Author Topic: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC  (Read 20820 times)

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UnimpressedUser

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Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« on: January 18, 2014, 11:55:02 AM »
Hi, I've been using Avast for a while and decided to try Grimefighter as it said it could improve the performance of my PC. After restarting Grimefighter seemed to just stop...so I reset only to be welcomed with the problem of my internet connection having "limited or no connectivity".

I can't get it to work. I've tried restore points, renewing IP address etc. This is frustrating as hell and I've wasted over 2 hours of my life trying to fix a problem that avast created. Thanks to avast for completely messing up my PC.

I am a bit of a novice so  I'm hoping this is a simple fix that I've somehow missed somewhere? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Offline Eddy

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2014, 12:00:18 PM »
You shouldn't have aborted GrimeFighter.
Although is may look that it halted, it was probably still running.
Run GrimeFighter again.
When it starts you can choose "undo" in the menu.
Try that and see if it solved the problem.

AdrianH

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2014, 12:00:51 PM »
Quote
After restarting Grimefighter seemed to just stop...so I reset ............

Aha .......... who messed things up ?

UnimpressedUser

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2014, 12:04:23 PM »
1. Grimefighter convinced me to run it.
2. It didn't show any kind of information about implications of not letting it run its full course, or how it would act during it's operation.
3. How do  I get back into Grimefighter as I can't find it?

I admit, I'm an imperfect PC user, but a program that can cause this kind of frustration shouldn't really be an option for people like me.

Offline Michael (alan1998)

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2014, 12:09:14 PM »
1. Grimefighter convinced me to run it.
2. It didn't show any kind of information about implications of not letting it run its full course, or how it would act during it's operation.
3. How do  I get back into Grimefighter as I can't find it?

I admit, I'm an imperfect PC user, but a program that can cause this kind of frustration shouldn't really be an option for people like me.

That program was designed for "Beginner" users. Their are a lot more dangerous programs out on the market.

As too find it, check the Start Menu. I don't have it, so...
VOLUNTEER

Senior Security Analyst; Sys Admin (Linux); Forensics/Incident Response.

Security is a mindset, not an application. Think BEFORE you click.

AdrianH

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2014, 12:12:56 PM »
If you restored to an earlier time ( ie. before you had Grimefighter) you won't see it.

Undo the restore operation, get back to the point where you had a problem , then try running Grimefighter again.

As to the coneectivity issue, that could be as simple as resetting the network adaptor.

Click on the connection icon in your taskbar, choose Open Network and Sharing Center , go to the connection ( Ethernet /ADSL )  then use " Diagnose" . Windows will look for a solution.

UnimpressedUser

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2014, 12:23:44 PM »
I never had it either, but it kept popping up from Avast...so I thought I would try it.

I don't know how they can claim it's for beginners. I was searching for information about what exactly it would do but avast didn't show me anything. I only did it because I trust avast...until now. When I restarted it didn't say what it was doing or anything, just "init not enough something something". I assumed something had gone wrong...I'd love to meet the "beginner" that could work it out.

Trying another restore point to see if Grimefighter is there. This is starting to look more like a trusty OS reinstall.

I don't see a diagnose option. Only "Repair". But that just tries and fails to renew my IP address. Forgot to say...using XP SP3.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 12:46:58 PM by UnimpressedUser »

Randissimo

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2014, 02:40:14 PM »
I can't get it to work. I've tried restore points, renewing IP address etc. This is frustrating as hell and I've wasted over 2 hours of my life trying to fix a problem that avast created.
This is why I would advice everyone I see to

a) not use any "tuning tool", "registry cleaner", third party defragmentation program or "booster" of any kind

b) to make at least images of your system partition/drive.

Some more detailed information like ipconfig /all in a command prompt or logs of farbar service scanner could be nice, too.

You might try the following:

- first of all, back-up any important data if you haven't done so.

- on an elevated command prompt (CMD.exe started with right-mouse button => run as administrator) type sfc /scannow
- if you have Windows 7 or earlier try an inplace upgrade.
- if you have Windows 8(.1), please open an elevated command prompt and try each of the following (wait for each of it to finish):

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

if that doesn't work try a refresh or restart

In case you get it to work you should at least begin to do system image restore. You can for example do it with

Macrium Reflect

or with

Paragon free (not compatible with 8.1)

or with Windows tools, however I prefer using one of those two.

« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 02:43:44 PM by Randissimo »

thekochs

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2014, 06:19:30 PM »
This is why I would advice everyone I see to
a) not use any "tuning tool", "registry cleaner", third party defragmentation program or "booster" of any kind

Very true..........I absolutely cringe when I see the TV Ads to fix your PC with one click or make faster.
It would be simpler to just take a sledge hammer and hit the side of your PC.....these things hose stuff up to beyond repair.
I use CCleaner.....sparingly......and rarely if ever use the reg cleaner in it.
Why would I use this at all ?........to get rid temp files/etc where Viruses hide.....not for a PC speed-up tool.
These programs can cause you tremendous pain by causing more problems that they solve.
But if you are bound and determined you should as stated do a offline image (I use Macrium Reflect) before attempting.
Also, any program like GrimeFighter that does not allow you to exit and is so intrusive that it hoses your PC if you have to do a process cancel should be never used.

My advice......and I've been around PCs and software for 30+ years professionally is a good A/V software (Avast) + good Malware software (MalwareByte Pro) plus smart use of where you go and what you do is generally enough.  If you PC needs tuning simply use the Windows Defragger weekly and this will make the biggest impact.....other option is to increase your Virtual Memory allocation within Windows......simple/easy to Google how-to within Control Panel>System/Advanced.  Outside of this if your PC is not running well then there are other issues.....you may have a Virus or Malware, perhaps too old PC/processor, too little physical memory, etc......but I agree 100% that these "PC tune-ups" should be avoided. 
 
« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 06:22:11 PM by thekochs »

UnimpressedUser

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2014, 09:27:20 PM »
My internet is back working again. Not entirely sure what I did. Restarted a few times, was getting a "Hardware has changed, register Windows" message before too. What a waste of a few hours. I'll never trust another thing like that again.

Thanks to all those who offered help. If nothing more I hope someone reads this and decides not to use Grimefighter or follows the more sapient instructions left by other contributors on this thread.

Randissimo

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2014, 09:57:27 PM »
Very true..........I absolutely cringe when I see the TV Ads to fix your PC with one click or make faster.
I've never seen such an ad. :D

Quote
I use CCleaner.....sparingly......and rarely if ever use the reg cleaner in it.
To some degree I could understand using it as a simple tool to delete temporary files and browser caches, however there are better ways like the integrated disk cleanup and to use private browsing so that "cleaning traces" would be useless for that anyways.
Also, cleaning some files like .dmp files in case you want help or video caches in some players like VLC might lead to performance issues in case the cache has to be created for anew could be more harmful than useful.
But, why would you want to use a reg cleaner? There's no need to delete any useless key, because Windows has been loading only the necessary segment of the registry since Windows XP and not the whole thing in case a program needs it. So cleaning registry is a waste of time with a potentially risk to accidentally "clean" important registry keys. 

Quote
(MalwareByte Pro)
Scanning with the free version is enough, but you can also support the developer by buying the pro version. However, even when you buy it, I'd say that you don't need the additional real-time protection, but instead you could profit more from automatic updates or scheduled scans.   

Quote
If you PC needs tuning simply use the Windows Defragger weekly and this will make the biggest impact
No, just no. Don't try to fix what is not broken. Windows already defrags every HDD in the background every week, it might only be necessary, in case you change/add many different small files but usually don't let your computer on, so that you want that task to finish at least once a month when you have the time.

Quote
other option is to increase your Virtual Memory allocation within Windows
The paging file already gets bigger in case there is a need for it. The only possible outcomes in which some virtual memory tuning allocation would be benefitial are:
- for Windows XP, when making a smaller paging file or even disabling it (which could lead to error messages in applications) would force the OS to use more physical memory/RAM (Windows Vista and above don't need that)
- if you don't have much space on your SSD and much RAM, however I wouldn't disable it, instead I'd try with a fixed 2048-2048MB setup first
- for HDD to reduce the fragmentation of the paging file in case it has the same starting and ending size

If you want a real tuning tip, just make sure Windows can run its tasks in the background while being on idle.
You might also want to make sure whether the indexing is working correctly.
First of all, make sure you didn't disable it on the drive/s: right click on it/them and see whether the indexing option is checked.
Then go to the indexing options http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/improve-windows-searches-using-index-faq#1TC=windows-7 and see whether all your drives are part of the index. If not, add them to the index and let it finish, you can still work with your computer or you can do it when you're sleeping or away for a few hours and it doesn't have any disadvantages in case you can only partially complete the task, Windows will continue it from the last time.
Once it's done, searching in the explorer will be only a matter of a few seconds for typing the very first letters even for HDDs.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 10:13:26 PM by Randissimo »

Randissimo

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2014, 09:59:28 PM »
My internet is back working again. Not entirely sure what I did. Restarted a few times, was getting a "Hardware has changed, register Windows" message before too. What a waste of a few hours. I'll never trust another thing like that again.
Great to see it's working again. :)

Now you should do the following, before something gets broken again:

In case you get it to work you should at least begin to do system image restore. You can for example do it with

