Firewall problem, I think!

[Eaglefeather]

I have been using sygate firewall protections since reformating the hd. Today I was out checking my email. I clicked on one of my bookmarks and the computer shut down just as if I had pushed the reset button.

The machine rebooted but when it was all loaded sygate was gone from the task bar.

I went to Start/Programs/Utilities, (this is where I keep all utility shortcuts), and tried clicking on the sygate shortcut but it would not turn on. I then went to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer/Programs and tried using the sygate .exe file, but again no response.

I figured the program had become corrupted so I went to Control Panel and used the Windows uninstaller to uninstall sygate. During the uninstall it gave a message that two .dll files may still be in use so I told the uninstaller to leave them there.

After the unistall I tried reinstalling but on the reboot the program did not load. I went to Start/Programs/Utilities, but surprise, surprise all of my Utility short cuts were gone.

Being suspicious I ran the AV right away, but it came up clean. Next I went on line and ran two online AV's but again they came up clean.

Next I tried SFC and found one sys file that had been corrupted. I forgot to write down the name, but I believe it was either filechck or sysflchk or something like that, in any case I had windows replace it from the Win98se disk.

Since I couldn't get sygate to run I tried reinstalling ZoneAlarm. It installed ok and even put it's icon in the task bar. I thought everything would now be ok until I was able to trace the problem. But the pc froze up and I had to reboot again.

This time I got a message saying that ZoneAlarm was trying to initialize the true vector monitor. Well this thing sat there for about 30 seconds or so and then went off. Nothing happened.
No icon in the task bar.

I went straight away to Start/Program/Utilities/ and clicked on the ZoneAlarm shortcut. What I got was that same, trying to initialize the true vector monitor, then nothing.

The long and short of it is I am now out on the net without firewall protection.

Does anyone have any idea what may be wrong?

This is an AMD K7S5A mobo with a duron 1000 processor. 128 mgs of RAM and 40 gig hd running win98se.

[fatboyjim]

Start --> Run --> MSConfig

Go to the Startup tab and let us know what is trying to run there (should be a list of files)

Thanks,

Jim

[Dan]

It also may be possible that you have some sort of Trojan or spyware that has found it's way to your hard drive, and is running/keeping your firewall offline. fatboyjim's suggestion might reveal something on this line.
Adaware is a good program for finding this sort of thing and removing it.
Also, you might try looking in the program folder for Sygate or any of the other utilities' program folders that you lost that were on your start menu shortcuts. See if you can find the .exe file that is the program itself, and click on it ...does the program load?
get back to us......

[Eaglefeather]

I checked msconfig and there is nothing running that shouldn't be. I have and keep almost everything except essentials turned off so it is not difficult to keep tabs on it.

The .exe files for both ZoneAlarm and Sygate are there, as are their shortcuts. I have tried getting them to load from both the short cuts and from the actual .exe file, but no dice.

I will run spybot and see if it picks up a piece of spyware that may be causing the problem.

I am still bothered by why the PC shut it's self down. The site I had clicked in the bookmark file when the PC shutdown, was one I go to regularly and other than a cookie they do not have spyware.

I sure want to get to the bottom of this, I don't feel comfortable being out here without a firewall.

[NationalServer]

hd connections okay? psu?

[Eaglefeather]

I ran Spybot and it of course found a ton of spy ware. But no trojans or other problems were reported. I went ahead an let it clean up the garbage.

Then I did what I should have done before, I set it up to check regularly including at boot up.

After cleaning up the spyware I tired uninstalling and reinstalling both sygate and ZoneAlarm. Sygate would not open at all, perhaps I will have to redownload the program. ZoneAlarm on the other had installed ok and opened this time. It was after 2am by this time so I went to bed.

This morning when I rebooted the Pc ZoneAlarm installed ok and is running.

Spybot did it's thing but gave me a warning message however the message is in German. My German is not what it was 35 years ago so I am unable to figure out what the warning says. Just in case any of you speak German here it is.

Zugriffsverletzung bei adresse 00429560 in module 'Spybotsd.exe'. Lesen von adresse FFFFFFFF.

I looked all through spybots help files looking for something that might indicate what that means but no luck.

I am sure something is wrong but don't have a clue what it could be. I sure hope I am not going to have to reformat the hd again.

[Eaglefeather]

This morning ZoneAlarm did not install again. It tried to initialize the true vector monitor, about 30 seconds then nothing. Also the warning from Spybot is still there.

I shut down and rebooted. Same thing.

Tried opening ZoneAlarm from the .exe file but again it tried to initialize the true vector monitor then nothing.

I rebooted again but this time ZoneAlarm opened. Still have the spybot warning.

Surely someong has some idea of what is going on here. This is not normal behavior.

Oh...... I ran spybot again but it came up clean.