HP Envy X350 and Malware?
HP Envy X350 and Malware?
Hello everyone, I’ve been working on fixing problems with my father’s HP Envy X350 (touchscreen, i5 processor, 8GB RAM) running Windows 8.1 for a few weeks. Here are the main issues I’ve noticed:
1. Some icons and executables disappear from the desktop or taskbar.
2. The Yahoo email client behaves oddly—when you try to delete emails, it keeps asking what to delete multiple times before actually deleting.
3. Firefox is set to show a specific homepage, but the next day it randomly switches to something else.
4. Windows Defender says it’s not running, and I’m unsure why it’s disabled.
5. The system feels slow when clicking or loading videos from YouTube or similar sites.
6. On Ebay.com (a daily example), the screen scrolls unpredictably and opens different sections. If he visits My Ebay and clicks his watchlist, it redirects to a wishlist or a sale instead.
What I’ve tried so far: installed Spybot 2.4, Malwarebytes, Webroot, AVG Antivirus, CCleaner, and Hitman Pro. My dad mentioned talking to HP support via live chat, where they remotely controlled his laptop and showed time-based conflict graphs in the control panel. They suggested a two-year contract with HP for $250 to clean the machine monthly.
I’ve removed any malware signatures found, but the problem seems to return quickly—next day it’s worse. I’m considering using the recovery partition to restart from scratch, but I’m not sure if that’s the right path yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Chris.
Always perform virus scans by launching Windows in safe mode to guarantee proper functionality.
It seems there might be a recurring infection. When you used Malwarebytes, was the rootkit scanner active (it’s usually disabled by default)? If not, try enabling the anti-rootkit feature and run a scan. If it finds anything, clean the system and re-scan, repeating until no results appear. Then run all your other scans just to be thorough. There are several additional steps involved, but these are some of the simpler ones. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, consider using the recovery image after backing up important data. The recovery image will restore everything to its original state, though it will erase everything on the drive. You can try the refresh option, but it hasn’t worked well for fixing issues that an SFC scan couldn’t address. At a minimum, this could save you around $250, as HP might not be able to repair it even if they suggest otherwise.
I don't think the rootkit scanner was activated. I really overlooked that part. I'll review it once more.