XP Locks UP..

[Lanwiza]

Can anyone help, it is simply that a family member has dumped his Desktop on me as it has a problem.
It is manafactured by Iqon & is about 3 years old. It is running Windows Xp Professional with a
Intel Pentium D 2,80ghz chip & 1GB Ram.Also running AVG Anti Virus

The story of how I ended up with it is because he contacted me with a (rogue) program causing him problems. It was called AntiMalware & is known as a fake program, so I sent him details on how to remove it & a Program to do it with as recommended by many forums "Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware".

He then contacted me to say he could not do anything with the system & had not installed the above program either, though the AntiMalware program had also gone after he kept shutting it off when it put up alerts. The system now just locks up.

Now the tower is sat on my desk & heres a quick breakdown (sorry for the pun) of problems I've encountered in the short time I've had it. Not been able to spend much time on to now due to very busy. So here is a quick breakdown of issues I've Noticed so far & I am hoping you guys/gals can pleaseeeeee help me???

1. I have tried to install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program but system wON'T RUN IT EVEN (Nothing happens).

2. There is now NO Windows Security Centre Icon in Taskbar & managing to get into Control Panel/Security Centre, The option to change the way Security Centre alerts me is not available. So can't get it up & running.

3. The System will not let me use system restore to set to an earlier point either. I can get through to choose a date & move forward to the ready to shut down & restore to a previous setting, Then pressing Next to do it the system locks up & the screen does not change.

4.The system most of the time locks up as soon as Desktop comes up, so nothing can be done but RESTART!!!!!!

5. I managed to get C Cleaner up & running to stop a lot of the crap he has installed running on start up i.e. Printers, Google earth,games etc. But this does not seem to help with start up as it still locks up most of the time on start up.

6.Tried running McAfee's STINGER program as well (from a CD disk as the program is a portable no install) as I have found this is usually good at finding virus's. It started but soon ground to a halt after a couple of minutes, then system LOCK UP.

7. Won't Let You install a different Anti virus software either. AVG is locked down not working!!

8. No unusuall processes seem to be running when Windows Task Manager is run as I can see??


So there you have it,that's as far as I've got, due to time constrictions so if you could please please help. I am sure it's that original rogue program AntiMalware or another one that is the problem with it, but not having the time I hope you can help.So if there is another piece of software to get round the problem of trying to run it to remove the asaid issue, I'd be would be most grateful.



ps I have warned him I may have to reinstall Windows & maybe replace his restart Button as I've nearly worn it out!!!

[glc]

If it will start in safe mode, you can install and run Malwarebytes and other removal tools.