The inability to scan for malware is possibly the result of already being infected. I would try to boot into safe mode and try the scans again. Oh, and thanks for providing the info you did.

fwiw
The free version of RevoUninstaller does not do 64bit uninstalls - doesn't even list the programs in its GUI.. I really question its abilities to uninstall all 32bit programs safely on a 64 bit system. I wont go into details because its been too long ago, but it can Screw You Up on 32bit uninstalls.

I've been using the freeware GeekUninstaller. Seems OK & very simple. Just a single exe program that does a simple look for left overs after it runs the regular uninstaller.. Seems to leave minimal left overs very similar to what Revo would have left.. it never was perfect.

You might want to run your SFC / ScanNow .

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback!

This morning I did the following (in roughly this order):

Ran the sfc /scannow scan twice. Each time I got the notification, "WIndows Resource Protection found corrup files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log"

I tried opening the file but couldn't. (I tried to do so using the information at this page. But I got an error message saying it wouldn't open.)

I ran the MBAM complete scan successfully in safe mode. No issues found.

I used the geekuninstaller to remove PM. (Thanks mikie!)

I saw online (Windows 7 forum) that one might have to run the scan several times to get files to be properly fixed. I ran it a third time with the same message as before.

As a last resort, I suppose I can do a system restore and hope it puts things back to normal. But if there are any more suggestions to try before that, I'll listen to them. :-)

(Incidentally, my Pale Moon had been crashing while watching videos, as I noted originally. Well, my FF has also been crashing, including after doing all the above and rebooting.) :-(

Thanks again!

This post was edited by not2bright on Tue, May 27, 14 at 11:08

You might try a repair install. Here is a good tutorial but read the warnings before proceeding. This procedure does not interfere with any of you personal data you have saved.

N2B,

What are you attempting to watch when your browser(s) fail?

I ask as I watch next to none, but do occasionally watch CBS streaming. For the last several versions of Flash Player (non-IE) I will have occurrences where the streaming might fail and the FF places blame directly on Flash being "busy" or failed. I switch immediately over to IE11 with its own version of Flash Player, and everything is fine.

This all goes beyond having to disable ABP just to connect the streaming. So ABP is not the cause in my concern.

DA

You can copy the CBS.log to your desktop and open it.. but its difficult to make much sense of.

The command run at the Elevated Command prompt...
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

really should put the sfcdetails.txt on the desktop which will show what the problem file is towards the end.

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. And apologies for the long response.

I attempted a system restore and somewhere along the way my computer had stopped booting up completely. While I never got the blue screen of death, I did get the black screen of purgatory. ;-) Apparently (based on later events) the system restore never completed. At some point during the process I got a black screen with a white arrow/cursor (perhaps it was just after the "starting windows" screen). And it just stopped there. I manually shut down (turned off the switch at the surge protector) and tried restarting, but the computer couldn't get past that black screen!

Well, at that point I started trying different things:

- trying to boot up in safe mode (didn't work; got stuck at the same point),

- trying the 'start up repair' option on the same screen as the safe mode option. That didn't work either and it was during these attempts that I got a blue screen saying, "a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." Etc. But there was no way to shut down, so I had to do it the old fashioned way: turn off at the surge protector. Then on to trying something else.

- trying the Windows Memory DIagnostic Tool, which I found inadvertently while poking around the same screen general menu area as the above. The WMDT started a two-part scan and froze during part 2. While it was scanning, though, it did display a "Status:" message indicating that hardware problems were detected and that I should contact the computer manufacturer. Well, instead I called the delightfully honest and knowledgeable computer guy who built my computer for me. :-) (more on that below)

Finally, I again tried booting up and ended up on the same screen as the one where I found the WMDT option. At the top it simply said "Windows 7," which I thought was just a heading, but it was an actual option. So, I selected it just to see what would happen, and suddenly it took me all the way to the desktop screen! I had/have no idea how that happened! But once there, and after looking things over, I realized that the system restore I attempted earlier never went through successfully. Neither did my Pale Moon uninstall.

Well, I skipped attempting another system restore and instead did the following:

- again used geekuninstall to remove Pale Moon (this time also choosing the "forced removal" option, which ended up removing all registry items as well; I hadn't done that the first time),

- shut down properly (first time I could do that in a while!) and fully (i.e. not the 'restart' option) and restarted manually, which finally took me through to the desktop as it should!

- ran all scans (AV, MBAM, SAS) as complete scans, all of which were successful and detected no problems!

Since then I have had no problems booting up or shutting down and no crashes of FF. :-)

So, as far as I can determine just from the computer's behavior, it was probably all caused by using the 64-bit Pale Moon. :-/

Btw, my computer guy was going to come over and physically look at the computer (based on the computer's behavior and the status message I got (above), he suspected harddisc issues). But after telling him that I am now able to reboot and that everything is pretty much back to normal, we will be setting up a time and he will be able to access the computer remotely and do various checks.

Now, in response to posts made since my previous one:

owbist - Thanks for the link. :-) But I don't have the disc necessary to do that.

DA - I was watching either You Tube videos or videos at the 'watchseries' site (mentioned here at this forum on occasion). Once in a while I watch old American TV shows from that site, but it never gave me any issues. And it seems that it really wasn't the problem this time either. It was just during the viewing of them that PM or FF would crash; more a symptom than the main problem.

mikie - Thanks for your further suggestions! I never had a chance to read them before my journey into limbo, and now that things are working I'm afraid to mess with success at the moment by doing something I could easily mess up! :-D But I'll definitely bookmark this thread for future reference.

Thanks to all for your feedback!