MBAM scans repeatably freeze after a few seconds - assistance requested

[plax]

Hello,

I recently put my old T21 ThinkPad back in service. Its OS is Windows 2000 Pro SP4. Several days ago I downloaded and installed MBAM v1.42, I updated the defs, and I ran a full scan. No problems and no malware was detected.

This morning I decided to go to the Windows Update site to get caught up on security patches. It needed 76 of them. I downloaded and installed them all, then ran Microsoft Security Analyzer to verify all was well. All patches were successfully installed.

This afternoon, I updated MBAM and tried to run a new scan. The scan stalled after 16 seconds and would not resume. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to troubleshoot the matter. I tried multiple quick scans and multiple full scans. Each one would stall at some point between 9 and 20 seconds after it started. The MBAM GUI interface would virtually freeze (no buttons would respond) and the scan would remain paralyzed indefinitely. The only thing that worked to get out of it (aside from killing the process in task manager) is clicking the X button in the upper right corner of the interface window -- in that it would bring up the "Not Responding - End Program" dialog. The frozen MBAM would easily terminate from that dialog.

During my testing sessions I noticed in task manager that two instances of rundll32.exe were running. I found that terminating one of them would allow a newly launched instance of MBAM to easily and consistently complete either a full or a quick scan. And the results of these MBAM scans is consistently that no malware objects are detected.

There is currently no AV software installed on this ThinkPad. I was planning on installing Nod32 on it tomorrow, but I'd like to get this MBAM matter sorted first if I could. There is an older version of Sygate Pro firewall (v5) installed on it though.

Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thank you

[noknojon]

Hello plax -

If you can, would you please follow item #7 from the link below - Ignore the referals to the paid version - This will give you a clean new updated version -

http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.p...ost&p=49525

Once this is done please try a quick scan only first - If this will not work at all, (or takes more than 15 mins) then there may be an infection lurking -

Please read and follow the directions here, skipping any steps you are unable to complete. Then post a NEW topic here.

One of the expert helpers there will give you one-on-one assistance when one becomes available.

Thank You -

[plax]

Hello plax -

If you can, would you please follow item #7 from the link below - Ignore the referals to the paid version - This will give you a clean new updated version -

http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.p...ost&p=49525

Once this is done please try a quick scan only first - If this will not work at all, (or takes more than 15 mins) then there may be an infection lurking -

Please read and follow the directions here, skipping any steps you are unable to complete. Then post a NEW topic here.

One of the expert helpers there will give you one-on-one assistance when one becomes available.

Thank You -

Thanks for the reply and for your instructions.

I've followed the item #7 steps and completed the tasks outlined therein. However, although I've posted the new topic to the HiJackThis Logs forum as directed, I 'm unable to see a way to attach my attach.zip file to my post. I have the file compressed and ready to go but need a way to transfer it. I've pasted the text from the DDS.txt file to my post, though.

Thanks

[plax]

Thanks for the reply and for your instructions.

I've followed the item #7 steps and completed the tasks outlined therein. However, although I've posted the new topic to the HiJackThis Logs forum as directed, I 'm unable to see a way to attach my attach.zip file to my post. I have the file compressed and ready to go but need a way to transfer it. I've pasted the text from the DDS.txt file to my post, though.

Thanks

Just for information concerning my last, I finally realized that I had a script filter blocking JavaScript for this site and that's what was precluding the attachment controls from appearing. So I've got that much resolved now and have uploaded the zip.

Thank you much

[noknojon]

Thank you for the reply plax -

Also to others who may read this - When directed to the HJT section, always do as much as you can in the instructions, and then move to the next step -

Thank You -