As per subject line, A couple of days ago my main PC threw a huge wobbly almost like a power fail, but it was almost as if the voltage supply was ramped down (but not abruptly cut) then restored.
I had downloaded ExactAudioCopy V1.8 and was using it to rip a track from a CD. I hadn't used the DVD writer for quite awhile but it seemed to work ok. I also used Avira secure browser to do the download.
Next day on power up (I don't leave it on standby) there was no internet access. The lights on the back of the ethernet socket on the M/B were flashing indicating Gigabit access yet Windows refused to accept that the cable was not plugged in.
It was *really* slow on powerup, taking ages to update all the screen icons with my applications, hard disk and interrupts at 100% for ages.
Later I tried to used the System bit of Control Panel to see if it had been switched to Wifi somehow but the System ICon only comes up with the blue splash screen and the rotating 'balls', then after a few seconds it vanishes.
On powerdown I now get a message saying that another user is still logged in, but I have no idea what or who this is. Have I been infested with a 'bot', and if so how do I identify it. I would have thought that my antivirus would have stopped it. Could this be related to using the 'secure' browser though ?
The Application error log shows this after the 'System' failure -
Log Name: Application Source: Application Error Date: 07/05/2025 18:10:01 Event ID: 1000 Task Category: (100) Level: Error Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: Skyd Description: Faulting application name: SystemSettings.exe, version: 10.0.19041.5737, time stamp: 0x98d3d7e1 Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.19041.5438, time stamp:
0xee11ad82 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x0009a849 Faulting process id: 0x1a2c Faulting application start time: 0x01dbbf6d999c4f10 Faulting application path: C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel\SystemSettings.exe Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll Report Id: 72f353a0-2351-475a-b47f-a7f28a1dc4d5 Faulting package full name: windows.immersivecontrolpanel_10.0.2.1000_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy Faulting package-relative application ID: microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel
What does this mean.