Possibly Windows related issue- no one can help!

[Hironori]

I've seriously asked 3 different tech boards about this with help from some fairly unhelpful administrators. I've really really tried looking around on google on my own to figure this stuff out without having to bother anybody but I just can't seem to get it and it's causing a MASSIVE problem for me as someone who makes a living on the computer.

So here goes. I don't think you really need to understand the applications involved so much as the problems but I can get you any info you may need I believe.

Symptoms:

-Photoshop "Licensing Expired" message
-League of Legends says server unavailable (are you connected to the internet?)
and upon doing the directional keycode (Get to the PLAY screen and do the following... up down left right up up down down) I am able to log in but the entire background of the browser is white. Only the "Play, Store, Profile, Chat and Friends" buttons are visible and the border of the game is as well.
-Aion, despite my efforts I can only open the launcher. Upon hitting "Play" aion.bin immediately opens then closes.
-StarCraft 2 closed beta client will not open, get stuck on the little splash box with hourglass.
-Internet Explorer opens to a completely blank page (although menus and address bar are still available) and gets stuck on hourglass
-Sometimes, after certain restarts, when I open the Aion game launcher, I can see the left side bar where you can select games but not the entire right-hand side which is supposed to show you the latest news on the game you selected
-Xfire upon launching, updating installed game list, FREEZES. I have to ctrl alt del.

Process So Far:

This all started with Aion doing the Aion.bin opening/closing immediately thing. Contacting tech support they had me (in order)
-Check my antivirus quarantine folder to see if Aion.bin had been accidentally quarantined (it wasn't)
-Delete certain key files to enable the launcher to repair the problem itself
-Install a NCsoft tech program called GameAdvisor and sent them some info about my computer
-Uninstall/Reinstall the game
-Uninstall/Reinstall .net and MSXML (I could not do this part because add/remove programs kept saying there was a failure (even though i would try from a fresh restart using msconfig to close all startup applications except windows things)
I BELIEVE I did the .net framework thing correctly, it claims to be up to date but this part was strange so I'm not sure if anything else could be wrong
-Sent them a log file from the opening process for them to analyze
-They suggested going to msconfig to close all startup applications, did that, didn't help
-They had me run Belarc Advisor and send them that log
-They noticed I used AVG 9.0 so I was told to delete it, which I did correctly

After this last step involving AVG they stopped responding to me... I guess it's pretty late over there.

Is there ANYTHING at all I can submit to anybody so they can tell me how to fix all of these symptoms as I'm almost positive it's all one thing. I believe it's because I may have fiddled with .net and MSXML inccorectly. I can't seem to google the right information to help me as I can't figure out how to cleanly get rid of it.

I really really really do not want to do a Windows disc recovery. This should not be necessary, right??

Thank you to anyone who cares to look and help me. I will be very closely attending this thread so if you need a response from me I should be able to give you one quickly.

If you would like me to submit my belarc advisor, a log or dxdiag please let me know and tell me the best format to enable you to see it (code wrapping, attachment, link, etc).

 

[Hefemeister]

Have you checked your machine for malware?
http://www.techist.com/forums/f51/spyware-asylum-osiris-updated-12-13-2009-a-165828/

have you reset winsock and tcp/ip?

 

[Hironori]

I'm trying these things now. I haven't done them for a good few steps so I will try again and report. Thank you for taking a look!

Resetting winsock tcp/ip using this Microsoft Fixit utility fixed my Starcraft 2 and League of Legends problem. Still not working for Aion (the initial problem) though. Checking again for malware, I usually use Spybot SnD but I will try A-Squared this time. Is there something better about the one you linked that I should consider or will these do? (not at the same time of course)

The photoshop "Licensing for this program" thing is still happening though... this really scares me because I'm a digital illustrator and I need to use this to work and I may not have the disc anymore... I have encountered this problem once in the past and fixed it but I just don't remember how...

 

[Hefemeister]

If you foolow all the steps in the link above and post your malwarebytes and hjt log for osiris to look at we can ensure that you are malware free.

with tcp/ip being modified I am highly suspicious of malware on your system.

for future the easiest way to reset winsock and tcp/ip is from a command prompt:

Winsock:

netsh winsock reset

TCP/IP:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

 

[Hironori]

Well I guess I should not have used A2...

there was numerous cases of high-risk malware... some of which were involved with System32...

