Screensavers slow, freeze, stutter after a short while

I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of
the Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run
normally for a short period of time (less than an hour) before their
animations turn to molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like
my video card is gimped in some way.

I've reinstalled the latest NVIDIA drivers and successfully ran system
file checker in Windows. Neither step fixed the problem. I've also tried
turning off all non-essential processes using Task Manager, to see if
there's anything pulling resources. No dice. Also ran DX Diagnostics and
had no errors reported.

No other OS-related errors on the laptop seem to be occuring. It's
merely acting like my video card has an old driver (which is not the
case) or is not getting enough resources to run the display properly.

Can anyone explain what might be causing this?

Thanks,
John

"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of the
Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run normally for
a short period of time (less than an hour) before their animations turn to
molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like my video card is gimped
in some way.

I've reinstalled the latest NVIDIA drivers and successfully ran system
file checker in Windows. Neither step fixed the problem. I've also tried
turning off all non-essential processes using Task Manager, to see if
there's anything pulling resources. No dice. Also ran DX Diagnostics and
had no errors reported.

This is a very insidious piece of malware that can extremely difficult to
completely remove. The symptoms you describe are those similar to an
incomplete removal. I'd suggest d/l and scanning with this for a start.
Install in normal mode, reboot and run in safe mode. See what it finds...
http://www.superantispyware.com/
No other OS-related errors on the laptop seem to be occuring. It's merely
acting like my video card has an old driver (which is not the case) or is
not getting enough resources to run the display properly.

Can anyone explain what might be causing this?

Thanks,
John

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:zCq%j.372$i74.96@edtnps91...

"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of
the Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run
normally for a short period of time (less than an hour) before their
animations turn to molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like
my video card is gimped in some way.

I've reinstalled the latest NVIDIA drivers and successfully ran
system file checker in Windows. Neither step fixed the problem. I've
also tried turning off all non-essential processes using Task
Manager, to see if there's anything pulling resources. No dice. Also
ran DX Diagnostics and had no errors reported.

This is a very insidious piece of malware that can extremely difficult
to completely remove. The symptoms you describe are those similar to
an incomplete removal. I'd suggest d/l and scanning with this for a
start. Install in normal mode, reboot and run in safe mode. See what
it finds...
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Thanks for the reply, Augustus.

I did use Vundofix, Adaware Plus and Spybot. All three removed various
bits and pieces of the bug and all the overt symptoms of it seemed to
have vanished. Each prog claimed success in ridding the virus. I'll try
the software you recommended, as well.

Also, I forgot to include my system information:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack
3
(2600.xpsp.080413-2111)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron XPS Gen2
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.13GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 872MB used, 3067MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...

Also, I forgot to include my system information:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3
(2600.xpsp.080413-2111)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron XPS Gen2
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.13GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 872MB used, 3067MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)



Not to rain on any parades, but SP3 has been causing various problems. I
know I won't install it again.

I did use Vundofix, Adaware Plus and Spybot. All three removed various
bits and pieces of the bug and all the overt symptoms of it seemed to have
vanished. Each prog claimed success in ridding the virus. I'll try the
software you recommended, as well.

I'm not familiar with Vundofix, but I can assure you that Adaware and Spybot
are not up to this task. Let us know what you find...

'Merchantprince' wrote, in part:
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of the
Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run normally for
a short period of time (less than an hour) before their animations turn to
molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like my video card is gimped
in some way.
_____

In addition to 'Augustus' recommendations on complete removal of the
Virtumonde , let me add:

The slow-down, stutter and freeze of a screen saver could be the symptom of
a 'memory leak', an ill behaved application that does not release memory
when no it's longer needed (and thus have nothing to do with your video
card). As time goes on less and less memory is marked available and the
system grinds to a halt. This used to be a common problem in pre Windows
2000 MS operating system applications (and a version of Internet Explorer
had this bug.)

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde spyware/adware/...
infestation, check the Wikipedia article on Virtumonde that list hundreds of
processes, DLLs, and registry entries involved. In addition to the
intentional malware aspect one of the processes might just be poorly enough
written to cause problems like a memory leak.

Video drivers for laptops generally ought to be obtained from the laptop
manufacturer rather than the nVidia; various laptop manufacturers customize
video drivers much more than you will find for plug-in video card
manufacturers, especially for power conservation.

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde spyware/adware/...
infestation, check the Wikipedia article on Virtumonde that list hundreds of
processes, DLLs, and registry entries

Phil Weldon

"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of the
Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run normally for
a short period of time (less than an hour) before their animations turn to
molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like my video card is gimped
in some way.

I've reinstalled the latest NVIDIA drivers and successfully ran system
file checker in Windows. Neither step fixed the problem. I've also tried
turning off all non-essential processes using Task Manager, to see if
there's anything pulling resources. No dice. Also ran DX Diagnostics and
had no errors reported.

No other OS-related errors on the laptop seem to be occuring. It's merely
acting like my video card has an old driver (which is not the case) or is
not getting enough resources to run the display properly.

Can anyone explain what might be causing this?

Thanks,
John

Sinner wrote:
"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...

