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View Full Version : Random Rebooting during Spyware Doctor operation



JTabarlet
02-19-2007, 01:54 AM
My wife has a Toshiba Satellite 1100 bought in 2003. She's running Windows XP Service Pack 2. I installed Spyware Doctor on her computer about a year and a half ago to get rid of a particularly nasty spyware infection that several other programs could not destroy. SD did a fine job and she runs it (or I should say I run it) periodically to keep the computer up to date.

Recently, though, I've had a problem with SD. I ran it several times this afternoon trying to get rid of several assorted malware infections; however, each time I ran it, SD would get between 40% and 70% done and then the computer would simply turn off. If I turned it back on and ran SD again, the same thing happened.

I decided to put SD in Custom mode and run each separate test one by one to see which one(s) was/were causing the problem. The General scanner ran without a hitch (though it didn't find any problems), as did the Host scanner, the Process Scanner, and the LSP Scanner. The Registry scanner did find three problematic entries, completed scanning and deleted the problems. However, when I tried to run Browser Defaults, the machine shut down halfway through--the same thing happened with ActiveX scanner and Browser Activity. I never made it to the Disk Scanner.

I'm thinking that perhaps there is a particularly nasty piece of malware out there that senses that SD is looking for it and shuts down the computer rather than be caught. It's also possible that the computer itself is so screwed that any time SD catches a possible piece of spyware or malware, it simply shuts off.

Any ideas?

arden42
02-19-2007, 02:15 AM
Have you tried running the scans in safe mode?

If that doesn't help, AOSS (http://www.pctools.com/aoss/) may be worth a try - but I wouldn't suggest you go that way unless you are pretty good with computers.

JTabarlet
02-19-2007, 02:39 AM
but I got an message about "error while creating scripter".

katie
02-19-2007, 02:39 AM
A safemode scan as arden42 suggested should help fix this. It seems there is something nasty or a conflict of some sort and by doing a safemode scan this will ensure no other processes are running during the scan. :D

kt

katie
02-19-2007, 02:42 AM
Which version of Spyware Doctor are you using? Ive seen in other posts that this can be resolved by upgrading to the latest version. However, this version is still the Beta version, still has a few bugs in it. You can upgrade to this, run a safemode scan to ensure you remove that nasty infection and then change back to SDv4 for the time being until the final release of SDv5.

If you want to download this, go to www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/beta

kt

JTabarlet
02-19-2007, 06:14 AM
would a later version help with the safe mode issue?

katie
02-19-2007, 09:28 AM
The newer version should help with "error while creating scripter". However, there are still some issues that need to be resolved with the Beta. Im currently using the Beta and in my opinion I like it compared to SDv4. However, others may think differently. I guess it all depends on what sorts of problems you are having with the Beta and the security apps you have installed on your pc.

It doesnt matter which version you use, both can run in safemode as both use the same signature database. But seeing that you had the "error while creating scripter", thats why I suggested you install the Beta version.

I hope this helps.

kt