Blue screen referred from Malware

Have been working with Tomk in malware, he believes it may be hard drive, but told me to start here.

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?sh…116640&st=0

Thanks for your help.

You certainly had, if you are not still having, hard drive trouble.

We need a better test for your hard drive.

I did a little bit of research and IBM provides a copy of PC Doctor for your laptop that should test the hard drive.

I found these two links referring to that:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGr-70578.html
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-56222.html

I would try to download the quicktest bootable CD file from the first link (Read the instructions) and boot your computer and pay attention to what tests it runs and their status. Please make a note of the tests it runs because I don't know anything about this PC Doctor software. If it doesn't scan the entire drive its not what we are looking for.

Alternatively, you could identify which make of hard drive you have in your laptop by locating it under a panel on the bottom of the laptop or in a tray that slides into the side of the computer. I'm not sure exactly where it is mounted on that laptop. Once you know the make you can use the tool from the manufacturer's website that they provide for the hard drive.

One of the first things I did was run the pc doctor tests that are already installed in the boot sector of the computer. hardware all passed so I started with malware. I will look at what hard drive it is when I get home for lunch and investigate using the companies software. Thanks for responding.

Excuse the redundancy of the instructions you are getting. There is clear indication that you did have trouble with the hard drive and it was likely after the "tests" you ran previously said everything was OK. So, we need to make sure we are not actually having any trouble with the hard drive. it is important for your data, and for our own peace of mind. So, please bear with me while we confirm everything is kosher with your hard drive.

Thanks, don't mind redundancy, just wanted to let you kknow I had run them. Ran the bootable diagnostic quicktest, found errors. should I allow it to try to fix? all important data is backed up.

Please describe in as much detail what tests were run and what errors were found so I can make an informed decision in which direction to go. Thanks.

ran bootable test by pc doctor found uncorrectable data error. LBA: 000002C32CE4h it reports drive as a FUJITSU MHT2040AH

Yes, go ahead and "correct" the "uncorrectable data error." This is most likely indicating a failure to be able to read a certain sector. You will probably get more of these. After you get 3 or 4 more you can be sure the hard drive is all but dead. And that is ultimately your problem.

Correcte error successfully. ran both short and extended hard drive test and it passed both. rebooted in normal mode and attempted to update norton which has always caused bsod. Bsod returned. rebooted to PC doctor and ran short test passed all. thanks

rebooted in normal mode and attempted to update norton which has always caused bsod.

Get rid of Norton's(?).
Many techy types consider that program Melware . Not far wrong IMHO.


Cheers,
Lee

believe me, I agree, but its my mothers computer and I can't convice her.

Hello. Again, pardon the redundancy. But it appears we have detected bad sectors on at least two scans. Lets run the "extended" test one more time, and we should not get any more bad sectors. To enforce what Lee said, is Norton provided by your internet service provider free of charge, or is this a paid for product? It is unfair to assume there is something wrong with the computer and that this is not just a problem with Norton. At the very least, Norton should be completely removed and reinstalled. If it is provided freely, then there is absolutely no excuse to not completely remove it and use something different that works. If it is a paid for product, I suggest removing it as soon as the subscription expires. Anways, lets make sure the hard drive is not having trouble. And I need to know the results of one more extended test to determine that. And, because bad sectors have already been found and locked out, if there were any data files or system files that crossed those bad sectors those files would now be corrupt. That could mean the OS has corruption, Norton has corruption, or any number of other things could be corrupt. It could all be related.

Thanks, I will run the scan at lunch if all good I will try to reinstall norton this and see what hapens. do you think it is worth try a repair install of XP too? It is a purchased copy of norton.

One step at a time. Try reinstalling norton first. Then see how things run. Just to prove a point. Try uninstalling Norton, and see how things run, then reinstall Norton and see how things run. You'll see just how much better the computer runs without it.