i am using winxp sp2, and while on the net today, i am experiencing a serious problem. I receive a message " GENERIC HOST PROCESS FOR W32 SERVICES HAS ENCOUNTERED A PROBLEM AND WILL NOW CLOSE". I lose my connection to the net, but at the same time I cannot "disconnect". Is this malware/ virus and what can I do? Thank you, Liz

Blaster Worm Removal Blaster Worm Removal Tool sLLs

Hello, I was randomly trying to find some info on the web about a problem I had on my PC yesterday and Google'ing the sentence "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services" I found this interesting message board; I apologize for my english though but I'm italian, show mercy lol. Ok, here's my problem: I have a 2 years old PC I used to review videogames when I was a journalist and that I use nowadays exclusively to play a MMORPG "Final Fantasy XI" and nothing else, I don't even browse the web with it or use any other application 'cept AIM instant messager, I have a notebook for everything else. I had a Norton antivirus running on it but my subscription expired like a month ago and I have been too lazy to buy the new version, I guess I'll do it asap but I've never had any virus problem on this PC really. Yesterday while being "log'ged" on the aforementioned MMORPG I receive a weird error message, similar to the original poster's one: "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has problems and it'll be closed" (that's the translation from italian, I'm pretty sure the text would have looked exactly like the OP's one if my language was set on english). The error message gave me the option of sending an error report to Microsoft but I decided to not to, closed the window and lost my connection to the net right after. The files included in the error message were: C:\DOCUME-1\IMPOST-1\TEMP\WER1.tmp.dir00\svchhost.exe.mdmp and C:\DOCUME-1\IMPOST-1\TEMP\WER1.tmp.dir00\appcompat.txt whereas "-" is the ALT+0126 ASCII symbol, I can't type it on my notebook for some reasons, not having a numerical pad. Anyhow, even though my modem was still in "SHOWTIME_LO" mode (so it was working and receiving/sending data) I was totally unable to connect to any website and when I tried to restart my connection I received the following errors: 734 "PPP connection control protocol has been terminated" (again, forgive my translation) 621 "Unable to open the file of the telephonic directory" xxx (I forgot the exact number) "Your password and username aren't valid in the domain" ( is this) checking the modem control window I also noticed that whenever it was in the process of connecting (I unplugged it, reboot'd my PC and restarted the connection a few times getting the same problems and errors over and over again) the problems summary shown up a "loss of allignment of the cells (LoCD)" I waited 50 minutes or so tried to connect again and everything worked for like 2,5 hours then I got the "Generic Host etc." error message and my connection died again, in the same manner. This morning I tried to connect again and had the same problem after 20 minutes, switched PC (same modem but my 2 PCs aren't connected to each other) and had the same problem (lol). So I waited an hour again and now here I am, trying to figure out what's going on on this message board. What should I do to fix this "Generic Host etc." error? Anyone knows what's up with my PCs or experienced the same problem before? By the way my Operative System is a Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 1 (never upgraded to sp2, I don't use that PC much anyway), my PC has a Intel Pentium 4-3,00 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM (not that it matters, I don't think) and I have a 4,8 Mbps DSL connection. Thank you in advance for your help and sorry for the lenght of my post. -Simone Help me out!

Your English is great; I still use a spell check and English is the only language I speak! Simone, here are 2 free antivirus programs. I'm not sure if either is inclusive of 'Italian', but probably so. Avast AVG Also check for the Blaster Worm using the tool from the link posted previously. sLLs

ooo thanks a lot for the links, I'll try the Blaster Worm removal tool along with the antivirus (unless I stop sitting on my ass and go buy the newest Norton version before my PC explodes lol). By the way I did a few more tests and apparently the problem doesn't show up on my secondary PC (like I thought but I was wrong evidently), rebooting completely my PC gets a rid of all the problems (connection + toolbar flickering and color changing) for a few hours (I keep getting disconnected at random times but the average is about 1,5 hours) and performing a System Configuration restore (the problem started yesterday but I picked the 26 of july as configuration to restore) doesn't remove the problem at all. I'm gonna bring my PC to a repair center next week if the antivirus and Blaster thing won't work though unless someone else on these boards finds a different countermeasure. Thanks again for your help! Help me out!

Well problem is that Windows XP SP2 cannot be affected by W32.Blaster or Sasser worm... and for info Generic host is svchost.exe which is from 100% used by all W32 viruses so its not so easy which one is on your system running. I am infected too and my clients too. I am searching for some information for a days. What is most probably that it is virus cloaked by Rootkit. Because I search big amount of windows registry and I found nothing. Computer is totally clean, at least on first look. Major problems will show up when internet connection is started. In 1-20 minutes period Generic host will fail. And then connection is still up, but no connectivity. On the other side, try your sound card after fail, because sound driver has been driven out from DMA at my machine. Its two main things which this "probably" virus can do. I am searching for any help or fact. And pls ppl stop speak about blaster worm which has been prevented to infected your computers since SP2. Thx :)