Hi. I apologize if I posted in the wrong board. I also apologize for what could turn out to be a very, very long post. I’m trying to include every detail to try to give anyone who reads this a clear picture. Thanks in advance for reading through this post. Anyway, I’ve tried doing a google search about my problem but I thought I would get more reliable answers here. I really need help.
This morning*, I was revisiting a website I bookmarked (cgcookie.com) last night when my browser was redirected to mysiteadvisor (or somewhere else. I can’t really remember) which made it look like the URL wasn’t found (it was similar to when you are directed to the website that has an expired domain–random links, etc). This was impossible since the website is not old and I’m pretty sure they are more than capable of maintaining their website. I tried googling the website before doing anything and from what I gathered my browser could have been hijacked. Mysiteadvisor could have been installed without my knowledge. I was trying out video downloaders last night so that could have been the source of the problem.
I tried looking for methods to remove this problem. I also tried inspecting the running programs I have in Windows Task Manager. There was this “unit.exe” that was very suspicious. I couldn’t access the program in Windows explorer and I couldn’t end its procress. So thinking that the video downloaders I installed (and uninstalled) last night and this suspicious “unit.exe” were connected, I decided it might help if I do a system restore. I selected the Sept 13 restore point.
I did a system restore. My computer restarted ok (background programs were loaded, etc) but then something stopped responding. I am not sure what but the mouse still went on (you know, that circle thing. I don’t know what it’s called. Sorry) and the desktop was covered in translucent white (I could still see my wallpaper and desktop icons, etc). I waited but I couldn’t even click on anything or access Windows Task Manager. So I did a hard reset and my PC restarted ok.
I checked the background processes. “unit.exe” was still there, but my browser was no longer redirected to the suspicious site I mentioned. I guess this means the downloaders I tried out last night had nothing to do with it. I was still suspicious of “unit.exe” and I tried doing a full system scan with Avast. Without warning, my pc reboots and goes on like that again. I tried googling the problem but after some time it reboots again. I tried scanning my pc in safe mode but it still reboots. It gets to the point where I’m prompted to select Windows repair before start-up so I try that. I’m asked to do a system restore again so I did.
The computer reboots again. It seems fine. I’m still worried about it so I tried opening Firefox to look for answers but it reboots again without warning. It gets worse. It reboots before I even get to start-up, before I’m given the options of starting Windows normally or in safe mode, etc. When I do get the chance to select safe mode, Windows loads the files, starts out fine but reboots again after 5 minutes or less. I’ve left with no other options. I couldn’t think of how I could possibly troubleshoot the problem. I have simply no window time between start-up and the reboot.
I’m not sure if there’s anything wrong with the OS since it starts up fine. I’m not even sure if there was trouble with system restore. I don’t know what to do now. I’m thinking of setting up a flashdisk from which to boot and run Linux to get whatever is still there in my PC.
My PC runs on Windows 7 Professional, it has 4GB RAM and has an Intel i5 processor. Is there still anything I can do to try to repair Windows and get it back up and running again? What is that suspicious “unit.exe?” Could it have something to do with the problem?
I really apologize for the extremely long post but I hope someone could help me. Again, thanks in advance.
*Edit: I’m in a different time zone (GMT+8) so it’s morning here where I live. “This morning” is actually just a few hours ago.
