Please help!! Something in my system has become corrupt

I posted yesterday about all options greyed out although receiving the "welcome name" message log.
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/17210-All-options-greyed-out

The problem seems to be related with not detecting something about my hard drive. Here is the picture of what appears in "purchase tab".
View attachment 10914
I tried moving credentials to desktop with no effect.

The problem started yesteday night after having to reboot as the only solution to a system memory collapse caused by accidentally opening 15 or so instances of 3dsimed. After that the PC works correctly except for the following symptons:

- Something is wrong with the antivirus/antispyware (Essentials). Windows Defender alerts about them being disconnected. However Essentials shows no errors.
When I try to activate windows defender it simply opens windows folder. Nothing changes.
When I click the second option to update the database the error prompts disappear for a while.
After restarting the computer it will propmpt the error again

- Bob's Track Builder has also stopped working and says that the license has expired. It happens in both the normal and the beta version. I had used them both yesterday without problems and none of them for sure expired yesterday. BTB looks for the machine ID. It looks like something has changed in my hard drive IMO. However I don't know how can I know which was my Volume ID before. I guess it wouldn't be hard to check actual name. What I do have checked is the the script that generated Hardware ID now creates a different serial code in the output file.

So it seems that something is diferent now in my machine and I don't know how to restore it

I would really appreciate any help or advise since in this situation I cannot either drive either continue with my tracks. Thanks

 

Have you enabled your ethernet device (even if you're not using it)?

What are you moving to desktop, and why? There is no need to do anything of that sort. Where did that come from? Credentials can only - ever - be in appdata, where the software puts them when you activate.

However, it sounds like you have much deeper issues that need to be resolved, I'm assuming your hard drive is failing.

 

Sounds like malware/virus is playing havoc with your system. Usually messing with core windows functions changing registry keys and what not also it's common for them to block antivirus programs from working correctly sometimes by adding incorrect ip's in the hosts file. (double check by pressing ctrl+r and entering %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\ and opening the hosts file in notepad. check for any entrys, usually this has none unless you have previously customised it.)

Have your files/folders become hidden anywhere on your drive?

9/10 if your pc is infected in anyway the only real logical solution is to reinstall, never can be trusted after. You could try a system roll back if you have that enabled.

Also word of warning, if you do have to reinstall backup your files to something like a external drive if possible. Only once the new OS is installed/updated fully and a good AV is running then plug the drive back in and scan straight away.

(also to note, it could be hardware related even down to faulty ram/hdd) however for new hardware id's to be assigned i'd be more inclined to side on software playing joker.

 

Before you get too drastic and if you haven't already, scan the disk for errors and run SFC (system file checker). From an admin command prompt type chkdsk /f hit Y and reboot, also try sfc /scannow in the same place after the reboot. Might make things quicker to clear your temp folders before the scan and clear the junk that builds in them http://pcsupport.about.com/od/maintenance/ht/manualtempxp.htm < this works in win 8 too, should work in on any win version. All easy and quick to try so worth a shot.

 

Checked host file and it is empty.

No that I have noticed.

No backups.
I have run Microsoft essentials full scan. Panda detected some minor stuff that did not solve the problem after the repair. i will rerun this test later when Iobit Mlaware fighter finishes its full scan. Thanks for your reply

 

Yesterday I ran chkdsk from the harddrive properties with no effects. I don't know if it makes any difference from typing chkdsk in the prompt.
I will try scannow later. Thanks for the info.

I have to add that I realized this evening that I have no sound either

 

I did nothing with my netwrok devices.

The credentials moving was just a try I read somewhere. Forget it.

I also think something is wrong with my hard drive. My plan, if nothing works by tomorrow, is to format my hard drive and start over installing back everything. I don't want to lose more time trying to fix something if it is going to take me more time than a fresh install. The laptop is 2 years old and I give it a very intensive use. I guess it is time to put it back to factory standard.

 

Yeah sounds like a NIC problem. Also check your date/time including AM/PM and time zone. Sometimes licensing can get messed up by going back in time or jumping ahead too far.

 

Check your hard drive. Maybe you will find some pending sectors. http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

System restore is also worth a try.

