eGatherer destroyed TaskManager?

[penguin972]

I was on a safe website (reading news) and all of a sudden my firewall said egather2.exe is trying to access the internet (working for IBM's system restore I think). I didn't allow it. Then my computer was a lot slower. I opened TaskManager, pressed the 4th tab (can't remember its name), and then TaskManager became a window that just lists me as an active user with the options of disconnecting or logging off, and that's it. No other system information. I tried restarting and it didn't help, and control-alt-delete opens the same odd console (TaskManager seems to have completely disappeared). I have another program to look at what's running and didn't see anything that is not usual. Tried unloading some services using msconfig but that didn't help. It takes the computer a huge amount of time to log off windows. System restore (windows) can't restore back. HELP PLEASE.

I'm running T40 WinXP pro.
Thanks
penguin

[Kyocera]

Found this information on the IBM web site. IBM eGatherer will run on any system supporting Microsoft Windows 9x, Windows 2000 Windows NT, and Linux. e-Gatherer is a program that collects configuration information from a user's computer to help with the diagnosis of problems reported to IBM. e-Ga therer aims to improve customer satisfaction by reducing the time a customer spends collecting data from relevant machines and by reducing the time IBM spends in resolving problems by improving the content and accuracy of information gathered.

eGatherer is now available through the IBM eServer xSeries UpdateXpress CD version 2.02 or later.

Check your event viewer for errors relevent to the time this occured, run a spyware, virus, check. The fourth tab on task mgr is networking. Go to Start>Run>type in taskmgr, see if your task manager will reappear.
Unloading some services? Which ones? It almost sounds like your account permissions were changed somehow, your access to certain applications has been denied.

Is system retore disabled?

[GomJabbar]

Sounds like a tricky problem. Here are a couple of links to look at:

eGatherer Security Issue

eGatherer FAQ