Ever seen this before?

[bytebuster]

My dad is always picking up tons of viruses, but he really got a stumper this time. He says the computer keeps rebooting. So I go over there and sure enough, it does. Now here's where it gets weird. I boot off Hirens boot CD and try to boot into the mini XP shell. No can do, it acts like it's booting and then gives me a blank screen. Reload, and go into the CD boot menu and load DOS. I look at the C drive and it's been totally erased. There's a few junk files in there and that's it.

I tell my parents that the virus erased Windows and that it will need to be reinstalled. My mom hunts down their copy of XP. I boot off the disk and it says "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration" and then just goes dead, blank screen. It won't recognize the CD drives either, so I can't run Avast. At that point I threw in the towel.

So, we have a virus that knows enough to keep ANY GUI from booting. It kept Mini XP off the Hirens CD from booting. It erased the HDD. It won't let me reinstall Windows. It does the exact same thing, acts normal and then goes blank. I'm stumped. The part of the Hirens CD that contains the tools loaded, but not Mini XP, so apparently it knows the difference. Any ideas? I have until Tuesday, when my dad's favorite computer guy reopens his shop after the holiday. I'm thinking I may have to replace the HDD.

 

[NYJimbo]

It's possible you misdiagnosed this one.

 

[iptech]

I have until Tuesday, when my dad's favorite computer guy reopens his shop after the holiday. I'm thinking I may have to replace the HDD.

I'm thinking, as the apple of your Dad's eye, have you considered the reason why you're not his favoutite computer guy?

You need to work on your diagnostic skills. Forget the "always picking up tons of viruses", forget "their copy of XP", forget "we have a virus that knows enough to keep ANY GUI from booting" and look at the real symptoms.

I wish I was your dad's favourite computer guy, he sounds like he's a good earner.

 

[Elemdee]

I have until Tuesday, when my dad's favorite computer guy reopens his shop after the holiday. I'm thinking I may have to replace the HDD.

Why aren't YOU your Dad's favorite computer guy?

 

[iptech]

Why aren't YOU your Dad's favorite computer guy?

I guess he doesn't want his son to see where all the viruses come from

 

[14049752]

So, it won't recognize the CD drives but it loaded XP's setup? Seems odd.

Have you opened it up to see if the viruses popped his capacitors or anything like that? Maybe they infected the ram and it needs to be replaced? I know it's far fetched, but I heard of a new doozy of a virus that can block your system from getting enough voltage from the power supply, so you might try checking that.

If any of that works, just remember me the next time you order delivery.

 

[ATTech]

It's possible you misdiagnosed this one.

I'm going to have to go with Jimbo on this one here.

While it's "theoretically" possible for a virus to cause the issues outside of the windows environment, it's not something that you are going to come across.

 

[iisjman07]

If you're sure that there are no other hardware issues on the system then a copy of DBAN or @active free eraser should solve your problems - just zero all sectors on the disk, not a lot survives that

 

[bytebuster]

Yeah, I figure my diagnostic skills need work. All joking aside, what do you think this is? He had this before IIRC, and ultimately we had to reload Windows. I just thought it was odd that it wouldn't load the XP Setup (it wouldn't, to clarify). I could nuke and pave, but that seems like a copout. Also, when the computer was loading, there was a message about a missing stack, it flashed by really quickly so I didn't get a good look at it, maybe missing "PXC stack"? I'll have to take another look at it today.

 

[atlanticjim]

Without beating around the bush.

Viruses exist in the data on the Hard Disk Drive

They do not infect CPUs or RAM or Mobos or Bios (ok. . there are stories of theoretical bios infections but we never see them).

If you have loaded a boot disk then the CD drive works and is recognized by the bios.

A boot disk bypasses the hard drive and therefore no virus can then be involved in the behavior. (just as an experiment. . disconnect the HDD and use a boot disk . . . viola! it will work)

What you have is a hardware problem. . . or problems. . and with the information you gave it could be any number of issues. Power supply, Bad bios, Bad Ram, Bad MOBO, bad monitor, bad video card, etc.

Good Luck.

 

[Joines]

The way that you describe "black screen" sounds very similar to a "blue screen"

If your system is set to auto reboot on system failure, then BSOD's will restart the computer instantaneously not allowing you to see the error. Hit F8 a bunch of times while the computer is rebooting.. scroll down to "Disable automatic reboot on system failure"

See if you get a blue screen?

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

have you tested the hard drive for bad sectors? Diagnosing needs a little work.

 

[Xander]

Without beating around the bush.

Viruses exist in the data on the Hard Disk Drive

They do not infect ... RAM

Actually, there is such a thing as a ram-resident virus.
It will, however, only stick around until power is removed (e.g. it stays with a reboot but dies on a shut down).

 

[bytebuster]

Without beating around the bush.

Viruses exist in the data on the Hard Disk Drive

They do not infect CPUs or RAM or Mobos or Bios (ok. . there are stories of theoretical bios infections but we never see them).

If you have loaded a boot disk then the CD drive works and is recognized by the bios.

