OK, my computer developed a problem about 2 weeks ago. It locked while loading winXP, and apparently the keyboard was not being recognized because I couldn’t get into setup or safe start modes. It would do the memory check, and then just hang before showing the windows start screen. I popped the XP disc in, thinking I could boot from CD. Nope. I figured it could be motherboard or chip trouble, and draged out my old compter to play WOW and do internet and email until I could afford to have a pro diagnose and fix the problem.
Now my old computer just locked on logging into winXP. [did the memory check, and started the windows start screen, where it hung for 20 minutes. I left it logging in while I ran to take a shower figuring to get into WOW and kill cute fluffy monsters for a while.] Unlike the new computer, I hit reset and was able to boot in safe mode. So now I was in safe mode, but it wan refusing to go online. I restored to about 1 week ago, and no luck. It would not go online. So I shoved in the winXP disc and restarted, and I got the regular full windows. I am afraid to shut down the computer now.
So, since the second computer is starting to act like the paperweight, despite being firewalled, and running AVG, AdAware and Spybot, do I have some funky malware or virus? Do my computers want better working conditions and more pay? Do they hate me with all their little electronic guts? Help!
Yes, either the symptoms are not as similar as you decribe, or you have malware of some form. When you first re-booted the old PC the AV and spyware apps would have had out-of-date data and the same one that got through to your new machine would have been able to get to your old one too.
If you don’t have anything vital on the new one I think it’s nuke and re-install time. And you want to do that while attached to a network or router that has a good firewall built into it so you don’t get infected again before you can install your protection programs; if you have access to a corporate network or one at someone else’s place, that’d be ideal.
How do I nuke and reinstall? it wont boot from disc and the keyboard is not functioning/recognized so I cant get out of the boot proceedure intop safe mode or anything. I can do it on this computer at this point [scurries around saving data…]
Oh, and how did I get the malware? I only installed thunderbird and firefox, and religiously run ad aware amd spybot - and my old computer has only been sidelined for about a month and an half, not like it was benched a year ago … and since my husband used it as an email box, it regularly got screened with avg, ad aware and spybot also …
I apologise, I missed that it won’t even boot from the CD. That makes it much more likely to be hardware and much less likely to be malware; it would have to have got into the bios to have that effect, and I’m not aware of any that do that without you booting from a CD or floppy with the malware on it. You pretty much have to take it to a repair shop IMO.
So the problem the old machine has must be quite separate. From the description it could still be malware. BTW you say you went back only a week; you might try going back further and further.
Hm, just tried midmay, before I finished new computer and it did the same, but when I boot using winxp disc i get normal screen.
I am saving any spiffy bookmarks [since i have everything essential [pics and docs] backed up to when I built the new box so it is getting a format and reload.
Honestly the only things I have downloaded on either computer are the freaking wincrap updates, and adobe 7 update they just came out with. I hate to think that adobe could be the culpret [though I wouldnt discount considering all of windows malware :dubious: ]
WHEN the hell will they come out with a build of world of warcraft that will run perfectly under linux?
The first thing to do is find out if it’s a hardware problem before blaming malware; this really doesn’t sound like the latter to me, or for that matter a typical Windows problem; it sounds more like the BIOS is failing to find any boot device at all. Can you get into the BIOS? Typically this is achieved by mindlessly hammering the “del” key as soon as you switch the computer on. If you can’t even get in there, then I’d suggest borrowing a different keyboard - some BIOSes won’t let you boot unless it spots a keyboard, although that seems unlikely if it got past the memory check. Should no keyboard get you anywhere (and you should try different sockets (USB or PS/2), then you’ve got a far more fundamental problem than malware, and one I can’t really help you with.
Should you manage to get into the BIOS then we know your keyboard works, and in there you should be able to check the boot device order - if the CD is set lower than your hard disk then you wouldn’t expect it to boot of the XP CD. At this point if your computer should be booting from the CD but isn’t, then you very definitely have a hardware problem, again of mysterious origin and probably only locatable by swapping parts out one by one. If the CD wasn’t set for boot priority, then do so, and get into the XP recovery console. My first guess is that you’ve somehow ended up with a damaged Master Boot Record, which you can repair from the repair console with the command
> fdisk /mbr
Running this command always gives me the willies, however, so I would make sure you’ve exhausted all other possibilities first. Plus, if you’ve got a dual-boot system, it’ll hose whatever other bootloaders you might have on it, so accessing your second OS might require a bit of fiddling. Either way, don’t go for the reformat and reinstall just yet. Good luck…
Tried that - and used both my us keyboards and my german keyboard. Absolutely no way to get into bios at all =(
I am about to just dump it at a computer repair place and eat teh cost, the frustration is annoying. On my old box I am going to format and start over again, nothing on it right now that isnt backed up, just finished putting all my bookmarks on a my yahoo homepage, just need a good nights sleep and nobody around to bother me while i do the job.