 

clock in bios got set to default? 1/1/2000 maybe? Although that wouldn't explain the loss of sound..... unless something else in the bios messed with the onboard sound, wouldn't think that was an option on a laptop though.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/adk4x9m8eob6w2h/crystaldiskinfo.png
No pending sectors.

 

Checked and discarded. Everything correct.

 

You could try a windows repair from the Installation Disk although that might only be helpful for non starting systems, my memory isn't that good

 

I just recovered sound. I downloaded the realtek drivers from asus site and after asking after the first of the two restarts it asked for it was fixed.
However the rest of the problems remain. None of the programs that were supposed to update the drivers detected this problem.
I want to check if BIOS is updated to the latest available version but after typing msinfo32 I got the following surprise which i don't know what it means but does not look good at all. I downloaded the latest version of the BIOS but it is a file that I don't know what to do with since it has no usable extension.

View attachment 10954

I am going to reinstall all the drivers and asus internal programs in the site to see if there are other things corrupt. I am suspiocious about having some Asus software corrput. "InstantOn" and "Music Now" always have seemed to interfere or something. Before this problem I had also some trouble with the recovery after hibernating and suspending. Suspension would always cause instant shutting down when trying to recover from it and hibernating in any other power plan than high performance would cause the same effect. Sometimes, as well, the system would start up by itself after shutting down. In some of the cases the damm Music Now software would start up.

After the shutdowns casued by the problems described above it was typical that sound got distorted after the first restart. So it did the shutdown that provoked the Main Problem of rF2, BTB, AntiVirus/AntiSpyware and now fixed sound loss. Next time the system would restart normally in terms of sounds. Except for this last time... A less frequent failure was a sudden shutdown which mainly happened when driving rF2 online with lots of people.

I did not mention these other problems before since I thought they were not related. I guess that they might have been the cause of getting another part of the system corrupt due to a dangeorus "button shutdown". Thanks everybody for the help provied. I see format c: as the best way to proceed considering all the above. Agree?

 

Yeah.

 

I just recovered sound. I downloaded the realtek drivers from asus site and after the first of the two restarts it asked for it was fixed.
However the rest of the problems remain. None of the programs that were supposed to update the drivers detected this problem.
I want to check if BIOS is updated to the latest available version but after typing msinfo32 I got the following surprise which i don't know what it means but does not look good at all. I downloaded the latest version of the BIOS but it is a file that I don't know what to do with since it has no usable extension.

View attachment 10954

I am going to reinstall all the drivers and asus internal programs in the site to see if there are other things corrupt. I am suspiocious about having some Asus software corrput. "InstantOn" and "Music Now" always have seemed to interfere or something. Before this problem I had also some trouble with the recovery after hibernating and suspending. Suspension would always cause instant shutting down when trying to recover from it and hibernating in any other power plan than high performance would cause the same effect. Sometimes, as well, the system would start up by itself after shutting down. In some of the cases the damm Music Now software would start up.

After the shutdowns casued by the problems described above it was typical that sound got distorted after the first restart. So it did the shutdown that provoked the Main Problem of rF2, BTB, AntiVirus/AntiSpyware and now fixed sound loss. Next time the system would restart normally in terms of sounds. Except for this last time... A less frequent failure was a sudden shutdown which mainly happened when driving rF2 online with lots of people.

I did not mention these other problems before since I thought they were not related. I guess that they might have been the cause of getting another part of the system corrupt due to a dangeorus "button shutdown". Thanks everybody for the help provied. I see format c: as the best way to proceed considering all the above. Agree?

 

Sorry for the double post but I was trying to edit some typing errors from the first one without success. Maybe it is another symptom

 

In the process of updating Asus software the following error appears when trying to install Asus Music Now.
View attachment 10955
I don't know how related or important this is but just in case it is meaningful for someone more expert in these things than myself

 

I can't see the attachment. It says it doesn't exist.

I don't see where you stated that you looked at system event logs under Control Panel/administrative tools/ event viewer.

Sounds to me like your hard drive is failing. The event viewer logs will tell you.