I think i have a Virus How do i completlely erase my Drives

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560
Hi There,

I believe i have a virus or something on my computer because the other day my computer crashed for no reason and now my computer is very laggy and slow ever since. I have removed most of my programs off my SSD and HDD and backed up images onto a CD. However what is it i do now to make sure my drives are not infected and wont get re-infected after i reinstall windows through windows 10 settings?

I was reading about wiping a HDD which takes 7 passes? which takes 9.7 hours. Do i need to do this on my HDD to make sure any virus is gone? What software do i use to do this? Do i need to do this on my SSD as well?

If someone could give me a simple list in order of what i need to do, i would be extremely appreciative.

For clarification, i have an SSD with my windows installed on as a boot drive, and my HDD which i have uninstalled everything on it (including pictures, programs , music etc).

Thanks very much

Starklet
 

bigwoofer

Honorable
Aug 14, 2013
22
0
10,590
To get a start figuring this out - press and hold the CTRL+ALT+Delete keys - a menu will open. Select 'start task manager' and then click the 'performance' tab and sort by processor column. This shows you exactly what is using up your CPU. You can then go into 'Resource Monitor' in the bottom of that tab. This is where you find what's bottlenecking your pc performance. I've caught so many people ready to upgrade their entire machine when all they needed was more ram, or a faster hard drive, OR a faster processor. NOTE: To see if you need more ram, you're looking for 'hard faults' in 'Resource Monitor'. This is where your program went to the ram to find the info it needed, and had to 'hard fault' to the slower disk drive to retrieve what was previously in ram
 

Rabmac

Estimable
Nov 29, 2015
82
0
4,610
If you have antivirus installed on your PC and it has upto date definitions then I very much doubt you have a virus as the AV is very good at protecting you against viruses.

That does not mean your PC is not infected with some other form of malware.

If you don't mind me asking, what where you doing that may have caused a malware infection?
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


My systems specs
CPU: AMD FX 8350 4.5GHZ
GPU: GTX 770 4GB Twin Frozr
RAM: 8GB 833mhz corsair
PSU: 600W Silverstone
Motherboard: Some cheap £45 mobo

Im not sure if it is a hardware failure or a virus. I will link my other post if u care to take a look at it, i have everything explained in there.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2931903/urgent-computer-suddenly-extremely-laggy-windows-games.html#17290559

Thanks for your time sir

 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


Hi there,

The computer crashed for no reason when i was actually on a game with a friend. I use AVG free, malware bytes and anti-exploit (both premium). I cant seem to work out if it is hardware failure or a virus or something on my computer slowing it down.

I wanted to reinstall my computer just to take that variable out of the equation to save me from buying new hardware, if, infact it was just a virus. Let me know if u need anything else.

Thanks

 

Rabmac

Estimable
Nov 29, 2015
82
0
4,610
Take a read at this article and follow the steps and this should let you know why your PC crashed: http://www.howtogeek.com/222730/how-to-find-out-why-your-windows-pc-crashed-or-froze/

This is the best thing to do, rather than have us guess what the cause was.
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


I will take a read of that to see why my computer crashed. If u understand what bigwoofer said earlier, could u take a look at this screenshot and tell me if anything is out of the ordinary. i was not sure what to look out for.
https://gyazo.com/d3d995ff8a7d344e7e3498f755ca7cce
Also, that screen is so laggy, it takes 2-5 seconds for clicks to register and is almost to slow to move around my desktop. I have nothing running on my computer apart from antivirus's and google chrome.

Lastly, do you know what i need to do to wipe each drive properly for a fresh install? my SSD is a samsung EVO.

Cheers

 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


I have ordered Bit Defender Total Security online and will be arriving in the post in a couple of days. It was rated pretty good and was on sale.

Thanks !

 

Rabmac

Estimable
Nov 29, 2015
82
0
4,610
Please relax and stop jumping to conclusions, there is no need to go and buy anything at this moment in time.

Looking at those graphs it looks like you have a 100% RAM usage which explains why your system is lagging. Now we need to find out why.

Follow these steps:

1. Hit ctrl+alt+delete
2. Click the performance tab
3. At bottom click "show processes from all users"
4. Once that loads, click memory at the top of that column to order all the processes so the one using the most RAM is at the top (I suspect it may be svchost)

Note: if it is svchost this could signify malware or it could be a memory leak from one of the windows services.

5. If svchost is at the top, right click it and select "goto services".

Is wuauserv highlighted?
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


Sorry, i am just worred my computer is ruined. I am running on Windows 10 and them steps didnt seem to follow on my computer. However, i think i found what you asked for:
https://gyazo.com/375e01938345af7c9cfc5b2965114698
Then after right clicking "svchost" then go to service(s):
https://gyazo.com/735df065e13ef694ade533216f50067e

Svchost is close to the top under applications which could be expected to be above it. and wuauserv is not highlighted however something very similar below it is highlighted.