Also, I forgot to include my system information:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service
Pack 3 (2600.xpsp.080413-2111)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron XPS Gen2
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.13GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 872MB used, 3067MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)



Not to rain on any parades, but SP3 has been causing various
problems. I know I won't install it again.

It seems to work fine with Intel; causes problems with AMD.


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:NYq%j.376$i74.48@edtnps91...

I did use Vundofix, Adaware Plus and Spybot. All three removed
various
bits and pieces of the bug and all the overt symptoms of it seemed to
have vanished. Each prog claimed success in ridding the virus. I'll
try the software you recommended, as well.

I'm not familiar with Vundofix, but I can assure you that Adaware and
Spybot are not up to this task. Let us know what you find...

Good news! Superantispyware did indeed find 7 more instances of Vundo -
two registry entries and 5 additional dlls in win32 missed by Vundofix,
Adaware Plus and Spybot. Odd that each of those three programs found
files the other two missed, all reported the infestation clean, yet none
completely cleaned Vundo out!

After completing a full systems scan in safe mode, I rebooted and tested
the screensavers. After an hour of continuous use, it appears that the
stutter has vanished.

Thanks for that recommendation, Augustus!

"Phil Weldon" wrote in message
m...
'Merchantprince' wrote, in part:
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of
the Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run
normally for a short period of time (less than an hour) before their
animations turn to molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like
my video card is gimped in some way.
_____

In addition to 'Augustus' recommendations on complete removal of the
Virtumonde , let me add:

The slow-down, stutter and freeze of a screen saver could be the
symptom of a 'memory leak', an ill behaved application that does not
release memory when no it's longer needed (and thus have nothing to do
with your video card). As time goes on less and less memory is marked
available and the system grinds to a halt. This used to be a common
problem in pre Windows 2000 MS operating system applications (and a
version of Internet Explorer had this bug.)

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde
spyware/adware/... infestation, check the Wikipedia article on
Virtumonde that list hundreds of processes, DLLs, and registry entries
involved. In addition to the intentional malware aspect one of the
processes might just be poorly enough written to cause problems like a
memory leak.

Video drivers for laptops generally ought to be obtained from the
laptop manufacturer rather than the nVidia; various laptop
manufacturers customize video drivers much more than you will find for
plug-in video card manufacturers, especially for power conservation.

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde
spyware/adware/... infestation, check the Wikipedia article on
Virtumonde that list hundreds of processes, DLLs, and registry entries

Phil Weldon


Phil, thank you for the reply.

It appears that Superantispyware did indeed find some additional files
my other removal tools missed and it looks like the stutter in the
display may be solved. For future reference, regarding your suggestion
of a possible memory leak, is there any tool to test for such a leak?

'Merchantprince' wrote, in part:
For future reference, regarding your suggestion of a possible memory leak,
is there any tool to test for such a leak?
_____

Short, quick answer.

I am sure there are such tools.

Probably Windows Vista has sufficient built-in monitoring tools, similar
free system monitoring tools can be downloaded for Windows XP from the
Microsoft MVP website.

I vaguely remember that there were several 'heaps' for things like open
windows handles, etc. as well as the general memory pool. While Windows was
still DOS based (Windows 3 through 98 SE and, ahem, what was that final
gasp - Windows Millennium?) the heaps were limited to 64 KB. That changed
with the NT based operating systems - the heaps became megabytes rather than
64 KB; 64 KB could get used up pretty quickly if the entries were not
released.

Of course, whenever you shut your system down, the results of any 'leaks' go
away.

That's the best I can do off the top of my head, and I may already have
posted more than I know B^(

Phil Weldon



"Merchantprince" wrote in message
...
"Phil Weldon" wrote in message
m...
'Merchantprince' wrote, in part:
I have been having an odd problem. After recently ridding my laptop of
the Virtumond virus, I noticed that my screensavers will only run
normally for a short period of time (less than an hour) before their
animations turn to molasses. The screensavers stutter and freeze, like my
video card is gimped in some way.
_____

In addition to 'Augustus' recommendations on complete removal of the
Virtumonde , let me add:

The slow-down, stutter and freeze of a screen saver could be the symptom
of a 'memory leak', an ill behaved application that does not release
memory when no it's longer needed (and thus have nothing to do with your
video card). As time goes on less and less memory is marked available
and the system grinds to a halt. This used to be a common problem in pre
Windows 2000 MS operating system applications (and a version of Internet
Explorer had this bug.)

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde spyware/adware/...
infestation, check the Wikipedia article on Virtumonde that list hundreds
of processes, DLLs, and registry entries involved. In addition to the
intentional malware aspect one of the processes might just be poorly
enough written to cause problems like a memory leak.

Video drivers for laptops generally ought to be obtained from the laptop
manufacturer rather than the nVidia; various laptop manufacturers
customize video drivers much more than you will find for plug-in video
card manufacturers, especially for power conservation.

For an indication of the magnitude of the Virtumonde spyware/adware/...
infestation, check the Wikipedia article on Virtumonde that list hundreds
of processes, DLLs, and registry entries

Phil Weldon


Phil, thank you for the reply.

It appears that Superantispyware did indeed find some additional files my
other removal tools missed and it looks like the stutter in the display
may be solved. For future reference, regarding your suggestion of a
possible memory leak, is there any tool to test for such a leak?