Win 7 computer BSOD when start with networking on

Topic

New Reply

Before I begin to anyone who knows me on this site the reason I’ve not been around is because my laptop had a hardware failure and I don’t have the funds to repair it. That being said I’m stuck using my Mom’s old desktop which I must share with 2 other siblings one of which doesn’t know what the sun looks like most of the time. Also to those who don’t know I’m the only one in my family that’s computer literate (meaning to the extent of modifying system resources and using safemode/taskmanager to remove nasty viruses and such).

I was working on a friends machine today and they still had McAfee installed so I started working to get it into usable condition (she was actually trying to scan a document and was having disconnect issues but since normal troubleshooting wasn’t working I decided to check for viruses). I installed CCleaner, Malwarebyte’s (mbam), and downloaded Avira Free. After scanning with mbam I found 28 adware which I removed (had to restart to finish). I then ran CCleaner and cleared about 2GB’s of data (She was also using IE). Next I ran McAfee’s uninstaller which eventually told me to restart the machine and I did but, about when it got to the user select screen it BSOD’d. I tried again and again it BSOD’d. I tried rebooting into safe mode, success but no networking and no other computer to check online for solutions with (I live about an hour away). I tried to use Safe Mode with Networking but it again BSOD’d. Back in regular safe mode I tried: Running a full scan with mbam (no viruses detected), and disabling all start menu entries with CCleaner. Again I tried to restart and again I got a BSOD. Next I tried to run Task Scheduler but apparently Microsoft made a bit of a mistake with that. You can’t use Task Scheduler to edit Scheduled Task while in safe mode so if there is a problem there, you’re screwed (at least as far as the software I had available goes). Finally I tried to find the boot menu but without internet I couldn’t figure out how to edit it.

My best guess is that when it runs with networking it’s also trying to run something else but I can’t seem to find a way to fix that. I’ll be going back over to her house on Wednesday night (probably) to try to finish the job of getting her computer to at least a usable condition again (My families actually moving in with hers and I’ll be setting said computer up to my standards then but this is more of a stopgap measure to make sure the computer illiterate can use computers and not get tons of viruses).

Reply | Quote

Replies

Try using What’s In Startupto see if something is starting with Windows that you don’t need. Also Autoruns can give a world of info on this subject.

I assume you cleared the TIF including history and cookies.

Reply | Quote

Try BlueScreenViewto determine what causes the BSOD.

Reply | Quote

If all of the above fails, try the Clean Bootdiagnostic procedure to narrow down the culprit(s). Ignore the fixit that pops up.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

With the results of the BSOD investigation to hand, can you shed a little more light on what you mean by “she was actually trying to scan a document and was having disconnect issues but since normal troubleshooting wasn’t working…….”. Specifically, what disconnect issues?

Like other “Security Suites”, I have seen McAfee Security Suite do very strange things to networks and my guess is that your friend was having an issue with McAfee in the first instance. The McAfee Uninstaller should have taken care of it, but likewise, I’ve also seen this fail.

Turing to your sequence of events, my suspicion lies on the use of CCleaner before running the McAfee Uninstaller. McAfee is a complex product and a normal removal process would be the other way round: uninstall then use CCleaner. Depending on what you changed and/or removed with CCLeaner, the McAfee Uninstaller may have failed to execute correctly and possibly failed to completely remove the product, leaving a corrupt system in place.

Lots of “if’s, but’s and maybe’s” in all that, but depending on what damage may have been done, you could try a System Restore from Safe Mode.

Reply | Quote

With the results of the BSOD investigation to hand, can you shed a little more light on what you mean by “she was actually trying to scan a document and was having disconnect issues but since normal troubleshooting wasn’t working…….”. Specifically, what disconnect issues?

Like other “Security Suites”, I have seen McAfee Security Suite do very strange things to networks and my guess is that your friend was having an issue with McAfee in the first instance. The McAfee Uninstaller should have taken care of it, but likewise, I’ve also seen this fail.

Turing to your sequence of events, my suspicion lies on the use of CCleaner before running the McAfee Uninstaller. McAfee is a complex product and a normal removal process would be the other way round: uninstall then use CCleaner. Depending on what you changed and/or removed with CCLeaner, the McAfee Uninstaller may have failed to execute correctly and possibly failed to completely remove the product, leaving a corrupt system in place.

Lots of “if’s, but’s and maybe’s” in all that, but depending on what damage may have been done, you could try a System Restore from Safe Mode.

Haven’t been back over there yet (as I said Wednesday night I’ll go) but what I meant was she wanted to print a document and her computer kept popping up a screen saying the printer was disconnected. I ran the basic troubleshoot options (disconnect/reconnect device, run troubleshooting tools, ensure printer was on…) When I didn’t have any luck I decided to run mbam and found the viruses and since McAfee wasn’t doing a good job I decided to try replacing it with Avira (which I’ve have good experiences with especially when coupled with monthly scans by mbam).

As for McAfee’s uninstall I ran CCleaner before running the uninstaller so it didn’t do anything at all to McAfee. The only time I ran it after was after the computer started BSODing.

Having said all that I figured I should add some more info:
First off in case anyone’s wondering I’m in EST (GMT-5)
Second off I believe her computer is Windows 7 Home Premium x64

Reply | Quote

Didn’t get over there nearly as soon as I wanted but I did fix the problem. McAfee somehow changed a registry entry related to Extensible Authentication Protocol service (or didn’t revert a change). I don’t remember the exact value off hand (I saved it to a txt file but left that file on her computer). To fix the problem I did the following: I tried using whatinstartup and bluescreenview. I used whatinstartup to delete the two entries that weren’t disabled by CCLeaner and restarted, no luck. I then used bluescreenview and it said something about ndis. I couldn’t look into it more though due to not having networking. Unable to move on with those I moved on to the Clean Boot procedure. I already disabled all startup entries so I knew that wasn’t the problem (as I had figured already). I then went through the services and did the following: Disabled all Non-MS Services (Didn’t fix it) Disabled all MS-Services (Did fix it but no networking) Used the halves method to find the culprit within Microsoft Services (I left all non-MS services disabled to keep speeds up) Eventually I narrowed it down and found that it was the Extensible Authentication Protocol service. After that I had to search for quite a while before find a result that worked. I turned out to be a registry entry (again I don’t have the exact entry on me and don’t know when I will. The entry was something to the extent of Local Machine/CurrentControlSet/ndisio then I had to change a value from 3 to 2. The fix was actually for fixing a wireless card but I got lucky (I did notice most google results related to repairing EAP were about a broken wireless card which is why I checked).

Reply | Quote

Wow. Great job of debugging.

Jerry

Reply | Quote