Can't Boot Up

[Jack Bruss]

We can't get my wifes computer to boot up. It acts like it's going to boot,
but it is verrry slow, and gets to her wallpaper screen, but just stays
there for hours and goes no further. This just started happening last
night. We did manage to boot up in safe mode, but couldn't do anything
there, because it was very very slow. We have McAfee running on the
machine, but we can't get to it to run a virus scan now. We replaced the
cmos battery, but no change.

This computer is about 4 years old, a Duron 1 G chip on an Asus mb. It's
been running fine for the past 4 years, but it has been getting slower over
the past month.

Any ideas on what to do next?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Chris Hill]

We can't get my wifes computer to boot up. It acts like it's going to boot,
but it is verrry slow, and gets to her wallpaper screen, but just stays
there for hours and goes no further. This just started happening last
night. We did manage to boot up in safe mode, but couldn't do anything
there, because it was very very slow. We have McAfee running on the
machine, but we can't get to it to run a virus scan now. We replaced the
cmos battery, but no change.

This computer is about 4 years old, a Duron 1 G chip on an Asus mb. It's
been running fine for the past 4 years, but it has been getting slower over
the past month.

Any ideas on what to do next?

Find out who made the hard drive, download the diagnostic from the
manufacturer and run it.

 

[JAD]

look for buldging capasitors on the mainboard
discolored or leaking

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Clean out the malware.

 

[Jack Bruss]

How do I do that if I can't boot it?

Thanks

 

[JAD]

Goto to Mall(where?your home town) grab mop

How do I do that if I can't boot it?

Thanks

 

[ToolPackinMama]

How do I do that if I can't boot it?

You said you could boot to safe mode. Do so, and try running a system
restore.

Use another computer (friend) to download the latest anti-spyware
freeware (SpybotSearch and Destroy is good), and also download a fresh
copy of AVG antivirus (the free version). Copy them to a CD.

Boot to safe mode, uninstall your antivirus program, install AVG and run
a scan. Install Spybot and run a scan.

If you can boot to safe mode, then you can boot.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

We can't get my wifes computer to boot up. It acts like it's going to boot,
but it is verrry slow, and gets to her wallpaper screen, but just stays
there for hours and goes no further. This just started happening last
night. We did manage to boot up in safe mode, but couldn't do anything
there, because it was very very slow.

Do you know how to reinstall the operating system? You could try a
repair install.

Of course, that won't help if your problem is hardware, not software.
To me the symptoms you describe sound like a typical malware overload,
but of course it could be other things as well.

 

[Jack Bruss]

Thanks, we'll try it, but I'm not sure we can boot to safe mode anymore. I
guess my son got there yesterday, but today we may not be able to, but we'll
try.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Boot to safe mode, uninstall your antivirus program, install AVG and run
a scan. Install Spybot and run a scan.

Oops, scratch that remark. If you are in safe mode you probably can't
use your CD ROM.

 

[WackySnoozy]

I encountered similar problem last year. Not sure if it could be the
same cause.

I discovered that the booting was slowed down by Win XP checking and
going through all the USB and firewire devices as part of the boot
process. You could see the lights blinking on the devices when the
checks are being conducted. What I did was to unplug all the USB
devices, except the keyboard and mouse, reboot Win XP. Once booted
successfully, remove all the hidden devices (google for the steps),
reboot Window XP and re-plug in the USB devices one by one. Remember
to only plug in the next one when Win XP has successfully detected and
configured the device and declared it ready. Unless you want to have a
confused Win XP.

 

[Paul]

Thanks, we'll try it, but I'm not sure we can boot to safe mode anymore. I
guess my son got there yesterday, but today we may not be able to, but we'll
try.

Do you have a spare disk drive ? A spare disk drive is a good
thing to have, and I keep a couple blanks around for emergencies
like this.

