The "continuum wont load" issue.

[Guest Guest_Mizerie_*]

To the admins and moderators of this forum, I apologize for bringing this topic up once again. I am the sysop for SSCX Chaos/League Zone and I am an IT technician by day. I feel I have some insight for the problem that causes Continuum to not load and simply "jump" around in your task manager.

 

I currently run Norton AV 2005, no spyware, or no adware programs on my SS machine. I simply use the popup blocker programs built into IE and the firewall security levels that come with Windows XP.

3 days ago I came across a website that just plain loaded my computer full of spyware. Apparently some pretty serious stuff too, I couldnt even start up IE as it would crash from all the spyware applications being installed each time I did it.

After several hours of virus scans and calling friends and having them email the install files for Firefox just so I could get on the internet and hop on these forums to get some ideas I finally started to formulate some ideas.

 

I did EVERYTHING that was recommended in these forums even deleting my HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Continuum folder to no avail. Choosing 'Run As..' is useless and adding Continuum files to my exceptions list did nothing as well.

 

I ran my computer in safe mode and ran Norton and Ad-Aware 6...I removed some 136 files that were infected with adware and viruses/trojan horses.

 

At that point I felt my problem was solved but I wasnt even close.

 

I downloaded Webroot Spy Sweeper and it found an additional 1300 figerprints of spyware and adware. It couldnt even remove all of it without doing several reboots.

 

Now the reason WHY your computer may show Continuum to jump around:

The continuum client instantly connects to several servers through the internet and sends out information packets. The spyware on your computer sees this event and then trys to run its own .dll files and duplicate itself by installing more !@#$%^&* on your computer like "begin2search", "ckloptimzer", surfsidekick"...the list goes on and on depending on how much spyware got in.

The problem is these programs can not be installed through the Continuum client that is tring to send and recieve data. These spyware trojans are usually initiated by a browser that sends out similar packets.

 

Typical process:

-You click on Continuum

-while loading the .dll and sending packets out to the internet the spyware kicks in and tries to load its own software before loading continuum.

-The spyware install fails becasue of the incorrect port usage usually seen with a browser. The spyware shuts continuum down and tries to re-load it.

-Constantly failing the computer jumps to 100% CPU usage and Continuum can only be shut down through a restart.

 

Remember that some forms of Spyware are very weak in nature and can go virtually undetected by the user, however they can be malicious enough to cause the above problem with our continuum client. I am sorry but it seems the only way around this is to purge all instances of Spyware/Adware on your computer. It doesnt hurt adding Continuum to your exceptions list in AV software but if it doesnt fix it you have to dig pretty deeply.

 

being an IT professional I know excatly how to dig into a computers registry and program files to find the origin of the problem. Deleting orginal spyware installation files is a step in the right direction and only helps your spyware program locate the spawns that end up in several of your .dll files. Look for odd programs in your taskmanager and turn them off from the startup by running msconfig.exe. Also look at the Services tab under msconfig and anything listed as 'Unknown' under the manufacturer section can be considered suspicious (unless its your AV software). uncheck the unknown items and reboot. It took me personally about 4 and a half hours to narrow down the problem and fix it. Patience is a good thing

 

I hope I helped even a little. It may confuse some others and I apologize for that but you should know that this problem although time consuming can be fixed without reinstalling windows or formatting.

 

-Mizerie

Chaos Sysop and Premier League Manager

[★ SOS]

Thanks for the report.

 

Can you point me to some spyware that causes this? Which ones did you encounter? I would like to test this.

[Yuiichi]

Mizerie, you could be 100 percent right but, and again 100 percent wrong. You right about the packet detail though, but heres why mine dosent load.

 

I have no spyware at all, yet my client still does that crap. I just installed Tuneup utilties 2006, and tuneup winstyleer, for some reason after i installed them and changed the look of my computer and cleaned it, the continuum does not want to load, its sending packets, but just keeps reloading without showing up. Theres other programs that did that to me also, such as memory watching programs, and Spyware Doctor, also Registry Mechanic, i uninstalled them all, rebooted, and everything was back to normal, so my conclusion is, these programs are triggering or altering the DLL moduels that continuum uses to load, such as kernal.dll and others it needs. So if anyone can continue or help solve this problem, it would be great, im not problem solver, im just a problem finder. >

 

Thanks.

[Guest Guest_Mizerie_*]

Yuiichi,

 

You are correct. I spent some more time screwing around with various programs and AV software to try and duplicate the problem that you are also having. Its quite obvious that the problem we have can be caused by several, if not dozens of different cmbinations of applications, spyware and AV software running on a particular machine.

 

But like I said, and you figured out, the problem can almost always be fixed as long as you have a significant amount of computer literacy. Unfortunately the only permanent fix I think would be a long overdue update to our client. Anyone seen Priitk lately...someone want to hop on the Kazaa forum and tear his !@#$%^&* away from it for a few months? hehehe

 

SOS:

of all the spyware that my Spy Sweeper detected and removed the following were the most malicious and most difficult to remove:

begin2search

clkoptimizer

cws-aboutblank

isearch desktop

surfsidekick

pops-stop trojan

mainstreamdollars trojan

pacisoft trojan