware in the startup. Not completely sure how to recognize it.
I did get both of them to run yesterday for the first time in days after I restarted, and they found nothing, just some tracking cookies, and Kaspersky finds nothing also.
FIrefox is still vanishing on me when I load it, and now niether program will load again.
Could the Malware be doing this??
Life Hacker, they are not running in the processes when they vanish. It seems they just won't load at all, but like I said, after some persistence, I did get them to finally go yesterday, but they didnt seem to find anything interesting.