Unplug the current boot drive. Connect a brand new drive,
being careful to jumper it the same way, if it is an
IDE drive with the ribbon cable interface. By only having
the brand new drive connected, we know no virus will be on
there when you install Windows from your install CD.

Install Windows on it. Does the machine run normally ?
If it does, then you know the problem is some kinda
sludge on the other drive. Don't connect the other
drive to the computer, until you have all your arsenal
of antivirus/malware tools installed and ready to go, on
the spare drive. And if the viruses win, you can always
reformat the spare drive and start again.

If you need to thoroughly erase a disk drive, this program
will do it. With this program, any hard drives connected
to the computer will be erased (so disconnect any drives
with valuable data on them!). The program is free.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Paul

 

[H. Seldon]

Jack Bruss tickled the ivories with this on Friday 4/21/2006

How do I do that if I can't boot it?

Thanks

I would suggest you get a copy of "Ultimate Boot CD" and ensure BIOS
system is set to allow boot from CD as the first boot option. That way
you will be able to use the utilities on the CD to check virtually all
hardware in the machine to ensure that you have no problems in that
area. You should be able to test HDD, Video, memory etc. If all the
hardware is good and you cannot do as "ToolPackinMama" says then you
will most likely have to reinstall the OS.

--
_____________________________________________________________

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There is a knob called "Brightness", but it doesn't work.

H. Seldon

 

[Man-wai Chang]

We can't get my wifes computer to boot up. It acts like it's going to boot,
but it is verrry slow, and gets to her wallpaper screen, but just stays
there for hours and goes no further. This just started happening last
night. We did manage to boot up in safe mode, but couldn't do anything
there, because it was very very slow. We have McAfee running on the
machine, but we can't get to it to run a virus scan now. We replaced the
cmos battery, but no change.

Buy a 2nd harddisk, remove the old one, install the new one, install
Window$ + antivirus + firewall, insert the old one, copy data from old
harddisk to new harddisk. Sell the old one.

--
.~. Might, Courage, Vision. SINCERITY. http://www.linux-sxs.org
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Ubuntu 5.10) Linux 2.6.16.8
^ ^ 18:41:01 up 1 day 22:24 load average: 1.00 1.00 1.00
news://news.3home.net news://news.hkpcug.org news://news.newsgroup.com.hk

 

[Man-wai Chang]

Buy a 2nd harddisk, remove the old one, install the new one, install

Window$ + antivirus + firewall, insert the old one, copy data from old
harddisk to new harddisk. Sell the old one.

If you have sensitive data on the old harddisk, hammer the old one
till it's broken and shattered, then ditch it into the sea...


--
.~. Might, Courage, Vision. SINCERITY. http://www.linux-sxs.org
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Ubuntu 5.10) Linux 2.6.16.8
^ ^ 18:47:01 up 1 day 22:30 load average: 1.00 1.00 1.00
news://news.3home.net news://news.hkpcug.org news://news.newsgroup.com.hk

 

[Jack Bruss]

Well, we got the computer booted, ran McAfee, Spybot, and Adware, and found
nothing. The computer runs very very slowly, and doesn't even open some
programs - they just hang. I looked at Task Manager, and even with no
applications listed the CPU usage jumps from about 5% to 50 or more just by
moving the mouse around.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Bob M]

Well, we got the computer booted, ran McAfee, Spybot, and Adware, and found
nothing. The computer runs very very slowly, and doesn't even open some
programs - they just hang. I looked at Task Manager, and even with no
applications listed the CPU usage jumps from about 5% to 50 or more just by
moving the mouse around.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Do you hear any clicking sounds coming from the hard drive? Either way
download a diagnostics program from the manufacturer of the hard drive
and test the drive. Could be a failing hard drive.

Bob

 

[Jack Bruss]

Well, we solved the problem by installing a new, second, hard drive, and
made it the boot drive. Everything is fine now, except I don't know the
exact cause of the problem. But having a second hard drive is a good thing,
so all is well.

Thanks for all the help,

Jack