Windows XP Boot Problem - Please help :-)

[Guest]

[stuartguthrie]

Hey all,

I'm trying to fix a computer for a friend but I've run into a road block and was wondering if someone could please give us a hand?

The computer came to me with a few viruses on and whenever it would start up it would go to the log-in screen and I would log in. From there just the desktop wallpaper and a mouse cursor were displayed until I received a message a few mins later saying that the computer would be shut down in 30 seconds which it would then do.

Anyway, I removed the hard drive and put it in a caddy which I connected to my OQO via USB. I ran Norton Anti-Virus which brought up 3 major threats on the hard drive which it has managed to fix. After reinstalling the hard drive in the other computer, it still boots up and hangs on the wallpaper and mouse cursor - no shutdown message is displayed anymore.

Does anyone know if there's any easy way to fix this problem as I'd prefer not to have to go through the progress of removing the hard drive and backing up 40 gigs of his data and then having to reinstall Windows? If worst comes to worst I can always do this but I'd love an easier fix if one is available.

Many thanks in advance.

Stu

[sandydlc]

The simplest thing to do at this point is to attempt to boot into safe mode.  Have you tried that yet?

If you are able to, then go to run and type msconfig.  From there you can see which programs or items are attempting to start at boot-up (the tab is "Start-up" items).  Disable anything that doesn't look legit.  You can check this link if you're not sure:  http://answersthatwork.com/  They have the best Task List that is searchable and tells you right away if a program or file that's opening or running is real or possibly viral.

Before you reboot, go to Add/Remove programs and remove *everything* non-essential.  When you're sure you've removed everything you can that is not necessary then reboot and hopefully it should be working.

If this doesn't work, then I'm afraid that in the end it will be cleaner and better to back up the data and reinstall Windows.  Sometimes you do have to think about whether you want to spend 8-10 hours or more trying to fix something mysteriously broken, or just start over with a clean install?  I've seen some trojans that are so badly entrenched within Windows that it took a complete disk format to get rid of them.

Good luck!!

Sandy

[dlach]

Stu,

Did you try looking for any restore points?  Maybe you can back up to a point before the really bad viri got on.

Another tack might be to boot a linux rescue disk and if there is enough disk space, create a new partition and move his data to it, then wipe the windows install and start over.

[Stuart]

I would do what Sandy suggests.  Safe mode and turn off things in msconfig.

Also make sure the PC isn't on the network, partly to protect other machines, but mostly to keep the viruses from puting themselves back on.

[oqo-user]

You may want to install Search N Destroy in Normal mode.
Then boot into Safe mode and run this application to search for malware, viruses or trojans. This application should be able to eradicate most viruses.

Give it a try! Good luck!

[charlieboy]

Stu

If you have not fixed it yet then you need to get a AV program that has a Bootable CD that you can run a scan pre booting into windows. I think the free version of Avast does this. If not if you can install it in safe mode. then tell it to run a boot time scan , they reboot. After this try to boot in safe mode with networking and run a the AV update on avast. Then do another full scan and then again set to boot time scan. As a final step when that is complete you can try installing spybot and then update, imunise then full scan.

I have done this type of thing many times for friends with children. It takes lots of time but is rarely terminal.

[stuartguthrie]

Hey all,

Thanks HEAPS for all of the suggestions. I tried them all and nothing worked unfortunately so I had to end up formatting the computer and reinstalling everything.

Thanks again for the replies - you guys are legends!!! I really appreciate it.

Stu

[Bungee]

I tried them all and nothing worked unfortunately so I had to end up formatting the computer and reinstalling everything.

Stu, that's pretty much my standard procedure these days when I helping my parents with their PCs. It's just not worth the time and hassle to troubleshoot and risk not fixing the root problem/bug/virus/trojan.

I'd suggest that you create a backup partition on the PC (preferably on a separate physical drive). After you've reinstalled everything and brought the computer up to date (Windows Update, Virus definitions.. etc), create an image of drive C and stick it into the backup partition to expedite future recoveries. I have an approximately 10GB on all my home and my parent's PCs for this purpose. I use Norton Ghost to create the recovery image, it comes in a bootable recovery CD such that even if you can't boot into Windows, you'd still be able to recovery so long as the drive itself isn't toast.

[stuartguthrie]

I tried them all and nothing worked unfortunately so I had to end up formatting the computer and reinstalling everything.

Stu, that's pretty much my standard procedure these days when I helping my parents with their PCs. It's just not worth the time and hassle to troubleshoot and risk not fixing the root problem/bug/virus/trojan.

I'd suggest that you create a backup partition on the PC (preferably on a separate physical drive). After you've reinstalled everything and brought the computer up to date (Windows Update, Virus definitions.. etc), create an image of drive C and stick it into the backup partition to expedite future recoveries. I have an approximately 10GB on all my home and my parent's PCs for this purpose. I use Norton Ghost to create the recovery image, it comes in a bootable recovery CD such that even if you can't boot into Windows, you'd still be able to recovery so long as the drive itself isn't toast.

Thanks for the suggestion Bungee. I handed the computer back last night but that definitely would have been worth doing - it's a great tip to keep in mind for my future repair jobs.

Thanks,
Stu