Last night I tried to open Firefox and after clicking on both the quick start icon as well as clicking on it via the Start button ---> Programs menu and getting nothing, I checked task manager and found that it showed firefox.exe under the processes list. I tried rebooting my pc then tried opening firefox only to have the same thing happen again. I then tried opening IE and the same thing happened. I tried opening Yahoo im and it opened fine but I rebooted my router & modem anyway just to make sure it wasn't because of a network issue. That didn't do anything to fix the issue. I then ran a quick scan for viruses with my anti-virus program(Avast) and it found nothing. I also ran Spybot S&D and Maleware Bytes but neither found anything other than Spybot finding spyware from "Right media" which I fixed. I then tried opening IE on my gf's pc and it opened fine. I then started closeing various programs that usually run in the background on my pc. During this process I finally managed to get IE to come up but unfortunatly I'm not sure what specific action I took that got it to open. Nothing I did got firefox to open. I finally deceided to go to bed because I was tired & frustrated.
This morning I tried again and initially neither browser would open but then IE came up and I've been using it since. At one point, a little while ago, Firefox unexpectedly opened. At the time I had just gotten a message from WinPatrol telling me that something called "IETAG Factory" was trying to change/update the registry. I declined to allow it but it's when I clicked on a tab to get more info that Firefox opened. First thing I did was update Firefox to the most current version hoping that would help. After it downloaded the update it said it had to reboot so I did so. It rebooted & came up again fine but when I closed it and attempted to open it again it didn't open and I havn't been able to get it open since though it still shows in the proccesses tab in Task Manager. As I type this it shows 2 instances of firefox.exe. One is using 69,136 K and 0 CPU and the other is using 30,796 K and alternating between 0 & 1 CPU. One of my gf's co-workers told her that there are browser viruses that are hard for anti-virus programs to detect because of how they are designed. I have no clue as to whether that's true. That's pertty much where I'm at to this point. I havn't tried a system restore yet though I certainly can. I havn't only because I'd like to have a better idea what's going on. Any help with that would be greatly appriciated.
My OS is XP Pro. The programs I normally have running in the back ground are Avast Antivirus, WinPatrol, UniBlue Registry Booster 2, Spybot Regisrty-SD Resident, & Dell Support Center. None of those are new programs. I've been running them for months if not years. The most recent download I did (other than the Firefox update) was an updated patch for a game I have called Civilization IV. The game worked fine after the download and I didn't find any notes about any issues with the patch like the one I'm having. My gf used my PC the night before last with no issues.
What do I need to do to resolve this?
This morning I tried again and initially neither browser would open but then IE came up and I've been using it since. At one point, a little while ago, Firefox unexpectedly opened. At the time I had just gotten a message from WinPatrol telling me that something called "IETAG Factory" was trying to change/update the registry. I declined to allow it but it's when I clicked on a tab to get more info that Firefox opened. First thing I did was update Firefox to the most current version hoping that would help. After it downloaded the update it said it had to reboot so I did so. It rebooted & came up again fine but when I closed it and attempted to open it again it didn't open and I havn't been able to get it open since though it still shows in the proccesses tab in Task Manager. As I type this it shows 2 instances of firefox.exe. One is using 69,136 K and 0 CPU and the other is using 30,796 K and alternating between 0 & 1 CPU. One of my gf's co-workers told her that there are browser viruses that are hard for anti-virus programs to detect because of how they are designed. I have no clue as to whether that's true. That's pertty much where I'm at to this point. I havn't tried a system restore yet though I certainly can. I havn't only because I'd like to have a better idea what's going on. Any help with that would be greatly appriciated.
My OS is XP Pro. The programs I normally have running in the back ground are Avast Antivirus, WinPatrol, UniBlue Registry Booster 2, Spybot Regisrty-SD Resident, & Dell Support Center. None of those are new programs. I've been running them for months if not years. The most recent download I did (other than the Firefox update) was an updated patch for a game I have called Civilization IV. The game worked fine after the download and I didn't find any notes about any issues with the patch like the one I'm having. My gf used my PC the night before last with no issues.
What do I need to do to resolve this?
