Corruption

[Rob Himself]

When I do  sfc\scannow , it get's to 63%, then says it found corrupted files, but was unable to fix them. I couldn't open the cbs file so I used a third party log viewer from D7, and that said;
C:\Windows\System32\KBDINEN.DLL  is corrupt,
And source file in store is also corrupted. I do not have a restore disk, or is it called installation disk? Anyway, I don't have one of those,nor do I have blank disks to burn a repair cd. How the hell are you supposed to replace corrupt system files?
I can't get to anything in the MMC (you know, device manager and all that?) nothing, not even services manager. Now the errors are mounting,especially the Windows Host Controller,I think it's called- that shuts off as soon as windows starts. I'm surprised I can still get on the internet! I'm not a total newbie at this stuff,so you don't have to dumb it down when you're explaining how stupid I am. So any help would be greatly appreciated. (yes, I download shit off the internet-I do have stuff set up, but apparently not the right stuff,and I'm well aware of the risks.) By the way, Hitman Pro insists that there's a trojan in the tweaking.com windows repair program.

[Shane]

By the way, Hitman Pro insists that there's a trojan in the tweaking.com windows repair program.

Another false positive. Question is, is it flagging the windows repair itself or just the setup file?

I don't have one of those,nor do I have blank disks to burn a repair cd. How the hell are you supposed to replace corrupt system files?

Thats why you need to get your hands on a cd of what ever OS you have. You may need to see about getting a copy off the net. Not an illegal one, just a setup disk. You already own the license.

Speaking of which what version of windows are you on?

And another thing we need to ask, why are files getting corrupted in the first place? Have you ran a chkdsk on the drive and also had it check for bad sectors? If not it wouldn't be a bad idea. But keep in mind the check for bad sectors can take a long time.

A lot of errors can be permissions problems, the windows repair will help with that. But first lets make sure that drive is safe. So do that scan on the sectors

From there have you checked for any infections? A combo of the tdsskiller.exe, malwarevytes and avast scans usually work well.

Once the hard drive has been scanned and you verify the system is clean then give the windows repair tool a run. Run all the repairs. but do a backup first. While it will and should fix a lot of things you never know if there will be any side effects. Its always a good idea to be safe.

I'm not a total newbie at this stuff,so you don't have to dumb it down when you're explaining how stupid I am

I never treat people like they are stupid.

I am off to bed, let me know how things go

Shane

[Rob Himself]

Well alright,thanks for the promp reply. Ok, here we go- I'm unorganized here but I'll try to elaborate:
- I have Vista
-How are files getting corrupt?  That's exactly my question? How?? Isn't that what some trojans do?
- I've done disk checks and everytime it says everything's okey-dokey- no bad sectors- nothing.
- Any infections?  I do have Malwarebytes and it kicks ass and doesn't mess around! It's found alot of stuff in the past and seems to be on top of things, but I know it can't do the job itself. For antivirus, I find myself for the third time going back to Microsoft Security Essentials. I've tried other anti virus software and the one that stands out that I will go back to is ESET NOD32- it's light on resources, fast,and snags shit before it can cause havoc. I just don't like paying for stuff! Who does?? But I always get let down because they don't live up to the hype. I have alot of antiroot kits and run them all after scans. I've got Spyware Terminator going as well. I have Spybot Search and Destroy,too, but it seems like a resource hog-I don't know- everytime it's on the system (I have it, but it's not installed) Vista  sure takes it's sweet-ass time doing things, and when I uninstall SB SD stuff calms down. I'm kind of losing track here, so the short and sweet answer to any infections? No
But I strongly suspect there's some sneaky stuff going on. You know that nagging feeling something's not right? That gut feeling that makes you want to nuke everything! (try to hide now!) I do realize rootkits or what not are slick at hiding themselves and unhook when they know a scan is going on.
 
- As far as Hitman Pro goes, I got rid of it. It seemed cool, but that was all. I downloaded another tweaking.com windows repair- scanned the shit out of it- everything's cool.

- Going back to corrupt system files; that's disturbing. I don't have alot of money so I'm kind of stuck with this situation- I think Vista sucks! But this is also a good learning experience as well; you gotta be on the battlefield to know what's going on.
Oh, the the vista licence? Can you get that on system info?

I've watched some of Mark Russinovich's, Case of the Unexplained, and that's how I know how sly malware is, and that manually removing malware is vital, but godammit, you've got to recognize the signs and know where "they" like to hang out in your system.
You ever think of doing anything like sysinternals?  Like Process Explorer, for example? That would make your site even cooler- and great stuff,too by the way! Many snaps on windows repair!!

[Shane]

You ever think of doing anything like sysinternals?  Like Process Explorer, for example? That would make your site even cooler- and great stuff,too by the way! Many snaps on windows repair!!

I love sysinternals In fact it is thanks to some of their tools that the windows repair tool works so well. I am slowly building more and more apps. My pcwintech.com site has around 2 dozen or more programs and tweaking.com has over 2 dozen now as well.

I am starting a new program called advanced system tweaker.

Here is what I would like you to do since it seems there is no infections.

First this rootkit is the most common, make sure you dont have it, run tdsskill.exe to make sure.
http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208280684

After that run the windows repair, have it do all the repairs.
http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

After you rebooted run my simple performance boost.
http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/simple_performance_boost.html

Under the visual tweaks make sure to have it turn off the vista glass effect. Along with the other tweaks this should help your system feel snappier.

