hello there everyone, I have searched all around on google for about 4 hours and can not find a solution so im hoping you guys can help me. Anywayz I just reformated my moms HD on her pc yesterday due to she had crap loads of virus's so i figured it would be easier to do that. So i got the whole thing done and working wonderful lastnight. Tonight she goes on from what she told me she went to check her email and her whole pc froze. So i took a look at it, it gets to the Winxp splash screen takes about 3 to 4 seconds and than freezes. I tried loading into safe mode that didnt work it locks up trying to that aswell. I tried hitting last known config that didnt work that locks up, i also tried booting from the recovery disc it recovered the files sucessfully than i restarted the pc did the same exact thing... Any info at all on the problem would be really appreciated thank you
Sounds like there is still a virus on the computer. Maybe it's a memory resident virus? Search around on Google for that term.
ok if that is the case how do i actually take care of that. I looked around on google about that term and there really isnt a whole lot of info on how to fix the problem
if this helps any i tried memtest and that came back with no errors, i dont know if that info helps at all
Not to sure man. But if you formated the hard drive and the problems are still occurring, you either still have the virus, there is a bunch spyware running, or the virus has been executed again. Remember, it was your Mom using the pc. And if shes like any other user I know, she may have got the virus back on the computer.
Why don't people get this.. Formatting a drive DOESNT wipe it.. it just removes the file table leaving the data, malware and everything else intact. Reformatting with the same partitioning plan then means duplicating the file table which allows read only files etc to pop back up and run if they are so inclined. (common windows installer error.. can't copy file xxxxx.. because it is in the sectors trying to be written to with a read only flag set) Most AV tools need a valid ile table, and obviously now the file table is tecnically "corrupt" because files exist which have no reference.. I would first run a proper drive blanking application.. active@killdisk bootable is free and does the job, then format again and reinstall on a clean target... It still sounds like a ram problem tho..
nate2005 Since it was booting with the same viruses before you reinstalled windows it would lead me to believe the possibility of a hardware issue such as overheating. Check to see that the CPU fan is spinning alright or that the heat sink isn't choked with dust.
ok i checked to make sure there was no overheating issues there is none, everything is fine inside it. I even cleaned it all out it was a little dusty but not too bad. I just burned the iso of that disk cleaner thing im about to try that ill post back and let you guys know if that works
pull out the ram off the motherboard & use a pencil eraser to clean the gold contacts on the ram stick(s) & reseat the ram. startup the pc to see if does same thing.
ok so i just got done doing the whole active killdisk thing I also tried after that formating again like you said, I also did the whole pencil eraser to the gold contacts on the ram and now it starts to load the xp splash screen for about 2 seconds and now the whole screen turns black. I tried to load into safe mode seeing if it would even do that and it gets stuck everytime on the command windows/system32/drivers\mup.sys
if correct the line windows/system32/drivers\mup.sys just sits there for a while til safemode kicks in. that is why i like win98 safemode over xp safemode as it is faster to load.
nate2005 When you reinstalled windows, was it using a complete windows install disc or a restore disc from the manufacturer? If it was a complete install did you reformat first?
it was a restore disk that i had made when i got the pc to begin with. I let it sit on that screen for about 40 mins and never moved at all. I know it doesnt take that long to go into safe mode due to i have done it plenty of times lol I have never ran into a problem like this so im super stumped.
A restore disc only contains a portion of windows, the rest is hidden in a partition on your hard drive. IF your computer gets seriously infected so could that portion of windows on your hard drive and doing a restore will not correct that. Try and use the restore disc again and see if that works before trying anything else.
I already tried using the restore disk again same issues occur. So what is the next step. Its weird though because when i used the restore disks before this happend everything worked perfectly fine. Once this virus got on in nothing wants to work.
