Spybot & Firefox troubles

[Tiriol]

I'd usually not lump troubles from separate programs into one thread of my own, but since they both appeared together, I have some suspicion they might be related.

My Firefox doesn't let me change my bookmarks at all. I can't add them, remove them, change their places etc. While it's only a minor inconvenience, I'd still like to know what the hell that means. I haven't changed any settings so this is peculiar. And to be even more precise, Firefox apparently DOES allow me to manage my bookmarks but with hideous delay. And I usually have to open an entire new window to see the changes (if any).

On to the Spybot S&D troubles: it doesn't update. I open the program normally, try to update, but the damn thing won't even look for updates. It just informs that it has failed to search for updates.

There shouldn't be any viruses on the computer: neither ClamWin nor AntiVir found any and Malwarebytes and Spybot itself didn't find any harmful programs. My firewall (COMODO) hasn't detected anything unusual nor have I downloaded anything strange. So any advice would be appreciated.

[montypython]

I'd usually not lump troubles from separate programs into one thread of my own, but since they both appeared together, I have some suspicion they might be related.

My Firefox doesn't let me change my bookmarks at all. I can't add them, remove them, change their places etc. While it's only a minor inconvenience, I'd still like to know what the hell that means. I haven't changed any settings so this is peculiar. And to be even more precise, Firefox apparently DOES allow me to manage my bookmarks but with hideous delay. And I usually have to open an entire new window to see the changes (if any).

On to the Spybot S&D troubles: it doesn't update. I open the program normally, try to update, but the damn thing won't even look for updates. It just informs that it has failed to search for updates.

There shouldn't be any viruses on the computer: neither ClamWin nor AntiVir found any and Malwarebytes and Spybot itself didn't find any harmful programs. My firewall (COMODO) hasn't detected anything unusual nor have I downloaded anything strange. So any advice would be appreciated.

What version of Firefox is it btw? For Spybot I've usually run a clean install of the latest version when updates or such fail.

[Haruko]

Your Firefox problem sounds very similar to one I had. The solution was to reset "browser.places":

1. Enter about:config in the Location Bar
2. In the Filter box, type browser.places
3. Context-click (right-click) any preference with a user-set status (e.g., browser.places.importBookmarksHTML)
4. Click "Reset".

Your Spybot problem sounds like a corrupt installation or firewall interference. To check the former possibility, try a clean install as suggested by the previous respondent. For the latter, have you checked COMODO's list of permissions for programs to make sure Spybot is being afforded full access to the internet?

[Tiriol]

Thanks for the help, although it did turn out that it was an infestation all along. I ran AntiVir again and surprise surprise, it found a virus. Getting rid of it returned the computer to its normal activity.

Still, thank you anyway.