Booting Issue

Hey everyone ,

My mate asked me too look at his PC over the weekend. I booted it up and found traces of virus etc. I couldnt remove so I decided to boot into safe mode. As safe mode starts loading , the PC would jsut freeze randomly. So I tried normal mode and the same freeze would happen - when the windows logo appears.

I then created a Kaspersky rescue boot CD and that would also freeze after booting from that. Windows CD would do the same as I was trying to attempt a recovery.

I took the HDD out and plugged it into my PC , ran an AV scan and picked up alot of malware and cleaned it. However still freezing which ever way I try and boot into the machine.

Any ideas? Is this hardware or software? I'm very confused at this point. I have got a HDD diagnostic CD here at work which I will try boot from but I presume it would also freeze?

Take not that I can plug it into my PC, havent tried to boot off it though.

Any ideas / suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

A memory (RAM) test may be in order. memtest is available from Microsofts site or if you happen to have an Ubuntu install deisk there's a memory checking program on it.

Maybe reseating the memory modules might take care of it.

Hey there,

I have Memtest and some HDd diags at work, I will check them out at home.

By the way he is running XP.

Its jsut very strange that when I start trying to clean the machine it stops booting in to windows :P

well it sounds like what ever crapware was on the machine has infected system files (probably because user was running as admin when infected)

So when you cleaned them or removed them...the system cannot boot.

Maybe try a repair??

MLF

Hey there MLF

I am attempting a repair however it freezes when booting from the CD that is why I am leaning towards hardware ....

Boot the Recovery Console from an XP disk and when you get to a command promt, rebuild the Master Boot Record by typing: FIXMBR . This has worked for a ton of systems I have seen infected with a Boot Sector Virus that will not boot Windows at all or with the symptoms you are describing. Good Luck!!!

normally i like to keep a PE cd or dvd handy with useful tools like that.
you could possibly try running your utilities that way.

that way perhaps the system wont hard lock on you while your trying to run your tests.

Can you explain what a PE cd or dvd is ...

or is google my friend :)

Check the processor fan is going round properly and is still attached with the heat transfer gloop to the pro.

Regards,

Steve

Bear in mind it is not unusual to find simultaneous
hardware and software problems on a given PC,
particularly if it's three years old or more.

A boot CD, whether Bart PE or a Live CD (Linux),
will go a long way in sorting out any hardware issues.
It's definitely a good idea, as others have suggested
here, to "pop the hood" and have a look. Blow the
dust out and make sure everything's properly seated.

Yes, Google is your friend (hint: google 'Bart PE').