I am having a bit of a problem with my computer. I’m not sure if it’s spyware related or not, but I’ve used the latest versions of Ad-aware, Spybot, CWShredder and Spy Sweeper and none of them have fixed the problem yet. I also use AVG Antivirus software.
Whenever I click on My Computer or Recycle Bin my computer semi-freezes up. I can use other programs, but the toolbar is frozen. I get an error message saying something about Dr. Watson Postmortem Debugger. This started happening after I installed XP Service Pack 2.
Spy Sweeper says I have Client Man on my computer, and after I scan it and try to remove the spyware, it still shows up when I restart my computer.
I know a little bit about spyware, as I’ve had problems before that I was able to fix. Should I post a HijackThis log?
I tried Googling Dr. Watson Postmortem Debugger, but most of the solutions I read about involved editing the registry. I don’t know much about that, but I can do something simple if it’s spelled out for me and I know it isn’t going to screw up everything.
If there’s a better board for asking this type of question, let me know. Thanks for your help in advance.
Well, Dr. Watson is just - as you mentioned - the Windows debugger. It appears when most programs crash on your computer. You haven’t told us which specific app is causing Dr. Watson to be triggered. It sounds like EXPLORER.EXE, but other programs can do things which causes Explorer to crash, so it might not be a cut-and-dried Windows problem.
Please tell us which specific app is kicking or DrW. Without this, you’re basically saying that “Norton Anti-Virus found a virus” without tell us which virus Norton reported.
I believe it is explorer.exe. All it says when the error occurs is “DrWatson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem and needs to close.” But this always happens when I use Windows Explorer.
“Dr Watson” is a sympton, not the cause. It wouldn’t be attempting to appear if there wasn’t already a problem.
The problem sounds like it is in Explorer, but unfortunately this could mean about a million and one things, depending on your computer setup and what you also have installed. Your spyware may be the cause of it, but maybe not.
I would start by investigating what problems others have had after installing XP Service Pack 2. There are plenty of reported problems with it that have caused computers to freeze up.