Add-ons or extensions crash my machine and come up as malware

Question

Was looking for plug-ins and extensions, and came across Top Arcade Hits add-on, and searchhelper extension by conduit. Since installing these add-ons, and extensions, my machine has been crashing on memory, my homepage was hijacked by the search helper (Search Protect by Conduit)...I immediately disabled the plug-in and extension, and restarted Mozilla, with no change.
I also found Search Protect had installed into my startup folder, so uninstalled that via control panel, also with no change.
After 2 days of fighting with this, I searched for Search Protect by Conduit, and found it is known malware, bho, pup, and a hijacker to boot, which also mines data and sends to 3rd parties, as does Top Hat, which is listed as Adware.Gamevance
CNET recommended I use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to scan and/or remove the infestation, it found 86 entries throughout the memory, registry, program files, etc., 43 of which were actual infestations
Thankfully, after 1 pass, it has removed it from my system. I would be happy to send you the log if it would help, and suggest you remove these items from your add-on list...
The only issue I currently have is that the add-on and extension are still in my Firefox, disabled, but with no way to remove them.

Answer 1

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
* [http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/default.aspx Microsoft Safety Scanner]
* [http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/ MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware]
* [http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208283363 TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility]
* [http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro/ Hitman Pro]
* [http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/ ESET Online Scanner]
[http://windows.microsoft.com/MSE Microsoft Security Essentials] is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.
Further information can be found in the [[Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware]] article.
Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!