Greetings again. As usual, I come here when all else fails, and it has. Before starting, the facts:
Computer is an HP Pavillion laptop, running Windows 10, 64 bit system with x64 bit processor

My music has stopped. Neither Windows Media Player or any of the players that came loaded on the computer will consistently work.
Music can be streamed - Pandora is playing at the moment. WMP is set as the default player.

Behavior: when a selection is made form My Music and 'Play' is clicked WMP pops up, indicates the song selected, and does nothing. If I then close WMP, shut down and restart the computer, WMP works. I have tried all the other players with very inconsistent results. Sometimes they play, sometimes they play for approximately two seconds and then freeze. Sometimes they freeze immediately.

I have gone to Microsoft's help site and tried all they said to do with no luck.

A virus was suspected, so Windows Defender has started a complete scan. A quick scan showed nothing.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Ron

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HP Pavillion, Intel i5 5200U CPU, 2.20 GHz, 8.00 GB Ram, 64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Just as a first thought Media Player and some others can be set to use any installed audio device. Make sure that the players are set to use the system's default audio.

Of course the first step would be to make sure that you have the most recent audio drivers or, if you have recently installed new drivers roll back to the previous set. If you need instruction as to this ask.

Just for a bit more info are you using a sound card and speakers or are you channeling your audio through an HDMI port.

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I'm using a USB sound card (Sound Blaster). I wasn't aware one could channel music through the HDMI port. It's a bit late right now, I'll check to see what audio device Media Player is set to use tomorrow.

I'll also check drivers. No new ones have been installed, so maybe they need to be upgraded.

Thanks for the reply.

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HP Pavillion, Intel i5 5200U CPU, 2.20 GHz, 8.00 GB Ram, 64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Also, have you added any new USB devices? Anything else about your system that changed at the same time that the problem started?

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thanks for the replies and hints as to what steps to take.

The problem has been solved. Your question about installing drivers caused me to think about new programs being installed.

Just before everything went haywire I had downloaded the service manual for my van. It took several tries to find a site that actually downloaded the manual, the others instead asked for permission to scan my hard drive, which they claimed was just chock full of malware. Rather than just closing the page I foolishly clicked 'NO', which they apparently took as yes. It took several tries at shutting down the computer and restarting before the 'Scan Now' pages stopped popping up.

A quick scan by Windows Defender had shown no malware, but a full scan overnight showed four instances of malware designed to download programs had either installed and had been quarantined by WD, but apparently still were buggering things up. This morning I told WD to delete those programs.

Everything is now working as it should.

I wonder if I had just gone to history an deleted those searches there if that would have taken care of things. That seems to be the only way to get rid of that kind of junk on my cell phone (Android, running Chrome).

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HP Pavillion, Intel i5 5200U CPU, 2.20 GHz, 8.00 GB Ram, 64-bit OS, x64 based processor

No, that would not have taken care of things. In fact, I'm not sure you've totally wiped out the infection yet. Closing the page (instead of clicking NO) would not have prevented the infection either. Any action on your part that tried to close things (the page, the window, the browser) would have had the same result - the malware installing.

There is only one way to deal with that situation. Leave the page and browser alone. You may close other programs or save work in other programs and then close them - but do not disturb the browser. Then click Start, Shutdown. You can do a normal shutdown. The OS will close the browser and since memory will be shut down too, the malware will not be installed.

Now you should go and at least get the free version of Malwarebytes and do a full scan with that. You get that from Malwarebytes.org. However, given that you have already gotten into a malware situation by your internet surfing habits, I would strongly urge you to get the paid version, which you can get just for your machine, or for multiple machines in your household, the additional licenses being very cheap.

Lest you think I am being harsh or critical about your surfing habits, let me tell you this. I am a very careful surfer, most of the time - well nearly ALL of the time. But one time I got bit by a bug very similar to what you had happen. I went right up to Malwarebytes and upgraded to the paid version, which runs in the background and intercepts these things BEFORE they get installed. I think that today's environment necessitates a good anti-malware product (in addition to Windows Defender, which is excellent too) that runs in the background and is always vigilant. Even for the pro's.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thanks for the insight Patty. My tendency, when suspicious of something, has always been to just Alt-Ctrl-Del and bring up Task Manager and shut down IE through that. Then again I've been running MBAM Pro for years so my suspicions when I used Task Manager were probably not founded.

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Truthfully, Jay, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not sure if it would keep the thing from installing or not. I do know that shutting down works. I don't even recommend a restart but a full shutdown.

Now that I think of it, I'm less sure that ending task on the browser would work, as you are shutting down the browser process, but you don't know what threads it may have spawned already which you may not end process on.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thanks Pattie. Your advice will be taken and Malware Bytes will be installed. A question, though. I was under the impression that Defender ran in the background. Not true?

I have learned from the experience. Nothing is free. The cost may be money, or as in this case, time and frustration. When a manual was found on ebay the only cost was money, and not much of that.

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HP Pavillion, Intel i5 5200U CPU, 2.20 GHz, 8.00 GB Ram, 64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Defender does run in the background and it is an excellent antivirus program. It also does some spyware/malware, but that is not its primary function. You want a dedicated antimalware product like Malwarebytes to intercept malware before it gets on your machine, such as these web popups. It will also prevent your computer from connecting to known toxic i/p addresses.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

I'll give my vote for Malwarebytes Pro and it would be a good idea to get their Anti Exploit Premium as well. Neither of these programs are expensive but they are definitely worth their cost in peace of mind.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Advice taken, MalwarBytes Prenium installed. It's first scan found two threats, one specifically naming WMP .exe.

Thanks all.

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HP Pavillion, Intel i5 5200U CPU, 2.20 GHz, 8.00 GB Ram, 64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Good on you, DRam! Not surprised it found things.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Yup, after years of using the free version of M for occasional scanning, I made the jump to the paid-for Pro version a few months back. With all the other security programs on my system, never noticed a thing. M plays quite nicely and peacefully with everything, and it is nice now having a second full time/real time scanner on my system.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

I not only use the Premium Version of Malwarebytes, but I am running the new beta version of 3.0 which they just made available. There are some minor issues, but I think it's going to be excellent.

HOWEVER. The real champ that would have totally prevented all this is Sandboxie. Not only would it have totally prevented malware from ever getting on the system in the first place, but even with some of those "FBI" gems that totally lock up the browser, a right click on the tray icon, and you can kill the browser dead.

Yup, with all the dozens of security programs I have played with thru the years, many of them excellent, Sandboxie is still my favorite. I've said this before at the Haven, "If someone were to hold a gun to my head and say, Remove all your security programs except one, the one I would keep is Sandboxie".

Not exactly a program for newbies though, but if you are willing to learn, AWESOME!
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson