Volume keeps going down automatically, possibility of virus, or some input stuck

[hansaaaaa]

Hi,

So on my Windows 7 x64 (laptop) machine, the volume slider keeps going down to 0 from what I actually set it to. This doesn't happen instantaneously, it always goes down by little increments every few seconds or so, so that if I set the volume to ca. 50%, after about 30 seconds or so it is back to 0.

Now my first thought was that some keys on my keyboard could be stuck, or something on the mouse. I used this (http://www.passmark.com/products/keytest.htm) software to test my keyboard, and I see no keys that are constantly pressed.

My next guess is some kind of virus/spyware. This is corroborated by the fact that, when I restarted my system to see if this would have any effect on the volume slider issue, for some reason my internet settings had been changed to use a proxy, which was not working, and I had to manually set all settings back to normal to get back online. Additonally, there was a little flag at the bottom right on the taskbar, stating that my security center was not running. When I opened the item, and tried to start Windows Security Center, it said something about not being able to start the service. I went into the Windows Services Management and saw that Security Center was set to disabled. I reset it to Automatic (Delayed), and was then able to start the Security Center. I can also see on the System Configration->Startup section that there is an entry to start something called "AS 2014" under C:\ProgramData\Xn373333\Xn373333.exe

All of this seems a bit weird to me, and together with the Volume slider issue, I am wondering if some kind of spyware/virus can be the cause of this?
I have downloaded Avira Software and am currently running a Scan for rootkits and active malware.

Can anyone tell me what else I can do to check for spyware/viruses?
And anynone any idea what can be causing the volume to go down to 0 all the time (I also have a volume adjusteron the front of the laptop, basically one of these wheels one can move back and forth to adjust volume, not sure how I can test if something is wrong with it and this is causing the volume issue) ?

Thanks for any and all help,

best regards,

Chris

 

[Chris Scott 84]

AS2014 is apparently a trojan that produces fake alerts. It's a fake anti-virus that asks for money after giving you a bunch of false alerts for viruses. You'll need to run Malware Bytes to attempt a removal, as that has removed it for many users of the program.

you might have other viruses on there too if you've not been running any protection in the past. If you find some viruses using Malware Bytes then I'd also recommend installing and running Spybot to search for malware. Viruses tend to bring your system to a halt, whilst malware just brings it to its knees and/or hijack your browser.