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DNF #1
Duke 3D #1
(I'm x-posting this from Bleeping Computer; it is my post there as well and I'm just trying to widen the scope looking for help)
Hello. For about the past two or three weeks, possibly a month, this laptop has begun to act very strangely, and in a usually detrimental way. I will list the 10 version in a bit, so bear with me.
I threw up that "possibly" as due to how scattered all the issues are it's extremely hard to tell what is or is not related. That's in fact the reason I have come here; I'm at a total loss as to where to even begin my investigation, let alone carry it out.
The first suspicious thing that I don't think is actually related but I will throw out there due to its timing is some strangeness with our Wi-fi network. Starting about a month ago, both computers in this house (the other is a 7) began having trouble connecting to the extender we use. If it could just be limited to the extender that would be fine but in one instance one of the LAN cards thought the normal network was in fact the extended version? Except it labelled it as "[network name].ext" instead of the normal "[name]_Ext" (note the underscore and capitalization). I immediately thought was some sort of red flag, but flag to what I don't have a clue. From someone with minimal understanding of networking it could run the gambit from an odd glitch to an intrusion.
The next suspicious thing, and the first one that is specific to this computer, is ongoing troubles with some part of the sound system. I'm not sure whether the trouble started with the bluetooth connector, Avast, or some unknown third thing, but what I can tell you is what happened. As a bit of background, the bluetooth-to-headphones (doesn't matter which headphones) has always been rather wonky when it comes to certain applications. On more than one occasion, for instance, I would have cases where, say it's a game, and sound effects would come from the speakers but music would come from the headphones, or vice-versa.
After downloading and installing one of the more recent versions of one of those applications (LZDoom), Avast saw the new version and locked it down for analysis. However in doing so it completely destroyed the sound system. Even when the application was restored the sound was completely dead from all applications the computer over. Had to restart the entire computer to fix it.
When it happened again (I was bug testing), I wondered if there wasn't a way to restart the sound system alone. After poking around in Services, I did indeed find two things related to the audio system. Windows Audio, and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder. I restarted Audio first, and then Endpoint Builder. Before I did so, Endpoint Builder said it had to restart regular Audio with it, which I allowed it to do.
Since then however, the sound system has been spotty at the best of times. There are very frequent and audible distortions within the sound system, from clicks to cut-outs to obvious peaking when it shouldn't be peaking. At first I thought it was the headphones, then the bluetooth connector itself, but no it actually happens with the speakers as well. When coming from a sleep or a shutdown, it's a complete crapshot as to exactly how bad the audio will be. For the extreme ones restarting both (via Endpoint) sort of fixes it but there's no telling how much longer I can rely on that depending on what actually is wrong.
At this point I tried using the Win 10 troubleshooter and was "put in touch" with the fake representative. After running some scans, and this would happen every time she did this except once, I would get an "Unexpected error 0x800xxxxx". I can't remember the rest. But it was every time. I tried to look it up and found people talking about it in regards to failing to update Windows, and when I looked at Windows Update I indeed saw the same error. I tried to force it to install the update, which it actually did with seemingly no issues, even after the start up. However, the terrible audio remained.
And so this is why I waited to report the windows version. As of that update, I am running Windows 10 Pro version 20H2, Build 19042.685. The previous version was not 20H2, but it was still 10 Pro. I believe it was the October update which I installed in November, but if specifics are desired someone will have to point out to me how I can find out what exactly I was running prior to the update.
As I said, however, the audio problems still remained just as severe as before. If anything they're slightly worse as now some programs seem to think the microphone is output somehow?
To further complicate matters, around this same time (but before the update, if I recall correctly) the computer began failing to transition from sleep to shutdown. When I would go to bed I would close the laptop lid, and after long enough the computer would shut down on its own. However, when all this weirdness began that wouldn't happen anymore, and it would remain at sleep.
I started to look through the Event Log for anything of note, and while I found a fair amount of Warnings and a few Errors, only a few of them appeared relevant. That is to say, if they were recurring, only a few started within the timeframe of oddities. One of the frequent was the aforementioned: an error stating how the computer was failing to transition from a sleep to shutdown state. One of the more interesting ones was seeing "[application] experienced Unexpected Error 0x800xxxxx". I pulled up the audio "represenative" to cross-check to see if it was the same error (I suspect it was but) and this was the one time she didn't give me the same error she had before. When she did give it again I was unable to find that event again, nor can I recall the program that was failing.
Things have only degraded since. When coming from a shutdown the system now spends an absurd amount of time at the "Please Wait" screen, far longer than ever before (enough to warrant me leaving it at sleep just to avoid it, which I know puts me on an invisible countdown before a restart is the only way to fix something). One of the Windows Defender components doesn't like to turn on at boot (but is fine if I manually switch it on), the "turn off the display when plugged in" setting reset itself to default (previously never, then spontaneously switched to 10 minutes and I had to switch it back), and just recently, after coming off from the last shutdown, Firefox spontaneously signed me out of itself and forgot all cookies, settings, and noscript whitelist entries.
I tried running an avast full scan, and it said it found a rootkit in the Windows Update section. I let it clean it out, but considering the weird location I can't tell if it's a false positive or not. Either way literally nothing has changed since.
That was the most recent thing I tried, and I am completely lost. I don't know what's wrong, I don't know how to fix it, and I don't even know if all the things I said are related to each other, if only some are, or if none at all.
I don't know if something broke in Windows, I don't know if I'm infected, I don't know if it's all Avast's fault, I don't know if it's all my fault, I don't know anything. I'm usually able to at least investigate these issues but since it's so seemingly random I don't know where to even begin, much less what I can do about it. Any help or guidance is appreciated.
