Computer Freezes During MWB Scan

[Thomas_B]

Hello all!

I'm currently helping out a friend who recently has been getting many pop-ups on every reboot and generally has been noting a good deal of drag on his speed. Anyway, my first instinct was to have him download Malwarebytes free (he is still working with the free premium trial because he downloaded it yesterday), and to run a complete scan on his laptop to see what MWB would find. So, the answer to that inquiry was a hell of a lot of adware, malware and other PUPs. We're talking like 400+ identified threats. Here's the issue - about 3/4ths through the scan, his computer completely freezes up and goes unresponsive, and I mean nothing: no mouse movement, windows key does nothing, even ctrl+alt+del does nothing. We hard reset using his power button and repeated the scan. Same result. I assume this is an intentional response from one of the pieces of malware he picked up. I also assume that this means that we're going to have to supplement MWB with some other anti-malware software options. However, since the computer is not my own, I would feel more comfortable if I had someone walking me through the safest course of action. He's running Windows 7 and I wanna say it's the 64 bit version, but I can double check on that and any other specs you might need.

Thanks in advance!

Thomas

[LDTate]

Hello  and

 

Windows 7

Restart your computer in Safe Mode.

Using the F8 or F5 Method:

Restart your computer.

When the computer starts you will see your computer's hardware being listed. When you see this information start to gently tap the F8 key on your keyboard repeatedly until you are presented with the Windows 7 Advanced Boot Options

select the Safe Mode With Networking

Then press the enter key on your keyboard to boot into Windows 7 Safe Mode.

When Windows starts you will be at a typical logon screen. Logon to your computer and Windows 7 will enter Safe mode.

Open Malwarebytes (MBAM), make sure Scan For Rootkits is checked, run a new scan and Quarantine all.

**Power Off** (shutdown, the pc.

Wait a few minutes.

Restart in Normal Mode, run a new scan  and make sure it's gone

[Thomas_B]

Hello again,

I've followed the above instructions and now we have identified over 1,000 PUP's over approximately 18 hours. Over the course of the last 6 hours, we have about 3 new threats. I guess my main question is at what point do we give up with this scan. Is there a max time that this scan is most effective for? Or is that not how it works.

Thank for the help.

[LDTate]

Hi Thomas

There's no time limit that I know of.

 

 NOTE: The tools and the information obtained is safe and not harmful to your privacy or your computer, please allow the programs to run if blocked by your system.

Download Malwarebytes Support Tool
https://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mbst?src=Forums-Reply

    Once the file is downloaded, open your Downloads folder/location of the downloaded file
    Double-click mb-support-X.X.X.XXXX.exe to run the program
        You may be prompted by User Account Control (UAC) to allow changes to be made to your computer. Click Yes to consent.
    Place a checkmark next to Accept License Agreement and click Next
    You will be presented with a page stating, "Get Started!"
    Click the Advanced tab

Click the Gather Logs button

A progress bar will appear and the program will proceed with getting logs from your computer

Upon completion, a file named mbst-grab-results.zip will be saved to your Desktop. Click OK

Please attach the file in your next reply.

[Thomas_B]

Thank you for all your help! As it turns out, the scan finally finished and was successful in cleaning up my friends laptop! Thanks again

[LDTate]

I'm happy to have helped and glad this is resolved. As there are no other issues which need addressing we can now close this ticket.
 

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[AdvancedSetup]

Glad we could help.

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