Question Chrome/Desktop Malware

[jakefisher4]

Hello Tom's hardware.
Recently, I've arrived at a frustrating issue, that is mostly likely malware, and I cannot get rid of it for the life of me.
I've done multitudes of anti malware scans,
(malwerebytes, adwcleaner,cc cleaner, etc).. to no avail. It seemed to work before and , found a PUP.search manager... Dealing with chrome and temp files, and I thought I fixed it, but it keeps coming back.. essentially this makes chrome obnoxious to use, symptoms include chrome unable to type, back button opens new tab, closes tabs.. clicking on any bookmark folder wants to open all of them etc..
I really don't know what to do and I am stumped and haven't found anything online of too much help.. any help here would be greatly appreciated, and I really don't want to have to preform a system reset!!

 

[Ralston18]

Have you tried reinstalling Chrome?

Look in Task Manager > Startup: what programs are being launched at startup - could well be that something slipped in that is not necessarily a virus or malware. Simple just a poorly written or buggy program. Maybe trying to phone home, backup, or update itself.

Use Task Manager and Resource Monitor (one at a time) to observe system performance. Especially when Chrome becomes obnoxious to use. Could be some resource bottleneck: RAM, Storage (disk drive space), or again - some buggy app hogging the CPU.

Explore first and see what you can discover. Do not immediately react to some potential culprit. Take some notes, keep looking, then if you are reasonably sure (subjective) about the cause. Then look for a fix.

For example: Program X is being launched, continually trying to ready the drive. Remove X from Startup.

 

[jakefisher4]

This does make a lot of sense, I'll keep my eye out when I try some fixes again tonight. What you said does make sense too because Malwarebytes isn't finding anything when I scanned yesterday. I'll keep you updated on my finds. Thanks!

 

[mdd1963]

I've also seen questionable add-ons/extensions in Chrome not get flagged as malware by any scans....yet, they each generate 25 popups each daily. Search your Chrome extensions, nuke any that don't belong...(Or, as previously mentioned, nuke Chrome entirely, and reinstall it if just a Chrome thing)

 

[jakefisher4]

Ok. So currently, chrome is not acting up. However, I will go by clarifying (I'm not longer posting from my phone), that what happens, is it seems to not ever happen right away on startup, and it takes a bit of me on the computer before anything happens that messes with chrome. Also, when this happens, it isn't just chrome, as my desktop acts weird too. Things that happen is that I cannot click on things in launched apps such as things like the Epic games client, or Blizzard client (Buttons on the client), as well as I cannot move around my desktop icons?...

Also, to clarify what happens in chrome, if it happens again, I'll go by posting each individual symptom.

Also thank you very much for t he feedback, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[jakefisher4]

Have you tried reinstalling Chrome?

Look in Task Manager > Startup: what programs are being launched at startup - could well be that something slipped in that is not necessarily a virus or malware. Simple just a poorly written or buggy program. Maybe trying to phone home, backup, or update itself.

Use Task Manager and Resource Monitor (one at a time) to observe system performance. Especially when Chrome becomes obnoxious to use. Could be some resource bottleneck: RAM, Storage (disk drive space), or again - some buggy app hogging the CPU.

Explore first and see what you can discover. Do not immediately react to some potential culprit. Take some notes, keep looking, then if you are reasonably sure (subjective) about the cause. Then look for a fix.

For example: Program X is being launched, continually trying to ready the drive. Remove X from Startup.

I am currently having the issue at the moment. My issues with Chrome/Desktop were fine a for a number of days, but it seems this bug has returned, and its frustrating not being able to use Chrome in particular. I am currently trying to find the problem, but its like looking for a needle in a haystack, so Im going to try and reinstall chrome..?

 

[mdd1963]

If you have a USB flash drive media installer for WIndows (anyone can make one for free w/ an 8 gb flash drive), a reinstall to an SSD can take as few as 5-10 minutes, just to put the amount of effort needed/required in tracking down potential malware vs. a glitch/buggy operation into perspective....

 

[jakefisher4]

If you have a USB flash drive media installer for WIndows (anyone can make one for free w/ an 8 gb flash drive), a reinstall to an SSD can take as few as 5-10 minutes, just to put the amount of effort needed/required in tracking down potential malware vs. a glitch/buggy operation into perspective....

Thing is, if I were to do a fresh reinstall of windows which is what I'm leaning towards, I think I would have to do a full wipe, which is obviously problematic