Are these .exe files legitimate?

[Loaf Warden]

I've recently entered the Trojan War when I started having browser homepage issues, and have, within the past month, installed SpyHunter, SpyBot - Search & Destroy, AdAware, AVG, and Window Washer on my system and now run them regularly. I am also now a regular visitor to the McAfee site.

My latest scans revealed no intruders, except for two that McAfee found: 'soundmx.exe' and 'fntldr.exe'.

I went into Windows Explorer, and both files claim to have been on my computer for years, based on the information under 'date modified'. Are these files intruders that I need to delete so my browser will stop screwing up? Or are they legitimate files that need to be kept, but 'cleaned off' somehow?

And if the latter, how the deuce am I supposed to 'clean them off'?

And are either of them related to the error messages I've been getting these past few days when I attempt to load certain websites? The sites that won't work seem pretty random; everything from epguides.com (which contains episode guides for TV shows) to ellone-loire.net/obsidian/regindex.html (which contains regnal chronologies).

The messages I get when I try to load these sites are as follows:

Iexplore
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

(I click "Close".)

Microsoft Internet Explorer
An error has occurred in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer will now close.
If you continue to experience problems, please restart your computer.

(I click "Okay", the browser closes.)

Restarting the computer has no effect, and as it's only been doing this the past couple of days, and the sites it affects seems randomly chosen, and as it consistently affects the same sites, I have to wonder if this is the work of some trojan.

Any help anyone can give on any of this would be greatly appreciated and richly rewarded in the next life.

 

[Turner]

I googled 'soundmx.exe' and got this result, which also led me to this thread. You might want to read both. The first is from a couple of days ago, and the second is from Novemeber. So both are pretty recent.

Googling fntldr.exe eventually led me to this thread, after filtering for english.

Both make references to HiJackThis, which I think the homepage is here. At least, that's where Download.com sent me. People at computing.net (the first two links) both make references to this.

 

[Loaf Warden]

Thank you!

I had actually googled for some of my earlier problems and got them fixed by happening across similar sites. But with the error messages I mentioned getting more and more frequent, it just wasn't efficient to try looking that way anymore. Luckily none of the sites you linked to gave me any problems, and I was able to download Hijack This and CWShredder and get rid of those problem files. And the error messages vanished as well. Everything is back to normal!

[dance] [dance] [dance]

 

[Turner]

Glad it worked out for ya!