Serious Computer Problems:

  • Thread starter Thread starter Navyguy
  • Start date Start date
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Navyguy

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with XP SP3, with DSL connection. I have
Windows Firewall, Avira Antivirus, Spybot, Spyware Blaster and Hive
Cleanup. (I had AVG ,Comodo and System Mechanics and only recently
added Spybot although I use to have it)

The original problem was that my MSN Live Msgr wouldn't logon
automatically like it use to or let me sign in, it just stopped
working. I posted the problem on appropriate groups in hopes of
resolving the problem and was advised to download the latest version
which I did but it still doesn't logon automatically.

Then my computer became infected with a Trojan Horse virus or had been
infected:

Trojan horse Downloader.Generic8.TVN

It was under Local Settings\Temp Internet Files
Content.IE5\PWT3Az83\getfile-081220-aps(1).gif


I was able to delete it but as I understand, it still resides in my
computer on its host program. At this point I accepted help via remote
assistance and was told that my MFT was corrupted; he made many
changes to my system which I thought had to do with my MSN Live Msgr
not signing on, instead he left my computer in worst condition than it
had been before.This is now the current boot sequence: Startup>Dell
Splash>Windows splash>Defragging>Logon
message> then I get (2) boxes, the first is highlighted and says:
Unable to log you on
because of an account restriction, behind that is a logon box grayed
out with username-Adminitrator and underneath password. Once I click
the OK in the first highlighted box however it says Windows starting
up, To begin, check on your username. I do this and it takes me to
Windows>Desktop. At this point MsnMsgr sign-in box appears, after
clicking>cycling it signs in and I close it. Then the MSN Live Msgr
icon appears on the toolbar. I right click it, click to sign in and
after it cycles everything works as before but this obviously isn't
the way it's suppose to work.

With all the problems I'm having it was thought the best solution was
to just reinstall XP, and I agreed. However when I tried to do so it
gave me a warning that another program already exists and it wasn't
recommended that I install another in the same partition and it didn't
give an option to format the disk, only to delete the partition. I
tried doing this but nothing happened. My disk managment showed this:

Disk 0 125MB FAT Healthy (EISA Configuration) (C:) 148.93 GB
NTFS Healthy (Sys) .

My question is this; should I go to the command prompt and do a format
C: and then try and install a fresh copy of XP?

If I have to reinstall the drivers for the mouse, keyboard and monitor
wouldn't I need all of these to see, click or use the keyboard to
install them? So how do I get around this or does the driver allow
this?

I would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.


Thanks,

Robert
 
Navyguy wrote:

(much snippage)
With all the problems I'm having it was thought the best solution was
to just reinstall XP, and I agreed. However when I tried to do so it
gave me a warning that another program already exists and it wasn't
recommended that I install another in the same partition and it didn't
give an option to format the disk, only to delete the partition. I
tried doing this but nothing happened. My disk managment showed this:
Click to expand...

You apparently are trying to do a clean install of Windows (and yes, I think
that's A Good Thing in your case) from within Windows. You can't do this.

Unplug any peripherals such as your printer, leaving only the keyboard and
mouse connected. Put the Dell operating system disk in the drive and reboot
the computer. As the computer is starting up, press F12 to get a temporary
boot order menu. Select the CD/DVD drive. The Windows installation will
start. Delete the current Windows partition (leave the small Dell
diagnostics partition alone) and install Windows on that now-available
space. After the installation is finished, install all the drivers for your
hardware. You will have received a Dell Resource CD that has the drivers or
you can get current drivers from Dell's website and store them on a CD or
USB thumb drive before you start the clean-install.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke
 
Navyguy wrote:

(much snippage)


You apparently are trying to do a clean install of Windows (and yes, I think
that's A Good Thing in your case) from within Windows. You can't do this.

