erratic behavior

I have a desktop XP. It was working perfectly until last night. I ran malwarebyte and found three trojans and two registry keys. Earlier the same day I ran malwarebyte. It was a good health bill. All the trojans were associated with ccleaner 3.3. I removed those and it worked for a while then it started to behave uncontrollable. If I click on firefox shortcut, or any other application or a file it opens dozens of instances each in its own window. I restored an image I created a few month ago when the PC was working perfectly well. The computer worked well for a short while then the keyboard stopped working. I bought a new keyboard, the same stanza. Any suggestion what that could be?

It's all over the internet this week about CCleaner having been hacked.

Here is one example: https://securitybrief.co.nz/story/cc...alware-attack/

You may also want to try Combofix HERE.

Avast Piriform says that hackers infiltrated its update servers to inject malware into a recent CCleaner release, but the issue has been resolved before any known attacks.

More info: PCWorld - CCleaner hacked with malware: What you need to know

I am aware of the CCleaner issue. I fixed that. The new problem is with the keyboard.

The computer works well with the mouse. The issue appears with the keyboard. For instance, if I press letter D, the application I am working with closes. I restarted it, now pressing D displays D. It works for a short while then it goes RIP. The new keyboard acts the same way. What could caused the keyboard to behave that way

Reset the BIOS to factory defaults first.

Then check to see if the same problem occurs when running in Safe mode.

If no, then that could point to a problem with software that runs in 'normal' mode but not Safe mode.

If yes, it could be a hardware problem.

To find out, boot from a Live CD|USB such as Knoppix and see if the same problem occurs.

If yes, and if possible, try plugging the keyboard into a different port ... one that's directly connected to the motherboard (of course).

If the same problem is still occurring, starting to sound like it may be a bad motherboard.

Let us know what you find ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpywareDr

Reset the BIOS to factory defaults first.

Then check to see if the same problem occurs when running in Safe mode.

If no, then that could point to a problem with software that runs in 'normal' mode but not Safe mode.

If yes, it could be a hardware problem.

To find out, boot from a Live CD|USB such as Knoppix and see if the same problem occurs.

If yes, and if possible, try plugging the keyboard into a different port ... one that's directly connected to the motherboard (of course).

If the same problem is still occurring, starting to sound like it may be a bad motherboard.

Let us know what you find ...

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I tried to get to the bios but I couldn't use any keys to move the highlight, the keyboard was not reponsive. I am now trying to restore earlier image I will keep you posted

Another way to reset the BIOS is to remove the BIOS battery for a few minutes, then re-inserting it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpywareDr

Another way to reset the BIOS is to remove the BIOS battery for a few minutes, then re-inserting it.

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I will try it and will keep you posted

I just tried it, I got the bios display but the keyboard was responsive. I should send my PC to its burial site...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Votan

I just tried it, I got the bios display but the keyboard was responsive. I should send my PC to its burial site...

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:confused: The keyboard "was" or "was not" responsive?

the keyboard responds for a few strokes and then it goes belly up. The same thing happens with the new keyboard I just bought.

Same problem when connected to another computer?

I have a PC handy, I don't know if I could use it on a laptop, I am not sure about it. Now the computer complains with the message "active partition not found". I boot up with macrium rescue CD, everything work fine with the mouse, I restore the image, the problem persists

I don't have a PC handy, I don't know if I could use it on a laptop, I am not sure about it

If it's a USB keyboard, yes, it should work on a laptop. (I use my favorite mechanical keyboard with my Desktop and Laptop computers, as well as with my Samsung tablet and Galaxy Note smartphone on occasion).

I kept trying and again until I got loading the bios default. Now the computer starts but it stops immediately after changes DELL display and it gives the message "Diskette drive 0 seek failure, press F1 to continue" I press F1 and windows is loaded. I tried to reorder boot disk priorities using all possible combinations, I get the same thing I have to press F1 to start windows. Is there a fix for that?

"Diskette"? Must be a really old computer.

1) Check to see if a diskette is in the drive. If there is, remove it.

2) Try and disable the diskette drive in the BIOS.

I don't have a diskette on this PC, beside it was working perfectly without the diskette issue before ccleaner trojan. I managed to restore image from June, July and August, all of those images were created before the trojan and the computer was working perfectly without a glitch and fast. The keyboard is working, it doesn't look a bios issue either, at least as I could determine.

After it worked nicely for a few minutes, the problem recurse. the keyboard becomes not responsive, the mouse behavior becomes erratic. It doesn't boot anymore from the CD, it used to just this morning.

Sounding more and more like flaky hardware. I'd test the RAM first. If it's good, try a different PSU. If still the same problem, I would suspect a bad motherboard.

I am inclined to believe motherboard, I have 5 backup images created well before the ccleaner trojan, none of them worked, and all of them produced the press F1 to continue I never had this before.

Anyway thanks Doc. I am a Doc but not in computers

Probably.

The "Press F1 to continue" could be due to a failing CMOS/BIOS battery, or a flaky motherboard.

Since this is a Dell, one thing more you could try is boot the PC up and when it gets to the Dell logo, start pressing the F12 key about every 1 second. A black window will pop up and at the bottom of the list you will see Diagnostics. Click on this and it will run the hardware tests on your system. Maybe this will help and let you know what is wrong.