If I Wipe My Hard Drive..

Recently I have noticed I've had a memory problem. I play mmorpgs and the last two I have played will start up, let me log in and choose my character, but as soon as the game loads I get a blue screen that says my computer has been shut off and I should restart. After getting a free virus protection program (I have norton but it doesn't seem to scan everything even on a full scan) and found that through it and Avast I have a multitued of viruses and maleware eating up my computer such as: vundo, click, and fotomoto. So my question is. If I popin my os disk that came with my laptop and reinstall windows xp will I be safe? Through one of the many pop ups I've seen recently I saw something about registry corruption. So that's my biggest question.

Things I've done:
I've already started on the path to properly posting a hijackthis log but I wanted to know if it'd just be easier to start over.

Thanks and enjoy,
death

p.s. sorry for posting in the wrong area...got a little post happy =_='

If you format and reinstall Windows then yes, you will be virus free. I would probably go down the HJT route before I reformatted though.

One thing, next time you get Blue Screen stop message, copy down the entire message and post it back here. The information given is useful in tracking down what the problem is.

Depends on what kind of infection you have. Some types of malware can result in a system so badly damaged that a Repair Install will NOT help!. Reinstalling Windows without first wiping the entire hard drive with a repartition and/or format will not remove the infection. The reinstall will only overwrite the Windows files. Any malware on the system will still be there afterwards. Starting over, reformatting the drive and performing a clean install of the OS removes everything and is the safest action.

Please read "When should I re-format?".

However, if your unsure what type of malware your infected with, it certainly would not hurt to post a hijackthis log so it can be checked first.

Thanks for the info quiteman and to budapest: I can pretty much get the screen on command -_-'. At the moment I'm running a full system scan with Ad-aware and it's a little over half way through the overall so as soon as that's done I'm gonna keep going the HJT ruit and hopefully save my little plot of relaxation. I'll copy down what's on the screen and post it as soon as the scan is done.

If I do decide to reformat, which is fine because it's just an entertainment pc, how would I go about doing a clean reformat.

I'm running windows xp media center and have tried it on my own before but couldn't manage to get it to work. I suppose this is for plan B and also out of curiosity.

enjoy,
death

Please review the following links:
"How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP"
"How do I reinstall and reformat Windows XP on my hard drive?"

These links include step by step instructions:
"Reformat & Clean Install Windows".
"Clean Install Windows XP".
"XP Clean Install (Interactive Setup)".

Also see "How to keep your Windows XP activation after clean install".

If you need additional assistance with reformatting should you decide to go that route, you can start a new topic in the Windows XP Home and Professional forum. If your going to post a hijackthis log, then wait before doing anything but it would hurt to review the links I provided so you can see what is involved.

I had to go through a lot to actually get the Ad-aware software to finish a full scan. I had to disable antivira because the viruses I have, as I stated, just create new files everytime one is deleted so I was getting continual message from antivir about them which was actually stopping ad-aware from finishing the scans. The first scan made it to about 55% and found 437 infected files. After disconnecting from the internet and disabling antivir it found 0 and fully finished the scan.

So I loaded up a game and bumped the graphics up like crazy.

This is the message that I get for the blue screen:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

The prooblems seems to be cause by the following file: igxpdx32.dll

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

If his is the first time you've seen this stop error secreen, restart you computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware of software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software mnaufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly instaled hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. IF you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable componetns, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select Safe Mode.

Techincal information:

*** STOP: 0x00000050 (0xE8386104, 0x00000000, 0xBF385265, 0x00000001)

*** igxpdx32.dll - Address BF385265 base at BF1D8000, DAteSTamp 460d8270

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or techincal support group for further assistance.

Honestly I have no new hardware because it's a laptop, so most everything is intergrated. I have new software, two anti virus programs (antivir and ad-aware, 3 games (since the problems started), audacity, and fruity loops and that's it.

I'm really not sure how to disable BIOS caching or Shadowing so I'm kind of stuck there. Once I restart I'll rescan and then move on to the next phase in the Hijackthis option.

enjoy,
death

p.s. At start up I recieved a RUNDLL error. it says: "Error loading C:\WINDOWS\system32\puhnftrr.dll
The specified module could not be found."
I believe this is one of the files that antivir indicated was a virus.

I think the igxpdx32.dll file is probably related to your video driver. As such, I would try reinstalling the video driver.

How to update a Windows hardware driver

There are numerous reports of this issue with gamers. Does this occur while your playing a specific game? During some of my searches this issue was traced to faulty RAM and also were traced to older versions of Direct X so make sure you have the latest version. If this is your main problem then it does not appear to be malware related.