Well, it happened within minutes of logging off the internet, so I'm not sure but I think I got a virus. My PC just decided it was going to shut down and it kept trying to do that. Hard to explain whats happening. Guess now I have to wipe my harddrive. I'm going to see what happens when I switch hard drives first. But I won't be going back online with it, even if it works. I have to figure out a better way to access the internet. sigh, I just hope that my other pc doesn't catch a virus, it uses the same protection. Any words of wisdom? Thanks, Ang

first of all, hold on. what's going on? what's it doing? go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and scan now. drac

Hello Ang25, If your using Windows XP, goto "C:Documents and SettingsScottLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5" Where it says "Scott", you will need to add your user name for the computer, Once you get to ContentIE5 delete all the folders in the content folder, dont delete the index bin :) Cut and paster the link into your web browser, the contentIE5 is a hidden folder... Peace x

okay, xceiver, ang uses firefox. and deleting your temporary internet files is not going to fix anything at this stage. drac (ang, load up IE and do what I told you) (or scan your hd with your own virusscanner)

ok, it doesn't let me get into windows, what it does is it gets to the screen for winxp to start and it shuts down. When it first hit, I was playing solitaire (no snickering) and listening to music. The monitor suddenly went black and the words "shut down mode in 5 secs" came up. the music was interupted but then played, and interupted and played... till I finally turned off the pc. Tryed to turn it back on, it ran thru the startup but never let me get back into windows. sigh. I won't be home for another 10 1/2 hrs so any more tips, keep em coming, I have another pc at home that I will (I hope) be able to communicate with. :/

Wait, it just keeps rebooting? Screen goes black and it restarts automatically? That's sounds like RAM to me. Do you have more than one chip in there? You could test them, one at a time, to see what's gone bad. Nevanna

hmm... well, time for you to boot up in safe mode. once the comp starts keep clicking F8 repeatedly. go into Safe Mode (Networking support) or whatever it's called, and download this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ad724ae0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en windows malicious software removal tool. drac (run it, scan, restart)

"Documents and SettingsusernameLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5" Is a hidden folder, so deleting your temporary internet files is not going to fix thing, you are right, but 98% of the people dont know about this folder "ContentIE5", its where most virus, adware, spyware files are hidden, you have to type the address to be able to find the folder, its still hidden even when you click "show hidden files", it will do anyone good with XP to delete the folders like i said in the first e-mail. x

"its where most virus, adware, spyware files are hidden"

i'm sorry, but that's untrue. most viruses, spyware, etc hide themselves in the system32 folder. delete that content folder only when you're done with everything. i doubt spyware does that to your computer.

drac

Message edited on: 03/15/2005 10:16

No need to be sorry, your right about system32, the rest go to contentIE5, and when "Norton antivirus" cant delete or fix some files they always lead to the contentIE5 folder, And any addware or spyware will lead also to this folder. ContentIE5 stores everything and every place you been on the internet, along with images and anything you downloaded. Believe me, its all there :) Take a look if your using XP.... x

ouch!

dude! she uses firefox. drac

Dude lol, I am well aware that she uses Firefox, Firefox is a web browser. I bet if she takes a look she will find Everyplace shes been. No matter the webbrowser. :) x

Ang It may not be a virus at all. It could be a corrupt System file. Have you tried booting from the windows xp disk? You can access the xp repair console by booting from the disk, and following the instructions for accessing the Repair console. It fixes a lot of problems. If that doesn't work do what drac said. Or if you can't access the Internet, then use a norton disk or some other anti-virus disk to do a scan. That's just my 2 cents. Hope you get it all worked out.

Ok guys no need to argue between each other. we are here trying to help Ang and you can't do that if you argue amongst yourselves ;) Ang sounds like your computer is doing like my girlfriends computer was doing a couple of weeks ago. It is not a virus/trojan/spyware or anything like that. Check the ram like Nevanna said to first. If you can't find the problem get it to a shop and have them check it over. My girlfriend is now on her old Pent 333 which is like putting drac on an old 486 dx266 with bryce ;) Yes her AMD 1800 died but your problem sounds like the way her computer started to play up. 1 question though, was your computer freezing up before any of this happened?

OK, Nevanna has got my attention! Only for this reason, I can't get my pc to accept 512 ram, It goes wonkers when I try using my dual corsair ones, so I bought a single 512 (pny?) I think and that boots up but stalls right at the winxp screen, doesn't let windows open. So what the heck could cause this? I'm still not ruling out the virus but like I said, I've had problems with the ram, only I've been running the 256 now without any problems for almost a year. :( I think I may change motherboards in the real near future, the one I've got is the fourth of its kind, kept thinking it was a MB problem I had kept sending it back and getting a new one, but the problems continued. Thanks for the help so far! Ang

sounds like xblast or lovsan virus to me - my PC got the lovsan one a coupla yrs ago - I could only go online for 5 minutes at a time, but got a workaround so I d/l a patch for IE. Don't use IE now, use my ISPs browser.

