Solved Strange Chrome Behavior; Search engine sets, content being firewalled

[Aurarus]

So does anyone have any clues as to what's happening?

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Hello,



They call me TwinHeadedEagle around here, and I'll be working with you.



Before we start please read and note the following:

• At the top of your post, please click on the "Watch thread" button and make sure to check Watch this thread...and receive email notifications. This will send an email to you as soon as I reply to your topic, allowing me to solve your problem faster.
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• Instructions I give to you are very simple and made for complete beginner to follow. That's why you need to read through my instructions carefully and completely before executing them.
• Please do not run any tools other than the ones I ask you to, when I ask you to. Some of these tools can be very dangerous if used improperly. Also, if you use a tool that I have not requested you use, it can cause false positives, thereby delaying the complete cleaning of your machine.
  
• All tools we use here are completely clean and do not contain any malware. If your antivirus detects them as malicious, please disable your antivirus and then continue.
• If during the process you run across anything that is not in my instructions, please stop and ask. If any tool is running too much time (few hours), please stop and inform me.
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• Please attach all report using
  
  button below. Doing this, you make it easier for me to analyze and fix your problem.
  
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That being told, if any evidence of illegal OS, software, cracks/keygens or any other will be revealed, any further assistance will be suspended. If you are aware that there is this kind of stuff on your machine, remove it before proceeding!
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Failure to follow these guidelines will result with closing your topic and withdrawning any assistance.



You're missing Addition.txt report.

 

[Aurarus]

Including the Addition.txt was not specified in the guide, but I'll add it here now:

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Scan with ZOEK

Please download ZOEK by Smeenk and save it to your desktop.
Temporary disable your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware protection - instructions here.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
• Wait patiently until the main console will appear, it may take a minute or two.
• In the main box please paste in the following script:
  

  createsrpoint;
  autoclean;
  emptyclsid;
  emptyalltemp;
  ipconfig /flushdns >>"%temp%\log.txt";b

• Make sure that Scan All Users option is checked.
• Push Run Script and wait patiently. The scan may take a couple of minutes.
• When the scan completes, a zoek-results logfile should open in notepad.
• If a reboot is needed, it will be opened after it. You may also find it at your main drive (usually C:\ drive)

Post its content into your next reply.

 

[Aurarus]

Here is the file

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Very good. How is the situation now?

 

[Aurarus]

Very good. How is the situation now?

Back to square 1 essentially; pages don't load/ have a connection error. Besides google + google affiliated sites like YouTube.
These are the sites I'm testing on chrome:

Google searching the term "Vinsauce" - comes up with a list of results with content context (the bit of text along with the result)
www.youtube.com - Content loads, including ads + video thumbnails

www.roblox.com - This webpage is not available ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
www.vinesauce.com - This webpage is not available ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED


The search engine continues to get reset every time I delete it off the list and open a new tab.

IE works perfectly normal. Only Chrome is experiencing problems. Should I try reinstalling it?

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Yes, try to reinstall it please.

 

[Aurarus]

Yes, try to reinstall it please.

I completely uninstalled, made sure no chrome related files were left on my computer, reinstalled it; still same issues as I described in my previous post.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Scan with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool

Please re-run Farbar Recovery Scan Tool to give me a fresh look at your system.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Make sure that Addition and Shortcut.txt options are checked.
• Press Scan button and wait.
• The tool will produce three logfiles on your desktop: FRST.txt, Shortcut.txt and Addition.txt.

Please attach them into your next reply.

 

[Aurarus]

Here you go

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Fix with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool

This fix was created for this user for use on that particular machine.

Running it on another one may cause damage and render the system unstable.

​

Download attached fixlist.txt file and save it to the Desktop:

Both files, FRST and fixlist.txt have to be in the same location or the fix will not work!

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Press the Fix button just once and wait.
• If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
• When finished FRST will generate a log on the Desktop, called Fixlog.txt.

Please attach it to your reply.

 

[Aurarus]

Here you go

It required a restart after it finished, just in case you needed to know

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Very good. How is the situation now?

 

[Aurarus]

Very good. How is the situation now?

I uninstalled/ reinstalled but this time it was strange;

Web pages began loading content, chrome was really slow but acting generally normal

But when I open new tabs the feed.snapdo thing pops back, and my default search engine gets reverted to the WebSearch thing.
I closed and re-opened chrome, pages sometimes don't load, sometimes they do, sometimes new tabs have snapdo

The deleting WebSearch search engine/ having it reappear again thing is still present.

The problem is half gone but Chrome is still relatively unusable/ unreliable, and I don't want malware spying on me

 

[Aurarus]

Clicking links in general seems to lead to unresponsive pages

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

You can try to delete your sync data

Sign out of Chrome or delete a synced account - Chrome Help

 

[Aurarus]

You can try to delete your sync data

Sign out of Chrome or delete a synced account - Chrome Help

I don't think I was signed in at any point; I would know because my extensions + bookmarks would load whenever I did sign in in the past.

To make things clear I did not sign in when testing your solutions. I was only ever signed in some times after giving you results/ state of condition and before I came to this forum

 

[Aurarus]

I have a suspicion that maybe there's a program running on another browser, i.e. Internet Explorer

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

• Install the progam and select update.
• Once updated, click the Settings tab, in the left panel choose Detection & Protection and tick Scan for rootkits.
• In the same tab, under PUP and PUM detections make sure it is set to Treat detections as malware.
• Click the Scan tab, choose Threat Scan is checked and click Scan Now.
• If threats are detected, click the Apply Actions button. You will now be prompted to reboot. Click Yes.
• Upon completion of the scan (or after the reboot), click the History tab.
• Click Application Logs and double-click the Scan Log.
• At the bottom click Export and choose Text file.

Save the file to your desktop and include its content in your next reply.

Scan with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool

Please re-run Farbar Recovery Scan Tool to give me a fresh look at your system.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Make sure that Addition option is checked.
• Press Scan button and wait.
• The tool will produce two logfiles on your desktop: FRST.txt and Addition.txt.

Please include their content into your next reply.