So after restarting, a windows prompt (before windows loaded) said "etc etc infection removed successfully!) The computer restarts and tries loading windows...

It shuts down. Restarts again... Shuts down Restarts, etc.

I've gotten into a "f-ed up windows directory files" loop... so now i'm on my laptop. I can't access my windows cd at this moment but i can tomorrow. Is there any way i could possibly fix this before then? without the cd?

You are definitely right that malware was contributing but i don't understand. I thought i cleared it all with spybot snd... Guess its not as good as I thought AND I should have just used your link.

So... thank you again for helping, I hope this will be the last hump of the issue. No way I could DL system32 files from the internet safely? I guess it wouldn't matter since there would be no way to put them on the drive from the looping windows problem

 

[Hefemeister]

What os?

spybot is a good program but none can remove everything. That is why the combination in Osiris's guide are so good. It is rare that his solution cannot clean up a system.

Too bad you are in the West as I am looking for people to play SC2 with based on the Euro server.

 

[KSoD]

Well for someone who makes a living on their PC, you should have a seperate PC for your gaming and for your work. Starcraft 2 is a Beta. As such it could easily be messing with things. Someone here recently had some issues and found out that upon removal of the Steam Beta Cleint all their issues went away. You should really consider having a seperate machine for gaming so that in case issues like this come up, you dont have any downtime on your work.

We do need to know the OS in order to be able to tell you how to continue. As XP we can help. Vista and Win7 your not going to like what you hear.

 

[Hironori]

hmm i made a reply but i guess because it was long it will take mods a bit to confirm the post??

Anyway two workstations IS a good idea but I haven't developed that much additional income. it is up there on my list though. an alternative until then would to be to simply invest a little extra time making things safe for my one and only pc... can't get lazy apparently.

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I have the most basic Windows XP Professional edition I believe... no multimedia or office subheader.

And as it turns out I left a large box full of important cds behind in a recent move (loll...wtf...) so I do not even have windows recovery available to me without just buying a new cd.

I guess even though SC2 is a beta I would be really really sad if a blizz program developed as much as it is would get me something like that... I don't think I saw anyone on their tech forums with a sys32 problem...

You know you would be the 4th euro player I've met that would be cool to play with, **** the regional blocking Mebbe OB will be different?

Back to the point, what do I do now? How can I fix this without a Windows XP32 Home disk?

Anyone? I definitely don't have my XP32 professional disc now that I've been able to look everywhere. From what I've experienced in the past a normal repair should fix this without having to do a full recovery right?

 

[Hefemeister]

you are correct that a repair installation will fix you booting problems then going through Osiris's guide will take care of the malware.

Do you have a friend with a copy of winxp (home most likely based upon what you said) to use to perform the repair installation?

Mak is definitely correct that you must be careful when running any beat software on your system. From a beta perspective SC2 is very solid and I believe it is the malware not SC2 that is causing your issues.

I hope the retail version will allow you to choose your preferred server. I always got good pings to the east coast server and would play there with friends.

 

[Hironori]

Currently the only copy of Windows I've managed to get is the Windows XP Professional SP3 dvd...


After booting it from the disk I can't seem to find the REPAIR function... the only options are to do a Recovery or Setup... am I missing something or is this feature just not included?

EDIT:
just selected the option to copy files over instead of formatting anything and now it's going without an option to cancel so...
did I do good or bad? I mean it was the only option I had without having to erase my c drive. Right?


Edit 2: so i found out I did bad and ruined my registry for installed programs. trying to figure out how to at least salvage the contents of my c drive desktop and installed things throughout my F drive (since certain things like photoshop and games still save things to C even when installed on F)...

now it's on the 35+ minute setup screen (without me having reformatted) and i'm stuck on cd key and I was not anticipating needing one so now I'm stuck with XP SP3 without a key.
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I guess from here I have no choice but to find the documents/jpgs on C i wanted to keep and move them to F and fully reformat to a copy of windows I can get a key for and just hope there is minimum destruction to my other installs (mostly on F but still have some things on C).

what a mess.