MY SYSTEM: I run XP on my HP Pavilion laptop. I maintain constantly-updated McAfee anti-virus and firewall software (through AOL) and frequently run AdWare Away, XSoft Spy, Windows Washer and RegiCure. I am confident my computer is virus free.

PROBLEM: When I am away from the computer (or idle) for 20-30 minutes, my computer reboots and restarts to the Windows log-in screen. As a first attempt to resolve this, I went into Startup and Recovery and unchecked "Automatic Restart," but the problem still occurred.

EVENT LOGS: Exactly 1.5 minutes before each reboot, my System Viewer records an "Application Popup" event. Then, exactly 1 minute before the reboot, my Application Viewer records a "McAfee Hacker Watch" event. Finally, at the exact moment of each reboot, my System Viewer records a "Service Control Manager" error (marked with a red "x" in the Viewer).

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for resolving this. Thank you!

First:
Click Here to download the current version of HiJackThis.

• Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop.
• Open Notepad > Click on Format > Uncheck Word wrap, if checked.
• Double-click on the desktop icon for HJTINstall.exe.
• By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HiJackThis.
• Continue to click Next in the setup dialogue boxes until you get to the Select Additional Tasks dialogue.
  
• Put a check by Create a desktop icon then click Next again.
• Continue to follow the rest of the prompts from there.
• At the final dialogue box click Finish and HijackThis (HJT) will launch.
  
• Close any/all browsers, messenger, mediaplayer, Office and mail client windows and applications.
  
• Click on the 'Scan' button. When the scan is finished, press the 'Save' button. HiJackThis will open a Notepad document with scan in it. Save the log to your Desktop for ease in locating it.
  
• Click on Edit > Select All then click on Edit > Copy to copy the contents of the log to your clipboard.
• Come back here to this thread, right click your mouse and select Paste to paste the log in your next reply.
• DO NOT have HijackThis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.
• Make certain your post shows the entire log, please.

To see a tutorial with screenshots on using HijackThis you can click on the link below:
How to use HijackThis to remove Browser Hijackers, Malware, & Spyware


Second:
Please download SilentRunners from here:
http://www.silentrunners.org/Silent%20Runners.zip

Unzip it to the desktop and double-click on it.
Silent Runners will ask if you want to skip the supplementary search.
Please select 'No' to include them.
The program will take longer to run, but will give us more information.

If you get any kind of warning message about scripts, please choose to allow the script to run.

When the scan is finished, a message will pop up and a logfile will have been created on the desktop.
The logfile is named 'Startup Programs' by default and will be located where the program is.

Please post the entire contents of this logfile for me to see.

Hi --

Thank you VERY much for your offer of help, but I need to offer you an apology. Shortly after I uploaded my issue here, I thought I would give AOL LiveHelp a try and (amazingly) they succeeded in working me through the problem. I cleared some files, returned to some default settings and reloaded Internet Explorer 7, and, since doing that, there have been no further reboots ... even after leaving the computer on all night. Maybe reloading IE 7 over the top of my existing McAfee security program solved the problem.

Anyway, if this problem occurs again (as it has in twice in the past), I hope you will still be willing to look at the logs at that time. I just feel bad asking you to waste your time with it right now, however, since everything seems to be working fine.

You guys are really great and have helped me before. Thanks again for your response and sorry for the false alarm!!

THanks for posting back. Glad you solved your problem.