Had a S.M.A.R.T. Virus and now Skype won't open

[jmarie557]

Support,

We installed Skype a few weeks ago and it has been working fine until a S.M.A.R.T. Virus took over our computer.  We removed the virus and everything seems to work except Skype now.

The operating system is Windows Server 2003. 

When we try to open Skype, we get the following error message:

The instruction at "0x005e5a37" referenced memory at "0x000000f78".  The memory could not be read.  Click OK to terminate  Click CANCEL to debug program.

I have tried to remove Skype and reinstall the program to no avail.

Please help?

Thank you,

Larry

[ruwim]

Are you seeing other error messages in Windows Event Viewer -> Application?

[jmarie557]

Yes, this is one of them that seems to connect to Skype, it is a category 100

Faulting application Skype.exe, version 5.9.0.114, faulting module Skype.exe, version 5.9.0.114, fault address 0x001e5a37.

[ruwim]

There is another post here with the same error message:

http://community.skype.com/t5/Windows/Skype-crashes-upon-login-Win-XP-Pro/m-p/681773#M53243

Maybe you can try with resetting Skype settings.

Quit Skype or use Windows Task Manager to kill any Skype.exe process. Go to Windows Start and in the Search/Run box type %appdata%, press Enter or click the OK button. The Windows File Explorer will pop up. There locate a folder named “Skype”. Rename this folder to something different, e.g. Skype_old. Restart Skype.

N.B. If needed, you will still be able to re-establish your call and chat history. All data is still saved in the Skype_old folder.

[jmarie557]

Tried that.  Skype will load, but the error message stays on the screen.  When I cancel the error message it kills Skype

[ruwim]

Maybe you should also try to start your computer in Safe mode with networking. This will show if some devices or services, which are not loaded in safe mode, prevent Skype from working.

[jmarie557]

I rebooted in safemode.  It did the same thing exactly, but when I rebooted it again in the normal mode, I received a message that "Skype encountered a problem and needed to close".  I clicked the "For more information about this error, click here", and received this error signiture:

szAppName : Skype.exe szAppVer : 5.9.0.114 szModName : Skype.exe

szModVer : 5.9.0.114 offset : 001e5a37

It also included the following two files:

C:\DOCUME~1\florist\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER4345.dir00\Skype.exe.mdmp

C:\DOCUME~1\florist\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER4345.dir00\appcompat.txt

[ruwim]

This is exactly the same error message as before, so nothing has changed.

What Antivirus application is installed on your computer? For testing purpose try with this application disabled.

[jmarie557]

I am using Symantec Antivirus.  It was running when Skype worked prior to the S.M.A.R.T. virus infection.

[ruwim]

Yes, but antivirus applications are being continuously updated and also the virus attack might have changed something. You can always after the test enable Norton again.