After months of hearing my wife nag me I need to solve her computer issue. It will boot up but with no icons..basically a dead screen. After multiple tries it will finally boot up. Then it will crash with a fatal error whenever it feels like it. My unprofessional guess is its a bios issue, due to all the virus programs I have put on in the past. Right now it just has avast, but I'm thinking the damage is done. I've tried to restore it back to another date, but it wont do it. SOOOO i'm thinking its time to format the hard drive. Is a backup disk all I need or do I need a windows disk. Also I have no idea how to wipe it. HELP and Thanks
calling all computer geeks
- Thread starter Kgibson
- Start date
I am very willing to help. The BIOS I am nearly certain are not the issue, however. If the BIOS were corrupt, the computer would not boot at all.
In order for me to give step by step instructions, I need to know what version of Windows you are running? (XP, Vista, 7)
If needed, we could talk on the phone and come up with a solution.
In order for me to give step by step instructions, I need to know what version of Windows you are running? (XP, Vista, 7)
If needed, we could talk on the phone and come up with a solution.
Good, Vista is touchy to work with.
The first attempt to fix this would be a system repair. Are you running Windows XP Home Edition or Professional or Professional Media Edition? If you are unsure, visit this link to determine. How to Determine the Version of Windows XP in Use
You will indeed need the windows disk to repair. There is also a program named Reimage that is supposed to work very will, but I have never used it. Everywhere online says that it does great. You can run a free scan to see if it picks up anything, but you must purchase it in order to repair (unless you choose a less-legal route, of course).
Any home edition disk should work. They are fairly easy to come by online, too. I do believe it is "legal" to download the disk if you own the content on it, part of the Fair Use policy. You just have to make sure to get an unmodified version, I can help if needed.
xKroniK13x - Are you having him do a repair install? If it works I would then just get all the data backed up then do a clean format. The repair install tends to leave junk behind and can cause issues later on with windows updates, but is a good way to get a system bootable. We do this a lot to badly infested pcs on onsites when we don't have access to another pc to hook the hdd up to.
Kgibson - When xKroniK13x gets you going again I would recommend that you stay with Avast (what I use myself), AVG, or Microsoft Security Essentials for av software. Another good idea is to change your browser to Firefox or Google Chrome. Both have an addon called AdBlock that will block ads in most sites. I personally use Chrome.
Just my $0.02
Kgibson - When xKroniK13x gets you going again I would recommend that you stay with Avast (what I use myself), AVG, or Microsoft Security Essentials for av software. Another good idea is to change your browser to Firefox or Google Chrome. Both have an addon called AdBlock that will block ads in most sites. I personally use Chrome.
Just my $0.02
I've never seen anything stop everything. I've seen every type of antivirus fail. Keeping malware off your pc is 90% user and 10% software.
I've run several kinds of av (not at the same time) and even no av and have never had an infection.
IMO Spybot blows a**. However Malwarebytes is good. Another good anti-spyware is SuperAnti-Spyware.
I personally do not run any antivirus. I only download from secure places that I trust and I block all ads online. Also, I set firefox to delete everything (cookies, cache, history, etc) on exit. Last time I ran a virus scan, I had no threats.
