Computer problems, could be a virus but I'm not exactly sure what's going on-HELP!?

Question

So I have an HP Pavilion running Windows Vista Home Premium. I've ran into problems with it before, most of them were fairly easy to solve but this one, not so much. I've recently been having a combination of seemingly unrelated problems:

1) Windows can't check for updates.
2) Windows help center doesn't work. It can't load any topics or anything.
3) I keep getting error messages that Windows Indexer stopped working.
4) Downloads in Firefox have been running extremely slowly, nothing like usual.
5) This is the strangest one: USB Devices (flash drives, my phone, etc.) keep malfunctioning when i try to connect them; sometimes they aren't recognized and when they are, they only work for a moment or so. (In detail: I attempted to copy some songs to my phone, like I have always done, and after a few attempts at connecting the phone to the computer and finally getting it recognized, i pasted the songs-only to find out later that they only partially copied because the connection was somehow interrupted or stopped in the copying process.) This problem is the weirdest part of all of them in my opinion because I have never had anything like this happen before. Each time i can successfully get my phone or flash drive recognized and opened, it only works for a moment or so and then windows explorer eventually freezes and almost seems to just "shut down" the connection (for lack of a better term) somehow. My phone exits the PC mode and everything when this happens, but it still shows that its charging so I don't quite get why the "mass storage mode" stops working, as the connection is still there. I know it isn't a problem with the USB port because the same problem happens with all 4 of them, and its also definitely not a problem with the phone, cable, or flash drive because they all work just fine on other computers.

Anyways, I'm truly stumped with this, I don't know if its some form of a virus/malware that's causing these problems or if there's just something funky going on with my system. I haven't installed or changed anything recently and I have both Security Essentials and Super Anti-Spyware running on here. I also just finished using the Microsoft Malicious Software removal tool to scan everything and nothing came up. :/

This is definitely frustrating, any help that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. I'm a college student and the last thing I need is for my computer to crash on me.

Answer 1

Ehhhh... :\ Honestly I'd have it looked at by a reputable computer shop. If it was just normal virus symptoms I'd suggest a tech help site, but that all is just weird and hard to know if it's just a malfunction or if something is wreaking havoc in your machine. The first things make me think virus. Supposedly some will try to block updates, especially to virus scans, but the rest is very strange. Could be more than one issue maybe.



If you unplug your internet are the drive connections, etc. still lost? I just hope there isn't any kind of creep trying to hack into and mess with your computer in the background. I don't know if they could do that sort of thing, but if it was mine the thought would cross my mind.

Answer 2

Have you checked backup and restore center, see if you can resotore it to an earlier time because it may be something you downloaded by mistake, be very careful of downloading toolbars!!!!... also if that does not work i say its a virus and if a virus checker doesn't find it.. save everything important to D Drive or an external hard drive, and restore C Drive to factory settings, this is just what I would do, hope it helps you.

Answer 3

Wow....ok, form one, you have waaaay too many anti-virus courses on your computer. i understand you opt to be secure, yet guy...Anti-virus courses take alot of aspects out of your computer, fairly those that shop a relentless test going. you're able to have a million firewall and a million consistent test. in case you have a 0.33 application it could be one that in basic terms initiates in case you commence it. or you're boggling down your computer. My innovations: Antivir (you are able to desire to commence up this one) Zone Labs secure practices (consistently working) as for a firewall, i take advantage of the only from Zone Labs. It got here with something of this methodology.

Answer 4

try to download malwarebytes



http://www.malwarebytes.org/



if you can't download have a freind download and try to install it with a cd/ and or thumb drive let it scan and it should pick up something then update it and let it do a full scan while you disconnect the internet cable. sometimes if you have abad virus you need to disconnect it from internet or it keeps downloading other spyware and viruses.

Answer 5

Vista sucks.

Upgrade to Win7, or better yet dual boot with Linux.