Computer is acting up. Help!
 

Okay, this is driving me nuts!

My computer keeps giving me this message and is acting pretty weird lately.

Anyone know what this means? Here is what it says:

Application Error

Exception EAccessViolation in module STOOLBAR.DLL at 000076B0.
Access violation at address 122E7BC4 in module 'STOOLBAR.DLL'. Read if address FFFFFFFF.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to use a sledgehammer!!

Try posting your computer issues here. My brother loves a challenge.

http://muc-central.com/forum/index.php

your browser has been hijacked! you can download anti-spyware stuff off the web and that should clean it up. do a search on google newsgroups and you will find the exact same error message reported and the available fixes...

Holy Crap, Batman!!

Are you serious?? How does this happen?

I'll check out the newsgroups to see what's up. I'm also experiencing other strange things on the computer now.

Thanks for the advice guys.

it's one of the most annoying things on the internet nowadays because they usually sneak past virus detection. you have to layer on additional anti-spyware protection to stop them. the most annoying part is stuff like this when the spyware is malfunctioning and causing all sorts of problems!

Thanks Joe,

I talked to a buddy of mine today and he said that it probably happend because I don't have any firewall set up. I moved a couple months ago and until then was using dial-up. Now I have DSL, so apparantly I've let my door wide open to anyone wishing to hack into my system.

The most disconserting thing is wondering if they've been doing any illegal stuff on the internet while using MY name. I suppose if the FBI or police come knocking at my door, I'll know.

He gave me this advice:

1) Make sure that my anti-virus protection is up to speed

2) Go to Winshampoo

3) Do a complete check on the hardrive

Hopefully I'll be out of the woods on this thing soon!

I might beable to help.
To make sure you don't have any spyware, download this program called Ad-aware (link below) and install it, that will detect any known spyware programs and eradicate them.

http://www.sz.terra.cl/lava/aaw6.exe

Also, what windows version are you using?

This site is recommended for people who need answers to computer questions....

pcmike.com

Manya, How do we know that is not a double agent spyware site?

because it is a very popular program, and updated regulary. I also have no reason to put anyones computer at risk :)
There main homepage is here.
www.lavasoft.de

sflori, just a quick question, did you at any point in the last few days install any new hardware or software? :)

The only software I installed was downloading Kazza a few weeks ago. But after deciding not to use it, I deleted it. I've since heard that the program, like AOL, gets into many parts of the computer. Maybe that's what caused a lot of this.

Plus, I haven't installed a firewall yet.

I like the software on the site which Manya posted...

I know that it found some stuff on my computer because I had read about such items as " flyswatter, gator, and comet cursor" being spyware,,, and I had downloaded a couple of them ( years ago)....it found 142 objects...

Here are some of the things which may come up ....

When it says close all windows programs .... hit the buttons--control-alt-delete at the same time.. that should give you a list of what is running.... highlight one of them at a time... and click on the ' end task' button on the screen...
You may have to do it one at a time.... it may give another screen which says,,, this is busy, etc... and you can click on the ' end task now' button...
There are several you do NOT want to stop running... Explorer, find fast, systray, are three of them.

When the site asks you what you want to do.. like open there , etc... pick the ' save to disc' option... and let it send it to default.. which should put it into your programs file...

then let it download .... put an x into the box for ' close when completed'.... it said three hours download at first... but did the download in about 10 minutes...

Then you can close the box on the screen and go find the program you downloaded... in your program files... and click on it... it will then start the ' install' box... and you can follow instructions from there... it is named something like "aa_6"
Read the help section before running it...

When it gets through installing you can close the window... it will have made an icon on your desktop to click on to start it....

Be sure to find the part where they say " make a copy of ".. so if there is a problem you can send that to them....

I only deleted stuff I KNEW was spyware.... the ones I mentioned above... some stuff I left to research closer before I delete it...

That seams pretty straight forward. Thanks, Leathermang.

I just completed letting Norton Anit-virus do a complete scan of my C-drive. It scanned 127,686 files and found no viruses, so I know that's not the problem as suspected.

Tomorrow I'll check over at the computer store for the winshampoo program. I'm not much of a computer person, so that may be a little easier to work with for me.

Thanks for the help!! :)