Of course before any of this make sure to do a backup.

As for the antivirus I have no favorite.
All of them have something I don't like and no AV is perfect and a virus will always find a way through.

Avira I use to use but they sold out and do the stupid ask toolbar. Not as a add on but they made it part of the AV! Sellouts, so I dumped them.
I used Microsoft for a while. It didn't do as good on the scans but it wasn't to bad. The bad thing about? It has the slower scanner on the market. I did test and found that it slowed the system down because every program you open your waiting for MS to finish scanning it.

Then I tried panda cloud antivirus. This worked fine and was faster but had bugs. Blue screens and very few options. When it found what it thinks is a virus it doesn't ask you want to do it just does it.

So after all that I went back to Avast free. Faster scanner on the market and the memory never goes about 30 mb. I was impressed. It isn't perfect as well but so far its the better of the 2 evils.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_aug2011.pdf

Shane

[Rob Himself]

Ok, I've done all that you've suggested, but the whole corrupt thing is still there. The combo of TDSSKILL and Avast did find more stuff lurking about,as did spyware terminator, but I'm wondering: since I'm not a master at manually getting rid of stuff, like Russinovich, is all that malware just being revived by it's buddies? I know they watch over eachother: one goes down in flames-his teammates bring him back.
Another weird thing I forgot to mention is why I can't access device manager, event viewer,etc. The mmc window pops up and arrogantly tells me that mmc will not operate with an Internet Explorer lower than 5.5... interesting. I have IE9, which I hardly use(I use google chrome) When I first got this damn machine it came with IE6 I think it was, so what's up with that? I unistalled IE and reinstalled it and windows says,"Yep, this is IE9 you've got."
The mmc stubbornly proclaims,"No you don't jackass! And I ain't working so you can all kiss my ass!"
Crap, this thing's acting like a chick: They expect you to know what's going on in their head and get pissed when you have no idea what the hell's wrong. Then comes the hissy-fit....

[Shane]

The system sounds screwed big time. And more as reg key settings and such and not permissions. Things are out of whack and a reinstall would cure everything.

Problem is, you don't have a cd to install with!

If you have your cd code (Should be on the sticker if it is a store bought machine)

Just get your hands on an install disk and use that keycode and you should be good. You could try a repair install first to see if it fixes things.

Shane

[Rob Himself]

...shit, the registry. The place where it all happens. I've installed and uninstalled so many programs that it's not even funny. Only because I'm always on the lookout for kick-ass stuff (like tweaking.com) so I've come across alot of stuff that just falls flat on the floor. I use Revo Uninstaller because it was hyped up by Maximum PC magazine. It's hot-and-cold from what I've read:some sites say it's awesome(like I think),others say it's wayyyy-too-aggressive! Like yanking out registry entries or what ever that other programs need and over time-CRASH!! I don't know what you think of Revo, but could this also play a part in all of this?
 I got this pc (it's actually a notebook) in 2006 and can honestly say I never had a BSOD not once until just last month and since then all this other ugly stuff surfaced at the same time. Anywhoo, I'll get out of your hair,and hopefully this will be a learning experience for anyone who reads this.
As far as a installation disk goes I'm searching high and low in my attic for the box this pc came in but I'm almost certain it's gone. There's a slim chance the user's manual and all the other crap is in a safe place-NOT in the box I suspect was thrown out!!
You know what "they" say: If you play with fire, yer gonna get burned!
I say: "You have to play with fire to learn how to put it out!"
There's only so much you can learn from books or web sites,sooner or later you have to dive in, and in my case I belly-flopped in!

[Shane]

The registry key values. This is the one reason my Windows repair tool will never be perfect.

There is no way in hell I would make a program that went through and started changing reg key values. It would be a nightmare. So when a users reg keys do get messed up the only resort left is a reinstall.

So I will work hard to have my repair tool cover everything just shy of changing anything in the registry

This is also a reason why it didnt work for you. Of course you should also do a memory check as well, just to cover all the bases
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Shane

[Rob Himself]

 Yes I have done memory checks, more than a few and check disk- all that comes out pretty kosher-no problems according to that.
Except there is a problem and yet, this thing still runs quite well actually. I've run your window repair program more than once in the past, then tried other programs, and you know what? They're all the same crap! with different names, and they all claim basically the same crap . If you read all the reviews, you start recognizing the same ol' song and dance. Your stuff actually does what it says it's going to do: put things back on track! (except in my case, my pc has a cancerous tumor in it) And that's why I came back to it. All this by the way is free hype for anyone else reading this! This is no cheesy infomercial! Gotta go now, and I'll spread the word about your site.
Oh yeah, one more thing: why not do a tutorial about the registry? Like a big help file or something, nothing phd-level, just a simple outline of the importance of it and the dangers of it going bad. I know there's tons of stuff on the internet, but that's just it- overwhelming hoards of pages here, then you have to go there etc., and it's frustrating. This way if people get a base-level understanding of it instead of being afraid of it  ( after all, it's it's just a great-big, database ) maybe they'll know when they come across dubious software, like registry "cleaners"! I still don't know about those: are they good or bad?   

[Shane]

like registry "cleaners"! I still don't know about those: are they good or bad?

Personally I stay away from them. While some may work, there is simply to many variables in each users system that can throw something off.

The registry is like the human brain. While you can work on it with some success, the more you go into it the more dangerous it becomes.

Shane