A boot disk bypasses the hard drive and therefore no virus can then be involved in the behavior. (just as an experiment. . disconnect the HDD and use a boot disk . . . viola! it will work)

What you have is a hardware problem. . . or problems. . and with the information you gave it could be any number of issues. Power supply, Bad bios, Bad Ram, Bad MOBO, bad monitor, bad video card, etc.

Good Luck.

I see. I was trying to run Avast from DOS, I think the problem is that I don't know what letters are used for the two optical drives on that box. I never said that the CD drive was infected, just that it wouldn't recognize it. Communication is not my forte, especially online. OK, as for hardware:

Bios is good. I went into the Bios, and it looks normal.
Computer turns on and goes through the initial POST, then fails to load the OS. Every time I try to load an OS, I get a failure. As anybody familiar with the Hirens boot CD knows, it has a number of versions of DOS, and some versions give me a RAM error. I think I will try to do a RAM check, and see if that's the problem. I am starting to think it's the RAM, since the monitor isn't bad (it shows the BIOS screen), and the MOBO isn't bad, because if it was the box would be dead, and BIOS works so the box isn't dead. I will let you guys know what I find.

 

[msherman]

Yeah, I figure my diagnostic skills need work. All joking aside, what do you think this is? He had this before IIRC, and ultimately we had to reload Windows. I just thought it was odd that it wouldn't load the XP Setup (it wouldn't, to clarify). I could nuke and pave, but that seems like a copout. Also, when the computer was loading, there was a message about a missing stack, it flashed by really quickly so I didn't get a good look at it, maybe missing "PXC stack"? I'll have to take another look at it today.

If there is nothing left on your C drive how is doing a nuke and pave a cop out?

Im going with what 1404 said. Sounds like a pretty serious bug to me. Cockroach maybe?

 

[Galdorf]

and the MOBO isn't bad, because if it was the box would be dead, and BIOS works so the box isn't dead. I will let you guys know what I find.

Ok really? you do know capacitors that are blown have this exact same symptom the machine will boot, shut down,restart or bsod your diagnostic skills need work, have you inspected the capacitors closely, sometimes the heatsink will cover up blown capacitors.

Ram can cause this problem or a power supply about to fail as well blown capacitors in a power supply also cause this problem.

 

[Onouris]

Without beating around the bush.

Viruses exist in the data on the Hard Disk Drive

They do not infect CPUs or RAM or Mobos or Bios (ok. . there are stories of theoretical bios infections but we never see them).

If you have loaded a boot disk then the CD drive works and is recognized by the bios.

A boot disk bypasses the hard drive and therefore no virus can then be involved in the behavior. (just as an experiment. . disconnect the HDD and use a boot disk . . . viola! it will work)

What you have is a hardware problem. . . or problems. . and with the information you gave it could be any number of issues. Power supply, Bad bios, Bad Ram, Bad MOBO, bad monitor, bad video card, etc.

Good Luck.

Just a quick hijack... but yikes ... how many platters are on that drive to the left?? I see about 10ish.

/hijack

Check hardware. Test RAM, Test HDD, Test PSU... then go to software level. Rule things out instead of assuming.

 

[atlanticjim]

If this is a Dell (I don't know cause you have not told us) then you may be looking at a PBR error.

Some Dell computers have a Proprietary Boot Record (in place of the standard MBR). If this is corrupt you may get this problem.

Boot the computer again and look carefully at that "PCX" error and see if it is not a PBR error.

Then post here again as I have a few resources to fix it.

 

[bytebuster]

Yes, it was a Dell. Not sure of age, probably a Dimension. I've had MBR-eating viruses before on his PCs, at one point I had to replace his HDD's, literally open up the cases and replace the physical HDD, because a virus had written itself to the MBR and no amount of virus cleaning could get it off. He ultimately got rid of the machine I originally posted about in this thread. I'm not sure if he ever figured out what was wrong with it. I offered to replace the RAM in the box, but he said no, he was gonna have his repair shop fix it since they sold him the box in the first place!

Of course, the guy who used to do such a wonderful job repairing his PCs only works on corporate accounts now, and the average Joe gets stuck with the front desk techs. This guy has a revolving door of Pizza Tech-level morons running his front desk now, every time my dad goes in there there's somebody new working the desk. My dad will NOT accept the idea that V. is no longer personally working on my dad's desktop. Next time I will simply work on it myself.

I'd LOVE to build my dad a custom machine, but he doesn't have the money, my box cost some $1700 to assemble, just for the parts. And that was in November 2007. I really think now that it was either RAM or the Dell version of the MBR. In either case replacing the HDD or the RAM stick would have solved the problem. But no, my dad goes out and buys a new box.

 

[ATTech]

Yes, it was a Dell. Not sure of age, probably a Dimension. I've had MBR-eating viruses before on his PCs, at one point I had to replace his HDD's, literally open up the cases and replace the physical HDD, because a virus had written itself to the MBR and no amount of virus cleaning could get it off.

/facepalm

There is no reason why you would need to REPLACE a hard drive because of a virus.