Hope this shows it clearly for you

I really do appreciate your help.

 

Rabmac

Estimable
Nov 29, 2015
82
0
4,610
Svchost is not using that much RAM, I was just checking to see if you were suffering from memory leak or if malware was using this process.

Out of interest how much RAM do you have in your computer? Could you also check reliability monitor as this will tell you what crashed your machine. The instructions are in the first link I posted.
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


I checked the reliabilty monitor and went back to the day it crashed first and found 2 ciritcal events on that date. Before this date my computer was working perfectly fine but after that, it has gone extremely laggy. i will screenshot my findings:
https://gyazo.com/7bdc4e9f2fde99fd86416c6f6b5e184f

Then the Friday that just passed, i tried loading LoL to see if the lag had stopped and my computer was still lagging (very long loading even on SSD and maybe 20fps if lucky, usually on 120capped). The game also crashed and i had to hard reboot my computer if i can remember correctly. i will post that screenshot:
https://gyazo.com/a1f7595de93335f8ddb090bb0233bc78

also on the sunday, it tells me cortana stopped working twice but I didnt notice anything out of the ordianary, however that laggyness was still there.

Let me know if u want to see any of the other daily partitions on that monitor.

https://gyazo.com/17f4d1005c0967e5ad17a04f09eec2f1 - just checked my windows updates and this is showing. If this serves any use to you as to why the malware update was failed.

Thanks buddy

 

Rabmac

Estimable
Nov 29, 2015
82
0
4,610
Try "checking for a solution" on reliability monitor on the first critical error and "view technical details" on the other error. Post a screenshot of the details please.

 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


Sorry, i have been a little busy today.
The screenshots you asked for for the two errors in one day: https://gyazo.com/585c53954615bc60dc5116847d4ddaeb

Then the "windows" critical error: https://gyazo.com/5e30122269255b25f4bd2881e4e9d46a

Last night, the computer also encountered a critical error called : rads_user_kernel.exe: https://gyazo.com/30170211cc445db0c551eb567827c6ff

and the day before yesterday, there was a critical error called vista driver installer:
https://gyazo.com/0c0df6d56765ca68ee2182ab8f36aa2a

thanks
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


Thanks for the link.
I think i should just completely wipe both of my drives and start again with a fresh install with windows. If the problem persists, then i know it cant be a software or virus/malware issue.

If it persists, i will get the dust out of my computer with compressed air and also remove the ram sticks and clean them aswell. I think if is still continues, it is not over-heating or faulty RAM. I also tested my ram with the memory diagnostic tool and there was no errors after it.

I have read, if a CPU starts to fail, i wont even be able to boot windows and it will just stop working straight away.

I will unplug my HDD and just keep my SSD in my computer when i reinstall windows so i know it is not the HDD causing issues. (i have actually done this the past day and the computer is still extremely laggy).

There is really nothing else i can do at this point. I think i am just gonna have to upgrade my motherboard with the new intel skylake processors and new ram. See if this fixes anything.

I really dont understand why my computer starts lagging with everything including games losing so much fps and stuttering, to windows being extremely slow and laggy.

Thanks for your help Rabmac, highly appreciated. If there is anything else you can tell me to do with benchmark testing or software related checks, let me know.

Starklet.


 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560
Okay, i think i just fixed the issue.

I opened the case on my computer to check everything was plugged in, and it was.
so i pushed the power connectors on my GPU in to make sure there fully connected, and also pushed the side of the gpu to make sure it was fully sat in the pci slot correctly. I also did this with the RAM. ta-da... my computer is not even lagging anymore and is working smoothly like it was last week.

Is it even possible for a ram module or GPU card to come even slightly loose to cause a computer to completely loose all its performance? The thing is, all the RAM was showing up so it wasn't like it wasn't plugged in at all. Very strange.

Could one of the two 8 pin power connectors to the gpu of been loose and this was making my computer lag? Is this possible to make my whoel computer lag? lol

I feel like i have wasted your time Rabmac, but could this "loose Connection" in the GPU and/or RAM cause a system to loose all performance in games and basic internet browsing?

Thanks for all the help buddy!

Starklet.
 

starklet

Estimable
Jul 20, 2014
11
0
4,560


If you don't mind me asking one more thing from you, could a loose power connector to the GPU or a slightly loose ram stick cause a computer to loose all its performance? just so i know for future references. :)

Thanks again buddy, take it easy.

Starklet