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My laptop has been experiencing random crashes, manifesting as sudden restarts, BSOD errors with various codes, or screen artifacting where pixels show random colors while the system is frozen. It seems to be primarily a software issue, though it sometimes freezes and restarts before Windows loads.
I have conducted multiple Windows security scans, all of which reported no issues. However, I found a single trojan file, identified as "Trojan:PowerShell/PsObfus.SA" that appeared as a severe threat in my Windows Security history nearly 200 times over 5 days. Most instances were quarantined, but two were marked as "Remediation Incomplete" with a status of "Abandoned."
I have tried using safe mode, but the crashes occur as quickly there as well.
I am using an Acer Nitro 5 laptop with Windows 11. If more details are needed, please let me know, and I'll respond as soon as possible. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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Boot into Windows Recovery Environment (if possible) and run:
sfc /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Download and run multiple antimalware tools from a clean system onto a USB drive:
Check your hard drive health using CrystalDiskInfo.
Check Event Viewer for error logs.
I did the sfc / scannow and it said that it found corrupt files and successfully repaired them, but I ran it 4 times because it crashed shortly after the first one and the other 2 were me testing this, but every time it said the same thing, and didn't stop the crashing at all. The other console command gave an error message (87) saying the Cleanup-Image option is unknown. I tried to do the other things, but my windows family safety settings have been timing me out instantly when I should have up to 4 hours.
I did also forget to mention that my computer has begun displaying the time as 2 or 4 hours ahead or behind. It is always in increments or decrements of 2 and has only gone to 4 hours on both sides. This began alongside the crashing.
During these processes, my computer gave BSOD with a stopcode of "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" saying "Wof.sys" failed. The code often changes and the screen only momentarily shows it, but this time it froze showing it, so there's that if it helps.
I was just now able to install and run Malwarebytes, and it found 6 instances of trojan files and deleted them all. My computer has not been crashing at all anymore, so thank you so much, I really appreciated the help.