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PC help required:
Monday night my PC kept coming up with error messages when downloading a PDF service guide for Stan’s ZTR rear hub’s. It kept stopping at 2.27MB out of 3.48MB but after several attempts it came up & I got my info. Then about 10 minutes later the curser froze on screen & that was it, couldn’t do anything to get it moving again so held in the start button until the computer shutdown.
Now when it restarts it gets as far as the Window’s XP screen & goes no further. Sometimes it comes up with white text on a black screen with the options to start in safe mode, start in safe mode with networking, start in safe mode with prompt, or just let it time out to start up windows from last settings.
If I select start in safe mode most of the time a great load of text scrolls through the screen & then that’s it.
On the very odd occasions after selecting start in safe mode it scrolls through loads of text & then gives me the option to login as the Administrator or myself. I can select myself & then it gives me the option to restore, yes or no. Once I got as far as selecting a day from a calendar to restore settings but after this it just seemed to hang for hours & went no further.
This morning it went all the way to the desktop screen with all the desk top icons showing, but no bottom tool bar icons came up & again it went no further & I could not select any icon’s.
Can anyone give me some pointers get it running again before I have to take somewhere to get fixed?
There's a specific infection that does this, we discussed it on here a little while ago.
First port of call is checking the disk, though. Open My Computer, right-click the C:\ drive, choose properties. Click the Tools tab and then pick Check Now. Tick the first box but not the second, and select Schedule when prompted. Then reboot.
When that's done, if you're still having problems then run [url= http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/rkill ]this[/url].
Then [url= http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe ]this[/url].
Next, [url= http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/ ]this[/url].
Finally, install, update and scan with [url= http://www.malwarebytes.org/ ]this[/url].
Then we'll review where we're at.
Thanks but I can't get the computer to the point where I can start selecting things to do.
All I can do is power it up & get to screen where I can select the safe mode etc as above & then thats it most of the time.
I'm on my work laptop at the moment, but its my home PC thats at fault.
Have you got your Windows disc? We can check the disc from there.
I might have - but I'll have to check at home tonight.
What do I do - turn on the PC & put it in the disc drive? Then....?
If you boot from the Windows disc it should give you a repair option. On XP, this will take you to the recovery console, typing 'chkdsk /p' will check the drive for errors. Vista / 7 is a bit different.
Take your work lappy home, it'll come in useful.
... if you don't have a Windows disc or aren't sure, I've built recovery console images that you can burn to disc. They're on my website but I don't want to link them here directly as the server bandwidth is at a premium (I get free hosting off a mate so long as I don't take the proverbial).
If you (or anyone else for that matter) wants a copy, email me (address on profile) stating Windows version and I'll send you a link.