computer problems!! help!!

[emekadavid]

I have a PIII computer that was a nice baby until recently. I bought a
new HDD and wanted to install win98 in it and later upgrade to Winxp
but discovered that the startup diskette i thought was clean was
corrupted and my Trend ChipAway Virus detected.

I restarted the computer and on POST i get a message like:
American Megatrends (normal line)
02-05-XXXX (normal line)
0000-0-0000-00(...continous zeros) 7fc8de98 11 APM 1 2-1 Cr27.0 DIM-1
80 ...xxx USB -1(abnormal line and am told to press F1 to run setup
which i do all the time.)

Now the boot sector is virus infected, that's what Trend ChipAway told
me. I came to google groups and realised that i had to run fdisk /mbr
on it, if it doesn't work, format it and scandisk and do system
transfer. All done. But when i try installing Win98 the setup refuses
to run. When i want to install Winxp, it tells me the system is
corrupted, i continue boot anyway but on copying files, winxp files
copies successfully until 43% at wmic.chm. It stops here and won't
continue.

Can anyone help me. help will be highly appreciated. a friend told me
my problem should be the mainboard which i doubt because i've done hdd
checks and memory checks several times with my linux os which refuses
to setup itself.

help please.

 

[Christopher Range]

I have a PIII computer that was a nice baby until recently. I bought a
new HDD and wanted to install win98 in it and later upgrade to Winxp
but discovered that the startup diskette i thought was clean was
corrupted and my Trend ChipAway Virus detected.

I restarted the computer and on POST i get a message like:
American Megatrends (normal line)
02-05-XXXX (normal line)
0000-0-0000-00(...continous zeros) 7fc8de98 11 APM 1 2-1 Cr27.0 DIM-1
80 ...xxx USB -1(abnormal line and am told to press F1 to run setup
which i do all the time.)

Now the boot sector is virus infected, that's what Trend ChipAway told
me. I came to google groups and realised that i had to run fdisk /mbr
on it, if it doesn't work, format it and scandisk and do system
transfer. All done. But when i try installing Win98 the setup refuses
to run. When i want to install Winxp, it tells me the system is
corrupted, i continue boot anyway but on copying files, winxp files
copies successfully until 43% at wmic.chm. It stops here and won't
continue.

Can anyone help me. help will be highly appreciated. a friend told me
my problem should be the mainboard which i doubt because i've done hdd
checks and memory checks several times with my linux os which refuses
to setup itself.

help please.

1. Turn on the PC

2. Press F1 during startup

3. Make the CD the 'Second Boot Device'

4. Press F10 to Save/Exit

5. Turn on the PC and, put the Win98 Setup CD in the CD drive
immediately after you turn it on the PC.

6. The PC should boot from the CD drive.

 

[emekadavid]

1. Turn on the PC

2. Press F1 during startup

3. Make the CD the 'Second Boot Device'

4. Press F10 to Save/Exit

5. Turn on the PC and, put the Win98 Setup CD in the CD drive
immediately after you turn it on the PC.

6. The PC should boot from the CD drive.

i tried fdisk /mbr and succeeded in making the winxp install but it did
not copy an internet configuration dll file. the whole setup is messed
up. at initial log on i went to windows but on restarting, i was asked
to log on as administrator and without the password it gave me a string
of characters that meant i can't log on. do i reformat and resetup
again? will winxp log on from ide-0 if i copy the cd files to the c:\?
any suggestion would be helpful.

 

[Michael Hawes]

i tried fdisk /mbr and succeeded in making the winxp install but it did
not copy an internet configuration dll file. the whole setup is messed
up. at initial log on i went to windows but on restarting, i was asked
to log on as administrator and without the password it gave me a string
of characters that meant i can't log on. do i reformat and resetup
again? will winxp log on from ide-0 if i copy the cd files to the c:\?
any suggestion would be helpful.

You probably never had a virus! To install new OS you have to modify the
boot sector. Your BIOS is set to monitor the boot sector for virus type
activity. The message was asking if you wanted to allow the boot sectoe to
be modified. You should have pressed 'Y' to allow it. This may be why you
are unable to install. Please READ on screen messages! WinXP install prompts
you to set an Administrator password. If you just pressed 'return/enter, you
set blank password and you only had to press 'enter' to logon. You could
turn off the virus guard in BIOS as that type of virus is no longer common.
Reccomend you start again and boot from XP CD and clear the drive and start
again, format the drive with NTFS not FAT!
Mike.

 

[emekadavid]

You probably never had a virus! To install new OS you have to modify the
boot sector. Your BIOS is set to monitor the boot sector for virus type
activity. The message was asking if you wanted to allow the boot sectoe to
be modified. You should have pressed 'Y' to allow it. This may be why you
are unable to install. Please READ on screen messages! WinXP install prompts
you to set an Administrator password. If you just pressed 'return/enter, you
set blank password and you only had to press 'enter' to logon. You could
turn off the virus guard in BIOS as that type of virus is no longer common.
Reccomend you start again and boot from XP CD and clear the drive and start
again, format the drive with NTFS not FAT!
Mike.

Thanks Mike. I've done just as you advised and realised I was making
two errors: my mbr was from win98 and was having a conflict with the
booting file (???) for winxp. i formatted my harddisk this morning,
ignored the message and discovered that my cdrom was having read
problems. had to change it. right now, am installing winxp and there is
no record of win98. what i still don't understand is why i get all the
funny characters on POST and have to always press F1 on post. Is there
a mainboard problem somewhere? I've cleared CMOS just to be quite on
the safe side. !!
thanks