My computer shuts down immediately after booting up.

[Guest]

A virus has infected my computer, so now each time I attempt to start the
computer it automatically shuts down and then tries to restart itself. It
allows me to attempt to bootup in Safe Mode or regular startup, but either
one I select eventually tells me that its missing a system32 file and then
shuts down.

I'm willing to start fresh and reinstall Windows XP, though I never received
the disk when I purchased the computer and I'm not sure how I can even
reinstall a program when the computer doesn't allow me to boot up.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A virus has infected my computer,

How do you know? The symptoms you describe could be caused by other things,
like hardware problems.

so now each time I attempt to start
the computer it automatically shuts down and then tries to restart
itself. It allows me to attempt to bootup in Safe Mode or regular
startup, but either one I select eventually tells me that its missing
a system32 file and then shuts down.

I'm willing to start fresh and reinstall Windows XP,

That may or may not fix the problem, depending on what it's causing it.

though I never
received the disk when I purchased the computer and I'm not sure how
I can even reinstall a program when the computer doesn't allow me to
boot up.

To reinstall Windows, you can not boot from Windows. Windows wouldn't allow
you to destroy itself. With an installation CD or recovery CD, you would
boot from the CD to reinstall Windows.

OEM vendors are required by their agreement with Microsoft to give you a
means of reinstalling, should it be necessary. They can do this in one of
three ways:

1. An OEM copy of Windows
2. A restore CD
3. A hidden partition on your drive, with restore information.

If you don't have 1 or 2, you should have 3, but you should contact your
vendor to find out.

Personally, I find both 2 and 3 unacceptable (especially 3; a hard drive
crash can leave you with nothing), and would never choose to buy a computer
that came with an operating system unless I got a complete generic
installation CD for that operating system.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

John

In Safe Mode try Start, Run, type "sfc /scannow" without quotes and hit
Enter.

Description of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 System
File Checker (Sfc.exe)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310747

When did the virus infection occur? Do you have a System Restore
dating from before the infection occurs.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/whentouse.html


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Alec S.]

John wrote:

How do you know? The symptoms you describe could be caused by other things, like hardware problems.

Not really. A hardware problem is more likely to cause a spontaneous reboot rather than the shutdown and system file corruptions
indicated.

That may or may not fix the problem, depending on what it's causing it.

Well it would replace the missing and corrupted system files, but may or may not eliminate the virus/trojan depending on how it's
implemented.

To reinstall Windows, you can not boot from Windows. Windows wouldn't allow
you to destroy itself. With an installation CD or recovery CD, you would
boot from the CD to reinstall Windows.

Hehe, even today's primitive computers are capable of self-preservation; could the likes of SkyNet and it's kin be far off?

OEM vendors are required by their agreement with Microsoft to give you a means
of reinstalling, should it be necessary. They can do this in one of three ways:

1. An OEM copy of Windows
2. A restore CD
3. A hidden partition on your drive, with restore information.

If you don't have 1 or 2, you should have 3, but you should contact your
vendor to find out.

Personally, I find both 2 and 3 unacceptable (especially 3; a hard drive
crash can leave you with nothing), and would never choose to buy a computer
that came with an operating system unless I got a complete generic
installation CD for that operating system.

I agree completely; I'm not crazy about 1 either, I'd rather have a real copy of Windows that I can keep using were I to buy or
build another system later.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Not really. A hardware problem is more likely to cause a spontaneous
reboot rather than the shutdown and system file corruptions indicated.

You don't think a hardware problem could cause corruption to a file?
Amazing! Of course a drive problem could do that.

 

[Alec S.]

You don't think a hardware problem could cause corruption to a file?
Amazing! Of course a drive problem could do that.

What's amazing? I didn't even respond yet!

Yes, a bad drive COULD cause a corrupt file, although it usually causes other problems instead (eg long delays, temporary hanging,
etc.) What I was referring to was "bad RAM" because that's what it sounded like you were talking about. In that case, it would
more likely cause a reboot than a corrupt file.