CrazyDawg you are right, my apologies to Ang and others :) Peace x

Ang--let me make sure I understand. :) Is the RAM new, and your motherboard older? Say, more than a couple of years? In the last couple of years, manufactures changed how the RAM is built...sometimes new RAM won't work on older boards. Nevanna

Try System Recovery First Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup of Windows XP and you will get the option to Start in Safe Mode 1. Log on to Windows as Administrator or your User ID. 2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts. 3. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next. 4. On the Select a Restore Point page, click the most recent system checkpoint in the On this list, click a restore point list, and then click Next. A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK. 5. On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer. 6. Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration Complete page appears. 7. Click OK. If Your Windows XP does not bootup in Safe Mode than try this Start the System Restore tool at a command prompt 1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 again during the initial startup of Windows XP this time select in Safe Mode with a command prompt. 2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials. 3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER: %systemroot%system32restorerstrui.exe 4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state. and If this works and you have windows XP loaded. Just to be safe go here. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx That will allow to download the #1 AntiSpyware remover which Microsoft Recently Aquired from Giant Company. Let the program scan your system for malicious software. And once that is done I would also recommend going to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and scan for virus's

Attached Link: http://www.memtest86.com/

xceiverx, I'll definately be checking out that hidden folder, sounds interesting!

Ok, no need to apologize for that back n forth stuff, I found that to be informative as well. Ok step one, will be to try to boot up in safe mode and do a system recovery, next will be to test my ram. All my ram and my motherboard are less than 2 yrs old. Someone has also let me borrow that floppy disk to check the memory, I ran it on the 256 about 3 weeks ago and nothing wrong showed up, but I was too lazy to check the other ram stiks, :/ If I can get past first base, I'll try to do the online checks for viruses. Wish me luck, still got 9 hrs left before I'm home to try these ideas. Is the suspense killin ya? I know it is me :-D

suspense isn't killing me. i like a good thriller ;)

;P (wish I could enjoy this, lol) Thanks you guys for helping me!

1. Ang claims she has a virus 2. drac recommends the free clinic 3. CrazyDawg claims his girlfriend has the same virus 4. Ang makes a comment about getting past first base You people need to stop hanging out questionable in late night chat sessions drinking beer. Either that or you need to start hanging out with a more savory crowd Ang... :)

@Curtis, roflmao!
Don't forget Bryster said "Ouch" oh wait that's a whole different topic, lol

Message edited on: 03/15/2005 12:27

Definately try safe mode first, if it boots without problems, then it's probably a virus. If it won't boot/keeps shutting down, probably hardware.

LOL@Ang

Ok this just gets weirder and weirder. I couldn't get it in safe mode, basically seemed to ignored my poking the f8 key. and it also has ignored that I have the xp disc in the drive, haven't tried to manually get it to run. Anyways, I took out the ram, ran my fingers over it and put it back in, didn't change anything, but I after I turned off the power in the back and turned it back on, I got in. But I forgot to mention this before, the colors are screwy in the begining. Some of the white letters are orangey. And this didn't change on the time that I did get past into windows. There were also scratchy lines on the screen until windows finally loaded. So, I'm still wondering what the heck is going on. Also, I tried typing in the link Drac gave me and I tried finding that hidden content file, no luck on either. Not sure now what to do next. Although, I do believe I should change motherboards, this type has been nothing but trouble from the begining. sigh I'm still trying to figure out whats wrong :/

Do you have any visible glitches in the openning screens. I had a can't boot into windows except in safe mode issue when my old Nvidia flamed out. If there are any graphics issues windows will fail in self protection mode and auto-reboot is the default setting when that happens, (found this by doing a manually stepped normal boot from the safe mode menu) If you do change mobo's, I recommend ASUS. Never had a bad one yet and I have had a few.

I just saw you last post, if you can, swap the graphics card from your other machine and try to boot. Got the lead on this as it happened to cartesius in the C4D forum just a week before mine toasted.

Message edited on: 03/15/2005 22:24

"I am well aware that she uses Firefox, Firefox is a web browser. I bet if she takes a look she will find Everyplace shes been. No matter the webbrowser. :)" Mozilla/Firefox don't use the folder "Temporary Internet FilesContent.IE5", it uses the folder WindowsApplication DataMozilla. The Content.IE5 is only used by Internet Explorer, if you don't use IE, this folder remains almost empty. You are not able to delete all the contents of the folder Content.IE5, if you delete this folder you can think that you have deleted, but most of the content remains undeleted. The only way to delete all what is inside is to boot your computer with DOS or Linux and then run some application for deleting. (Xtgold for DOS, MC for Linux, etc).

Wrong Color Scratchy Video sometimes is caused by Faulty Monitor cable or Damaged VGA Plug. However in your case where the Since Windows is crashing we can rule out faulty monitor cable. Does your Video card have a Fan to keep it cool? A failed fan on the Video card can cause the video card to either completly fail or not function properly. Its cheaper to replace the fan on a video card than buy a motherboard. If you have a Video Card try swapping it, unless its built into your motherboard than you have no choice but to swap motherboards. The trick is troubleshooting and finding the correct source of the problem. Unless you want an excuse to buy a new computer :) If you're

Well my pc ran fine last night, will have to wait till later today to see how it looks when it boots up. My guess is that it is something to do with the video card. I believe that it is an older one, and I will be getting a hold of the guy who helped me configure this whole contraption and see what I should do. For now at least, it seems that poking around the cables did the trick. Thanks for all your help!

Does your machine set to look at the CD-ROM on bootup? If not, it didn't even look at the CD drive. You can change that in the bios. Let me know if you need a more detailed explaination of how to do that. :) Nevanna

Thanks Nevanna, I actually just remembered that because of that memory floppy that I borrowed, I had gone in and changed the order that the bootup looks at. So I will need to go back into the bios and fix that, but I know how to do that. Forgive me, I am blonde and senior, a bad combo! :-D

Nothing wrong with being senior ;)

...but being blonde is an entirly different matter.......ROTFLMOA!!!!!!!