Sound problem 1

[LilBob]

Running XP PRO SP3 on Gateway E-4100 PC with integrated SoundMAX Digital Audio. Until yesterday, other than my original problem with Add/Remove Programs & Revo not populating a complete list of my apps, all was good. Last night I was listening to my music but this morning, all was quiet. Device Manager shows no conflicts & all working properly. I tried the easiest solution using a spare set of speakers but still no sound. And yes, I’ve checked volume control. All scans show a clean system. Only other noticeable change is it seems longer to bring up an app or sign on to the Internet. Ran Memtest & all passed. HJT shows nothing shaky. Unless somebody has an idea as to what shut down my sound, I’ll have to bite the bullet & do a clean install (an option I’m really not looking forward to doing).

Almost forgot, went into Control Panel, Sounds & Audio Devices, and Sounds & tried previewing one of the sounds. I got the following error message: ‘Windows cannot play *.wav. The file may use an unrecognized compression file. To solve this problem, replace the file or use Add/Remove Programs to install Audio Compression.’ Any wav file I replace, gives me the same error message. Actually, all sound file types are mute. I don’t want to replace my sound card if I need to do a clean install & vice versa. Suggestions???

Thanks, LilBob

 

[linney]

Only other noticeable change is it seems longer to bring up an app or sign on to the Internet"

Can you launch any applications at all?

Have you tested with another user? You wont get sound in "Safe Mode with Networking" but is there any improvement with the other faults if you try?

I'm sure your putting off the evil day, but you can try System Restore, and SFC /Scannow to use the System File Checker.

ChkDsk, Disk Cleanup, and even a Defrag wouldn't hurt either.

What if you uninstall what ever Sound devices you have in Device Manager, reboot, and hope like hell Windows rediscovers them and returns your Sound.

You could also check the file association for .wav and make sure that appears correct.

Any nasty errors in the Event Viewer?

Are your Codecs still with you, you could try reinstalling them.

This thread may offer you a few clues about the standard codec pack downloadable from Microsoft and some others if that one fails to work.

Problem Installing Software?
thread779-1158960

DirectX: Description of the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;190900&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Do these come up clean if you can run them?

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

SuperAntispyware

http://superantispyware.com/

 

[BadBigBen]

Have you tried to update or reinstall the Audio drivers?

because it sounds like a corruption issue too me...

also worth a try, open a CMD window and type SFC /SCANNOW and check your system files for corruption, be sure to have the Windows CD at hand, because it will ask for it...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[LilBob]

Thanks for all your suggestions, I copied them to a word document in case I run into more problems & will update for results. Had to finish tax forms before tackling this problem.

 

[LilBob]

All applications launch, they just seem to take longer to load; same under another user.

Latest Audio drivers installed

Ran Disk Cleanup, Defrag, MBAM & SuperAntispyware (nothing found).

Process Explorer showing excessive CPU usage (sometimes 100%). Reran Memetest. PC froze shortly after starting.

Tried rebooting in Safe Mode to rerun MBAM. PC froze after starting to load drivers.

Rebooted & ran SFC /Scannow. PC once more froze.

Ran dxdiag with the following results?
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Your sound hardware cannot play sounds.
The DirestPlay Voice Wizard failed with error code 0x80150174
Half Duplex Sound Test: Failed gracefully (not sure how something can fail gracefully)

Event Viewer (Local)\System shows the following error message (more times than I want to count):
Service: Srv Category: None Event: 2000
Description: The server’s call to a system service failed unexpectedly.
Event Viewer (Local)\Application shows no errors but a few warnings but nothing involving sound.

Ran msconfig & in the Services tab, I found the following:
EEGXU
IHXVXDYFAFKSH
NXYJTGMR
ZQGILLB
All unknown as to manufacturer & stopped. Googling these did not find anything. Not sure if that’s part of the problem.

I’ve scheduled chkdsk /r to run at next boot. Will let all know how that works later.

 

[BadBigBen]

Time to run Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware... see links above in Linney's post...

also do a memtest and HDD diag...

Memtests and HDD diags can be found on the following CD:

UltimateBootCD

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[LilBob]

As I mentioned, I had already run MBAM & SUPERantispyware with nothing found and memtest froze PC. All HD diagnostics showed no problems. chkdsk /r finished & corrected multiple problems. All is working fine now. CPU usage is less than 2% and still remains low with multiple apps running. Sound is working once more. I have no idea as to where the original virus came from or how the system got so messed up. I occasionally forget to log off as Administrator at night so that might be the cause or my wife or someone else in the family may have gotten on my PC. All claim innocence. I have the log report from chkdsk.

Thanks again to all for your help ... wish I started with chkdsk first but infection made me look in other directions.
Bob

 

[linney]

I'm glad you seem to have fixed it via ChkDsk.

As to those strange Services, have you ever run a program called RootKit Revealer, or anything similar? I vaguely remember that it use to create strangely named Services in order to run as a service. Unfortunately it never deleted the Services at the completion which led to a bit of head scratching as to what they were.

 

[LilBob]

Yes linney, I had run Rootkit Revealer once in the past. So far all is running well, other than Add/Remove & Revo still not populating a full list of apps. Will let you know if I can find anything more on those services (or deleting them).

Thanks again for your help, Bob

 

[LilBob]

linney,


A check with Sysinternal gave me the following:

'RootkitRevealer creates a temporary, randomly named service whenever you start a RKR scan. Once this scan has finished, this temporary, randomly named service should be stopped and removed automatically. You do not need this service, RootkitRevealer needs its, but only at runtime. It is not there to stay. Since they're randomly named, a list of service names is impossible.'
They did admit that there was a glitch, especially in older versions, where the removal failed.

To uninstall RootkitRevealer, you have to locate the files "rootkitrevealer.exe" and "rootkitrevealer.chm" and delete them. But that will still leave the junk services in your system. The only solution I can think of would be to run SC DELETE <service name>, i.e. SC DELETE EEGXU, etc.

This seems easier & safer than searching & deleting entries in the Register. Of course, I'll set a restore point before doing this. Obviously, I must have run RKR more than once.

I'll follow up by doing a Windows search to see if there are any temp files hiding. Any suggestions/comments?

Bob

 

[linney]

Anything that removes the Service should be OK. I can't remember what I might have done when I had this situation several years ago. I suspect that I would have just deleted the entry from the Registry?


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ THE SERVICE NAME

Just stopping and disabling the Service is all you really have to do if you don't want to delete anything.