mouse and keyboard stop working
every few hours this desktop stops. it acts like it is hibernating but it is not. the monitor display is on, but the mouse and keyboard both go dead.
in order to get it working again, i am forced to reboot by powering off.
the event log shows messages like, "The previous system shutdown at 10:01:10 PM on ¿7/¿2/¿2012 was unexpected."
hibernate and sleep are turned off completely.
looking through other threads on experts-exchange, it appears that similar problems have been related to hardware faults, but in this case the timing is suspicious.. i got a trojan on the desktop, cleaned it off using McAfee, did some more clean up using CCLeaner. then the problem started.
a couple of other strange things that happened at the same time:
1) services that were set to Manual were starting up anyways.
2) when i would shut these services down, some of them would restart.
i disabled these services, rebooted twice, then re-enabled them and now they behave normally - they do not start up when they're set to Manual.
the desktop is a Dell optiplex 780 (Core2 Duo e8400) running Windows 7 64-bit SP1 with 6 gb ram and plenty of hard disk space.
in order to get it working again, i am forced to reboot by powering off.
the event log shows messages like, "The previous system shutdown at 10:01:10 PM on ¿7/¿2/¿2012 was unexpected."
hibernate and sleep are turned off completely.
looking through other threads on experts-exchange, it appears that similar problems have been related to hardware faults, but in this case the timing is suspicious.. i got a trojan on the desktop, cleaned it off using McAfee, did some more clean up using CCLeaner. then the problem started.
a couple of other strange things that happened at the same time:
1) services that were set to Manual were starting up anyways.
2) when i would shut these services down, some of them would restart.
i disabled these services, rebooted twice, then re-enabled them and now they behave normally - they do not start up when they're set to Manual.
the desktop is a Dell optiplex 780 (Core2 Duo e8400) running Windows 7 64-bit SP1 with 6 gb ram and plenty of hard disk space.
this can be caused by overheating
install speedfan to monitor the temps : http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
if it overheats, check that all fans run correct, and clean out all dust from fans and vents
it can be necesaary to replace the cpu heatpaste
install speedfan to monitor the temps : http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
if it overheats, check that all fans run correct, and clean out all dust from fans and vents
it can be necesaary to replace the cpu heatpaste
ASKER
thanks for the comments. i don't think it's hardware-related. everything is ok in Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Networking, so it looks like it's OS-related or related to something that gets loaded when booting normally, or perhaps it's due to an esoteric setting.
i did check with HMonitor, and the temperatures look ok.
i did check with HMonitor, and the temperatures look ok.
run mbam also : http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
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ASKER
I was able to figure this out by googling similar problems, and finally found a website that suggested using MSCONFIG for a similar problem.
If the problem does NOT recur, then you can put the original drive back in. If the problem then occurs again, then you know it is an OS/HDD issue.
Second step: Try restoring the data onto a new HDD. In other words, do afull system restore. This is not really likely to be helpful if the problem is an OS problem, but it is an easy way to isolate the HDD itself.
Finally, you can reinstall everything to the new HDD, essentially rebuilding the system from scratch. This is the cleanest, but most time-consuming, solution, and is the most likely to resolve the issue if it was indeed a trojan that left some trash behind.
Obviously, you could also try other products, like Vipre Rescue, Malwarebytes, and more to see if any other products are able to clean it up any better.