Macrium Reflect

or with

Paragon free (not compatible with 8.1)

or with Windows tools, however I prefer using one of those two.

thekochs

  • Guest
Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2014, 12:09:47 AM »
CCleaner
To some degree I could understand using it as a simple tool to delete temporary files and browser caches, however there are better ways like the integrated disk cleanup and to use private browsing so that "cleaning traces" would be useless for that anyways. Also, cleaning some files like .dmp files in case you want help or video caches in some players like VLC might lead to performance issues in case the cache has to be created for anew could be more harmful than useful. But, why would you want to use a reg cleaner? There's no need to delete any useless key, because Windows has been loading only the necessary segment of the registry since Windows XP and not the whole thing in case a program needs it. So cleaning registry is a waste of time with a potentially risk to accidentally "clean" important registry keys.
You can uncheck the offending ones and CCleaner allows a simple right click of ReCycle Bin to run....very easy.

MalwareByte Pro
Scanning with the free version is enough, but you can also support the developer by buying the pro version. However, even when you buy it, I'd say that you don't need the additional real-time protection, but instead you could profit more from automatic updates or scheduled scans.
I used the paid version for mostly that.....the scheduler and auto-updater......but having the realtime protection has from time-time blocked items Avast did not. :)

Defragger
Windows already defrags every HDD in the background every week, it might only be necessary, in case you change/add many different small files but usually don't let your computer on, so that you want that task to finish at least once a month when you have the time.
I was talking about the defragger "as-is" but I admit I should have been clearer in my comments. People should go into see if it is truly setup to run and make sure schedule is not at offending time. I run this once a week in the early morning.....it is very apparent how much this helps....just wanted others to be aware.

Windows VM
The paging file already gets bigger in case there is a need for it. The only possible outcomes in which some virtual memory tuning allocation would be benefitial are:
- for Windows XP, when making a smaller paging file or even disabling it (which could lead to error messages in applications) would force the OS to use more physical memory/RAM (Windows Vista and above don't need that)
- if you don't have much space on your SSD and much RAM, however I wouldn't disable it, instead I'd try with a fixed 2048-2048MB setup first
- for HDD to reduce the fragmentation of the paging file in case it has the same starting and ending size
Agreed......was more of a legacy XP comment and agree with your above assessments.

Indexing
You might also want to make sure whether the indexing is working correctly.
First of all, make sure you didn't disable it on the drive/s: right click on it/them and see whether the indexing option is checked.
Then go to the indexing options http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/improve-windows-searches-using-index-faq#1TC=windows-7 and see whether all your drives are part of the index. If not, add them to the index and let it finish, you can still work with your computer or you can do it when you're sleeping or away for a few hours and it doesn't have any disadvantages in case you can only partially complete the task, Windows will continue it from the last time. Once it's done, searching in the explorer will be only a matter of a few seconds for typing the very first letters even for HDDs.
Here is where we'll have to disagree.......I hate indexing because it thrashes machines terribly.  I unchecked it for Outlook and do have the min items enabled.....enabling for all your HDDs and/or folders to me is something not worth the return for the constant thrashing it does.  I'm sure we won't agree on this but each user can try themselves and assess the trade-offs.

..........BUT to the point of the thread......these software "enhancement" tools are for the (no offense) lazy folks that want a one-button fix-it all solution.  A little Googling and some posts to good Windows Forums will have insights like the above that users can easily create a regimen that works for them and keeps their PCs clean.  I don't want to pick on "Grimefighter" since I have not tried nor taken any time to review.  I just wish companies like Avast would learn from the history books of companies like Norton (Symantec), AVG, and others that try to step out of what they are good at only to create bloat-ware that does not compare well to other focused products and in the mean time diminish what they are good at and defocus what their priority should be....IHMO.  However, I understand the need to reach out to grab more dollars for those efforts.....double edge sword......but as they say..."buyer beware".
« Last Edit: January 19, 2014, 12:35:56 AM by thekochs »

Smoothjc1

  • Guest
Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2014, 06:04:01 AM »
I already pay for internet security why should I pay again to use Grimefighter ? just makes no sense when I can use CrapCleaner to do the same thing and it's FREEEEEEE.

Sweetpattern1

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Re: Grimefighter Messed Up My PC
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2014, 07:01:41 AM »
I to had the same problem with no fix in site. I let my computer load for 30 minutres and the line that it showed did not do nothing so I thought it frozed or stoped working. I had to refresh it by using my tower to do so, waiting that long for a program to finish is stupid, how are people to know the darn thing wasnt done. I am glad I am not the only one that thought the samething. Only you got lucky and still have it, mine shows that I have to rebuy it again, what kind of poop-e-do is that : ( then to get to send in a ticket for the problem is like finding a needle in a haystack, go here , go there do this, do that, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. >:(