Hi, Guy's!
Hope you can help with this one - I'll try not to be too long winded. I got hit with the blue screen/spyware warning that took over my desktop and hijacked my homepage. I have managed to get rid of it - finally, but during my attempts I found I could not run in safe-mode. During boot-up I hit f8 and got the safe-mode options screen, but whichever option I picked took me to a page asking which o/s I wanted to use. On this page Win Home XP is listed twice. If I picked the first option the pc started booting-up again and just repeated the whole procedure, If I picked the second option, it just started up normally with windows. So - no safe-mode - but that's not all, as the pc will now not start normally. I am always taken to the same 'which o/s' page. If I do nothing I get a msg saying windows can't start because a file - sys32/hal.dll - is missimg. Pressing the enter key takes me back to the o/s choice page where I have to pick the second entry to get windows to start. I have also lost the use of my mouse 'right click'. The mouse was connected via USB but I have changed it to PS2 though this has made no difference. I am unable to reload the mouse drivers as the dog unfortunately chewed up the CD-ROM. I got rid of the blue screen by using smitRem, but I had to run it in ordinary mode. The problems had appeared before I managed to clear the virus so I'm fairly sure nothing I did caused them. I don't know what information you need, but I have the following:- HJT, eWido, Spysweeper, Spyware Doctor, RegClean, Norton Anti-Virus and AdAware SE Pro. I use Avant Browser - not IE - and I have Omniquad Total Security. Any asistance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Boot up however you must to get to your desktop. Put your Windows installation cd in. Then exit the splash screen if it comes up. Click on "start"… then "run"… type CMD and press enter. At the prompt type SFC /scannow
When its through (as it may take it awhile) go directly here to download HiJack This and then scan but do not fix anything. Save the scan to a log and then go here to the "HiJack This logs and spyware/malware removal forum" and copy and paste your log into a new thread there.
(SFC is System File Checker.. it will repair/replace system files. Make sure to put a space between "SFC" and "/scannow".)
Hi, sorry 'bout delay. Don't have windows discs - bought pc with xp home already loaded. Most places round here don't sell you the discs anyway - they take your pc in and load it for you 'under license'. Prob a scam but that doesn't help the situation. I've got evrything of any value backed up on cd's so I 'spose I'll just have to take the thing in somewhere and pay through the nose again to have the disc formatted and re-loaded - unless you've got any other ideas . . . ?
You mean you cant buy a Windows installation cd..? Im not 100% sure of the legalities but if someone selling "installations" they probably wont be in business long.
I'm afraid that's the case and it's not just some guy who's number you get from the small ads. if you go into any computer shop and ask to buy a version of windows, they'll tell you to bring the pc in and they install it for you. I've asked about the discs b4 and I'm just told the same thing - they don't sell the discs, they just install it 'under license'. Anyway I'll have to get something done this weekend 'cos its driving me nuts now, so I'll close the thread. Thanks for trying to help anyway. Good luck.
OK, thanks. Obviously I'm no expert or I wouldn't be needing help so I'll give you whatever info I can. If you need any other specific details you'll have to tell me exactly what.
It's an ACPI Uniprocessor PC with an ABIT NF7 Motherboard (the exact model I'm not sure without diving inside the case to find a label - it may be NF7 or NF7-M or NF7-S)
Athlon XP2100+ processor 1.73GHz 256MB RAM
Maxtor 4R080JO Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce MX440
NVIDIA nForce ATA Controller (v2.6)
Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller
Ok thank you for the information. I apologize, I should have been more specific. What I was needing to know is if its an O.E.M computer (original equiptment manufacturer) … like a Dell.. or Gateway.. etc. Reason being, they put an image of the OS on the drive alot of times so you will not need the cd (Thats there way of thinking anyhow) Do you know rather or not if you have an image burnt on to harddrive..? it would more than likely be on its own partition (or drive)
Sorry. No chance of an image though. It was originally a home build with a 20GB Drive but I had the Drive upgraded to 80GB and XP re-installed about 6mths ago.
Well, thats crazy. I think I would be in contact with Microsoft or upper managment of the stores installing XP.
Mean time, you'll have to find a source (if you'll give me a day or so I will find one for you) to get the files you need.
