G
Guest
Hi Guys,
I'll get straight into it:
System - Athlon AMD64, Windows XP, service pack 2
Background:
I was away at work one day when my dad recently installed a new DVD burner
on my PC. After installation he was having problems with burning DVDs so he
jumped on the net and downloaded a trial version of Nero 8 and installed it
as he believed our version of Nero (v6) wasn't compatible. The computer was
still working fine at this stage. I don't know which site he used to download
Nero 8 and he doesn't remember either. But after he installed it i noticed
that my PC was running slowly. I remarked on that and was concerned that he
may have downloaded a corrupted / compromised version of Nero 8. I ran AVG
Anti-virus scan which turned up some results which were cleaned up fine. I
then installed a new version of SpyBot and also a new version of Ad-Aware
2007 (both downloaded from www.cnet.com). During the setup of SpyBot it asked
me if i wanted to create a new system backup. I said yes. During the
installation of Ad-Aware it asked me to make an edit to my registry which i
declined. I installed and ran Spybot with no problems and it cleaned up any
issues i had. I then tried to run Ad-Aware which kept stalling when it came
time to check cookies. I thought it may have been because i hadn't rebooted
since installation so i rebooted. Upon reboot i was again asked to make an
edit to my system registry. This time i clicked Ok. Things were still working
fine on my PC at this stage though Ad-Aware was still freezing mid-scan. I
searched for a solution on the web and found some users on a forum who
recommended going to settings and turning off the option to scan for cookies
and MRUs. I did that and started scanning and things appeared to be running
fine.
Problem:
A little while after that i got an error message that a file in MSN
Messenger was corrupted and that i should run chkdsk. I also got the same
error message from iTunes. I decided to reboot rather than run chkdsk as i
thought this might solve the problem. I rebooted but found myself at a screen
after startup saying my PC had experienced problems and Windows had not been
shutdown properly etc and gave me a variety of options for loading my OS:
safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last
known good configuration, start windows normally. I've tried every single one
of those options and each time my PC keeps rebooting never even reaching
Windows. I searched for a solution on the web and found someone suggesting
that i hit F8 during startup and choose from the various options there. I've
tried that and tried every option available and it still keeps rebooting.
This is extremely frustrating and i'm at my wit's end trying to fix it
particularly as i have several important professional and personal documents
on that PC which are not backed-up -- many of them with sentimental
importance.
I'd really appreciate any help i can get.
I'll get straight into it:
System - Athlon AMD64, Windows XP, service pack 2
Background:
I was away at work one day when my dad recently installed a new DVD burner
on my PC. After installation he was having problems with burning DVDs so he
jumped on the net and downloaded a trial version of Nero 8 and installed it
as he believed our version of Nero (v6) wasn't compatible. The computer was
still working fine at this stage. I don't know which site he used to download
Nero 8 and he doesn't remember either. But after he installed it i noticed
that my PC was running slowly. I remarked on that and was concerned that he
may have downloaded a corrupted / compromised version of Nero 8. I ran AVG
Anti-virus scan which turned up some results which were cleaned up fine. I
then installed a new version of SpyBot and also a new version of Ad-Aware
2007 (both downloaded from www.cnet.com). During the setup of SpyBot it asked
me if i wanted to create a new system backup. I said yes. During the
installation of Ad-Aware it asked me to make an edit to my registry which i
declined. I installed and ran Spybot with no problems and it cleaned up any
issues i had. I then tried to run Ad-Aware which kept stalling when it came
time to check cookies. I thought it may have been because i hadn't rebooted
since installation so i rebooted. Upon reboot i was again asked to make an
edit to my system registry. This time i clicked Ok. Things were still working
fine on my PC at this stage though Ad-Aware was still freezing mid-scan. I
searched for a solution on the web and found some users on a forum who
recommended going to settings and turning off the option to scan for cookies
and MRUs. I did that and started scanning and things appeared to be running
fine.
Problem:
A little while after that i got an error message that a file in MSN
Messenger was corrupted and that i should run chkdsk. I also got the same
error message from iTunes. I decided to reboot rather than run chkdsk as i
thought this might solve the problem. I rebooted but found myself at a screen
after startup saying my PC had experienced problems and Windows had not been
shutdown properly etc and gave me a variety of options for loading my OS:
safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last
known good configuration, start windows normally. I've tried every single one
of those options and each time my PC keeps rebooting never even reaching
Windows. I searched for a solution on the web and found someone suggesting
that i hit F8 during startup and choose from the various options there. I've
tried that and tried every option available and it still keeps rebooting.
This is extremely frustrating and i'm at my wit's end trying to fix it
particularly as i have several important professional and personal documents
on that PC which are not backed-up -- many of them with sentimental
importance.
I'd really appreciate any help i can get.
