Yahoo Messenger crashed after sign in

[garydd]

Sometimes I have signed into Yahoo Messenger and immediately after sign in, it hangs for a few seconds like it is trying to load something like it does sometimes when someone leaves you an offline message, except the whole time, you could see only the outline of the Yahoo messenger window and that was it. After those few seconds of that happening, it crashes and gives you an error saying Yahoo must close and talked about a problem with the Yahoo Messenger exe file or something. I did a clean install so it shouldn't happen again and doesn't happen often anyways. It is version 8.1.0.421.

Question though: If someone sent me offline messages and this crashing happened before I could see the offline messages appear, does that mean that offline message is lost forever and I will never be able to know whether or not anyone sent me it and never get the chance to read it?

[garydd]

Ah man, not this again. I guess no one has an adaquete answer for this one either. This is like the 4th or 5th thread I have created that has a question that no one can asnwer, so they say nothing. I had to post again now because if I didn't, the thread will continue to get bumped even further down the forum thread list and no one will ever see it

[patndoris]

Do you save a history of your conversations? If so I believe offlines will show there as well.

Run as many spyware scans as you can - Spybot, SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes are all good ones. I'd also suggest a Hijack This log and go over it with a fine tooth comb. You can have the cleanest installation in the world of Yahoo Messenger but if you've got something else conflicting with it then it's gonna misbehave.

It's obviously of great concern to you, have you contacted Yahoo support?

[garydd]

I do save a history. I was just worried the crashing would have prevented the offline message from ever reaching my computer from the Yahoo server. I did notice recently that each time I shut my computer down, the Yahoo exe doesn't respond and I usually have to end the task manually for my computer to shut down. This only started happening when I re-installed. But this didn't happen before 3 days ago. Strange. I have scanned before for viruses and I will do more scanning soon. It seems the error always has to do with Yahoo exe, whether it doesn't respond when I'm shutting down the computer and also that one time it crashed. Also, it hardly ever crashes on sign in. I remember it doing that long ago too. Other than that and it not responding when I am shutting down, it works fine.

[patndoris]

There have been a number of people (myself included) who've had the exe file not closing properly over the last few months. Yahoo seems extrememly sensitive to malware. I'd go for some spyware cleanups and/or a HJT and see how it fares after that.

Best of luck and let me know if I can be of any assistance.

[garydd]

I did fix the problem and found out the cause, patndoris. I did download and use that HJT program like you said and it did get rid of stuff that I knew was adware and I deleted that, but it didn't fix the Yahoo problem. The problem was when I re-installed the first time, I clicked and used the 400kB Yahoo installation exe file that was stored in my documents folder (the one you run before you download and install Yahoo Messenger that opened the installation wizard, not the other Yahoo exe). That Installation exe file is probably the wizard itself containing all the Yahoo graphics art for that wizard and telling it what to download for Yahoo Messenger. But it seems when I installed using the Yahoo installation exe in my documents, it made it install imperfectly and caused problems with the Messenger exe. So I deleted the installation exe from my documents and went to the Yahoo Messenger website to download by clicking to run the installation exe on the website instead of re-downloading the installation exe file. So I guess you are supposed to always choose the run option and never download the installation exe and you should install directly from the Messenger website.

Now it runs perfectly and when I shut down, the Messenger exe responds and closes automatically like it should. By the way, I always do a custom install and download only the Messenger, not all that unnecessary stuff like Yahoo toolbars, buttons, etc.

[patndoris]

I'm glad you are fixed. Thanks for posting the solution. I wish more people would do that so we can all benefit from the information! I'll cross fingers all stays working well for you!!

[garydd]

An unrelated question though, patndoris. Sometimes I get messages from bots or something else (not sure if all the spammers are bots). One of my contacts signed in today and 3 seconds later, I received a message that said something like "xweyd?" for example, from a bot, and that was all it said. Was that pure coincidence or did her signing in somehow trigger a bot to say something to me? I highly doubt she has any connections to spammers and I know she would not do that or even know how to do that.

I have looked at the profiles of many of these bots and many are created on 2/24/08 (the same date). I can't trace their origins and the origins of their messages. Is there a way to nab the ip address of people who send me messages in Yahoo, including bots?

[patndoris]

There are a couple of ways bots work, one of which can be by downloading malicious code onto a users computer, and then utilizing (without the person's knowledge) their contact list.

It is theoretically possible that your contact has been infected, and that the login is prompting the bot to go to work. It does not mean that your contact is doing this willingly.

I'd suggest a good cleanup to your friend.

[Ven0m]

Yeah, I've encountered these bots. I just have them all blocked by default, no harm no foul. =)