darn laptop brings up shut down screen for no apparentreason

[doolally]

My old Pentium II thinkpad has been no problem for years. It runs Windows ME.

After updating the latest ME update and IE6 my Thinkpad will click quite loudly at random times and then bring up the shutdown screen.

Although I can cancel out of it, the start button then refuses to respond and the laptop has to be shut down by using control alt delete.

Any clues? It's driving me nuts!!

[GreenLight]

Run some virus / worm removal software?

[doolally]

I've run avg antivirus and spy ad software and found nothing untoward..

[doolally]

...and the only worms I know that cause this type of problem only affect Win2k and XP not ME unless you know differently?

[ibmuser]

sounds like sasser:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.mspx

[doolally]

Yes... it does.......... but sasser only affects Win 2k and XP not Windows 98 or ME....

[ibmuser]

Go to the Start menu (or just type msconfig from start>run)
Select Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Information.
At the Microsoft System
Information screen, select Tools> System Configuration to display the Properties page.
On the General tab, select the Advanced button.
Check (select) the Disable Fast Shutdown option.
Click OK.

Any effect??

[doolally]

'fraid not - There is NO fast shutdown option to disable! none of the other options in this page are selected either......

[ibmuser]

when you shutdown, does the system reboot or shutdown?
under device manager do you have all drivers loaded okay?

I'd also run several virus checks again (maybe spyware check too). you can try online:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/houseca ... t_corp.asp

http://www.webroot.com/services/spyaudit_03.htm

[ibmuser]

try these links too

http://aumha.org/win4/a/shtdwnse.php

http://www.techadvice.com/w98/S/Shutdown.htm

[doolally]

If the shut down box comes up and I cancel out of it, it shuts down microsoft explorer and pop up stopper but will continue to function normally apart from the start button on the desktop is disabled.

I am suffering from a lot of pop ups but regularly run ad aware and avg anti virus and nothing untoward shows up.

Before the shut down box appears, there are no problems shutting down or restarting the machine, but once the forced shutdown box appears, I have to shut down the machine using control alt and delete and selecting shutdown using that option.

[Deb Suran]

regularly run ad aware and avg anti virus and nothing untoward shows up.
Add SpyBot Search and Destroy to your regular anti-scumware protocols, it catches some programs that AdAware does not, and vice versa. Let us know if that works.

[doolally]

Thanks - loaded search and destroy and it found a few things, but hasn't stopped the pop up problem and my laptop still crashes!

I think the cause of the popups is something called 680180.net which I can't seem to get rid of - but don't know if that is linked to the crashes?

[G-Man]

It's an adware. Here is the solution:

"For the victims of the 680180.net <A TITLE="Click for more information about <A TITLE="Click for more information about adware" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://messagebroadcaster.net/bannerfar ... >adware</A>" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://messagebroadcaster.net/bannerfar ... >adware</A>, there is information on what system changes were made in the setupapi.log in the Windows directory. Here are some of the files that need to be deleted to resolve the popup issues:

Click START & go to MY COMPUTER, right-click then click EXPLORE & click the WINDOWS folder then click SYSTEM 32 folder then find the following below & delete it. Just delete ADStartUP.exe, all the files names listed below(delete AdUpdater.exe, adupmanager.xml, data.xml, IEEnhancer.dll) & not the full links here. Also u might not be able to delete ADStartUP.exe right away but follow the instructions here below on the registry edit & u can go back & delete the ADStartUP.exe & the rest... it works coz my zamingo.com & 680180.net pop-ups disappeared. any questions send me a PM.

%Windir%\System32\ADStartUP.exe
%Windir%\System32\AdUpdater.exe
%Windir%\System32\adupdmanager.xml
%Windir%\System32\data.xml
%Windir%\System32\IEEnhancer.dll

After deleting these files from your system you will need to delete a registry entry:

Click the "Start" button on the taskbar

Click "Run..."

Type "regedit" and click the "OK" button

Click the "Start" button on the taskbar

Open the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" registry key

Right-click "Adstartup" and click "Delete"

This should resolve the issue. Special thanks to Vincent Deneve for his contribution on the issue."

Regards,
G-Man

[doolally]

The pop up issue has now been resolved - thanks for your help - I will update if my crash problem has gone away as soon as I can be sure!

[Leon]

did you fix it using G-Man's suggestion?

[doolally]

Yes it seems to have worked - I have no pop ups and the laptop has now been running for two hours with no crashes.

I will report back on stability as the days tick by ...... so far so good so thanks to G Man!

[doolally]

The problem came back! - But there was one more thing to do that seems to have banished the pop ups for good (I dont think G Man mentioned it)- start up thinkpad in safe mode and delete %windir\system32\swin32.dll. (found on computer cops site)

This stops the programme respawning and putting itself back in the registry.

I will report on the stability of my machine every few days to see if the crash problem has disappeared at the same time as the popups.

I am thinking that this may have been a 680180 / pop up stopper fight that was just getting too much for my poor old pentium II - anyways

[doolally]

laptop now been running for four hours - no pop ups and no crashes. Problem solved!

Thanks all for your help and support