Unplug any peripherals such as your printer, leaving only the keyboard and
mouse connected. Put the Dell operating system disk in the drive and reboot
the computer. As the computer is starting up, press F12 to get a temporary
boot order menu. Select the CD/DVD drive. The Windows installation will
start. Delete the current Windows partition (leave the small Dell
diagnostics partition alone) and install Windows on that now-available
space. After the installation is finished, install all the drivers for your
hardware. You will have received a Dell Resource CD that has the drivers or
you can get current drivers from Dell's website and store them on a CD or
USB thumb drive before you start the clean-install.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html- Clean Install How-Tohttp://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows- What
you will need on-hand

Malke
Click to expand...

I've already changed the bios to boot from the CD/DVD drive, and as I
said I did try deleting the (C:) partition previously but nothing
happened. However, I'll try this again and see if it works.


Thanks,

Robert
 
Navyguy wrote:

(much snippage)


You apparently are trying to do a clean install of Windows (and yes, I think
that's A Good Thing in your case) from within Windows. You can't do this.

Unplug any peripherals such as your printer, leaving only the keyboard and
mouse connected. Put the Dell operating system disk in the drive and reboot
the computer. As the computer is starting up, press F12 to get a temporary
boot order menu. Select the CD/DVD drive. The Windows installation will
start. Delete the current Windows partition (leave the small Dell
diagnostics partition alone) and install Windows on that now-available
space. After the installation is finished, install all the drivers for your
hardware. You will have received a Dell Resource CD that has the drivers or
you can get current drivers from Dell's website and store them on a CD or
USB thumb drive before you start the clean-install.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html- Clean Install How-Tohttp://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows- What
you will need on-hand

Malke
Click to expand...



I successfully deleted the (C:) partition and created a new partition,
formatted it, and reinstalled XP, then uploaded 30+ updates from
Microsoft, including SP2 and SP3, and IE7. I’ve enabled Windows
firewall, and set it to notify me when new updates are available
rather than automatic updates. I’ve installed Avira, and Spybot,
SpywareBlaster Hive cleanup and made a Restore Point. If this is over
kill please let me know but I believe Spywareblaster and Hive cleanup
address different issues than Spybot or Avira. I then loaded all my
drivers for my mouse, CD/DVD drive, Dell Imagining, etc.

I noticed afterwards that I lost 21.06 GB on my (C:) partition, this
was because when it asked how big I wanted the partition to be I just
went with the highlighted number. So there’s 21.06 GB unallocated in
an un-partitioned space on my (C:) partition. So have I lost this or
can it be partitioned and formatted for some use such as file storage,
if so do I have to buy a third party program such as Acronis or can I
use my administrative tools to do this?

The system ‘seems’ ok, but the pages look a little different, I made
the print smaller and that helped some. MSN Msgr initially signed in
and was using Outlook instead of Live Hotmail. So I uploaded the
latest version of Live Mail with all the components (just in case) and
now my MSN Live Msgr signs on and seems to work as before and it
connects me to Live Hotmail as it use to.

I updated and scanned with Avira as soon as I installed it and it
still found (2) warnings although there use to be (3). This troubles
me since this is a new install and I did format the partition. The
warnings are as follows:

Starting the file scan:

Begin scan in 'C:\'
C:\hiberfil.sys [WARNING] The file could not be opened!
C:\pagefile.sys [WARNING] The file could not be opened!


I also have minor issues with the following:

I can’t remember how to create an icon to show the desktop, I had this
before on the desktop toolbar and was very useful, versus closing each
window one by one. Can someone please tell me how to get this back?

I also had Word and Excel on the desktop toolbar and I was able to put
them there again but whenever I delete the icons from the desktop
itself they disappear from the toolbar whereas before I don’t recall
having them on the desktop. So could someone tell me how to put them
on the desktop toolbar without having them on the desktop? Also, I
keep removing the language toolbar and deleting items in my desktop
toolbar e.g. my computer, my documents, my network spaces but they
keep coming back. Is there a way to permanently remove these?

Lastly, can anyone tell me how can I get my Dell desktop wallpaper
back? It's blue and just says Dell in 3d.

Thoughts/
Suggestions?

Thanks,

Robert
 
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