This is weird...

[Ed Cregger]

My AMD Athlon 64 3200+ emachines T6000 recently returned from warranty
repair. Everything has been working fine for the last couple of weeks that
it has been back, until the last several days.

Today, none of the CD-ROM drives work. The two installed drives are down
with error 39 and my USB CD-ROM drive is now disabled in the same manner. I
am beginning to suspect something sinister.

Earlier this week, Kaspersky anti-virus began popping up notices that I
needed to register the software and that it was no longer being permitted to
work until reregistered. Now I am open to the world. With the CD drives
disabled, there is no way to reload System Mechanic 5 Pro and the Kaspersky
anti-virus programs that come with it.

Whenever the machine boots up now, there is a window popping up that is
supposedly a "Windows Installer". Never seen this window before. Is it
native to Win XP Home, SP2?

I'm at a loss as to what to do. I can't reload Win XP because I can't access
the CD-ROM drives. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. TIA

Ed Cregger

 

[John E. Carty]

My AMD Athlon 64 3200+ emachines T6000 recently returned from warranty
repair. Everything has been working fine for the last couple of weeks that
it has been back, until the last several days.

Today, none of the CD-ROM drives work. The two installed drives are down
with error 39 and my USB CD-ROM drive is now disabled in the same manner.
I am beginning to suspect something sinister.

Earlier this week, Kaspersky anti-virus began popping up notices that I
needed to register the software and that it was no longer being permitted
to work until reregistered. Now I am open to the world. With the CD drives
disabled, there is no way to reload System Mechanic 5 Pro and the
Kaspersky anti-virus programs that come with it.

Whenever the machine boots up now, there is a window popping up that is
supposedly a "Windows Installer". Never seen this window before. Is it
native to Win XP Home, SP2?

I'm at a loss as to what to do. I can't reload Win XP because I can't
access the CD-ROM drives. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. TIA

Ed Cregger

Just because you can't get to the CD-ROM drives in Windows doesn't
necessarily mean that you won't be able to boot from the XP CD to
reload/repair the system

 

[DaveW]

Sounds like, by not registering your anti-virus software and thus it stopped
working, you picked up some viruses.

 

[Ed Cregger]

Sounds like, by not registering your anti-virus software and thus it
stopped working, you picked up some viruses.

Well, something is going on.

I did register my software. Everything was working fine for a few months.
The anti-hacking software was also in place and registered, along with the
other various protections that come with System Mechanic 5 Pro. This is why
I am puzzled.

What kind of a malfunction am I looking at? Physical or malicious software?

I can understand the motherboard going somewhat South and preventing the
built-in CD-ROMs (actually CD-ROM R/W, DVD, etc.) from working. But the NEC
CD-ROM, R/W, DVD writer, etc., via USB 2.0 going too? Something smells, but
I'm not knowledgeable enough to know where to begin to start.

Thanks for the replies.

Ed Cregger

 

[Jan Alter]

The first place to start is to check out if you can boot with the CD-ROM. Go
into your bios and make sure that you have the CD-ROM noted as the first
boot device. Save the setting and then restart the computer, putting in the
Win XP CD-ROM. Push the reset button as it's loading and see if the computer
will find your XP disk. If it does then you're most likely dealing with a
virus on your hdd.

 

[JAD]

more than 1 burning software installed?
e.g. nero and CD creator?
aspi layer is damaged? http://www.adaptec.com/ search ASPI layer
if you boot with a dos or win98 disk, and boot with CD support, do they
work?

 

[BruceM]

Pop it in another XP system & do a THOROUGH virus check on it.

 

[Ed Cregger]

more than 1 burning software installed?
e.g. nero and CD creator?
aspi layer is damaged? http://www.adaptec.com/ search ASPI layer
if you boot with a dos or win98 disk, and boot with CD support, do they
work?

Off the top of my head, no, I don't think there are two conflicting installs
of CD burning software, but I'm going to check just in case one of them
snuck by me. Thanks.

Ed Cregger

 

[Shep©]

Off the top of my head, no, I don't think there are two conflicting installs
of CD burning software, but I'm going to check just in case one of them
snuck by me. Thanks.

Ed Cregger

Check cables and,

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

HTH



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email (e-mail address removed)
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

 

[Ed Cregger]

Check cables and,

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

HTH

Now he tells me! <G>

Following someone's advise, I put the restore CD in the drive and it booted.
I let it do its thing, wiping all of my files and starting over from zero.
Wish I had seen your post before I did that. But, at least the the quandry
(sp?) is over and I'm on my way back to sanity. It's going to be a long,
long drive.

Thanks everyone.

Now to save that URL you listed for future reference.

Ed Cregger

 

[Shep©]

Now he tells me! <G>

Following someone's advise, I put the restore CD in the drive and it booted.
I let it do its thing, wiping all of my files and starting over from zero.
Wish I had seen your post before I did that. But, at least the the quandry
(sp?) is over and I'm on my way back to sanity. It's going to be a long,
long drive.

Thanks everyone.

Now to save that URL you listed for future reference.

Ed Cregger

Save this one as well



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email (e-mail address removed)
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

 

[dawg]

So,it was the cables?Or what? Just curious.

Now he tells me! <G>

Following someone's advise, I put the restore CD in the drive and it booted.
I let it do its thing, wiping all of my files and starting over from zero.
Wish I had seen your post before I did that. But, at least the the quandry
(sp?) is over and I'm on my way back to sanity. It's going to be a long,
long drive.

Thanks everyone.

Now to save that URL you listed for future reference.

Ed Cregger

 

[Matt]

Earlier this week, Kaspersky anti-virus began popping up notices that I
needed to register the software and that it was no longer being permitted to
work until reregistered. Now I am open to the world. With the CD drives
disabled, there is no way to reload System Mechanic 5 Pro and the Kaspersky
anti-virus programs that come with it.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx

See also:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

MacAfee offers a free standalone AV program named stinger that fits on a
floppy:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=stinger

 

[Ed Cregger]

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx

See also:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

MacAfee offers a free standalone AV program named stinger that fits on a
floppy:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=stinger

Thanks a ton, Matt. Much appreciated.

Ed Cregger

 

[Ed Medlin]

Thanks a ton, Matt. Much appreciated.

Ed Cregger

Ed, you might also consider AVG antivirus. www.grisoft.com is where you will
find it. I have used it and it does a very good job and is totally free.

Ed