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Anyone techy out there?

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Started by CS (Colin S) in Chit-Chat

Quick question..

I managed to bugger this laptop by getting a virus into the start-up drives, which in turn, would not let the laptop turn on. I never knew what this was, until a guy in PC World (insufferable, smug ‘look-at-me-I’m-a-“techGuy’ twats) told me it was simply a virus.

Is a virus in the start up drives a quick fix or is it a complex job? Also, how much would it cost if it had to be repaired professionally?

Cheers,

Col

ps. how is everyone?

Posted on Sun, 30 May 2010 at 21:51

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#1

CS (Colin S) wrote:

I should point out that said smug twat did fix this laptop, but I have another which appears to have the same problem

Posted on Sun, 30 May 2010 at 21:52

#2

Epitome (Dave) wrote:

When you say it won’t turn on, what exactly do you mean? At which point does it stop doing anything and does it give a message or anything?

If you can get into Windows somehow (safe mode or whatever) then the virus can probably be removed from there. Otherwise wiping the hard drive would do it, but that would mean losing everything on there and having to re-install Windows and all the programs and stuff.

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 01:26

#3

CS (Colin S) wrote:

I want to wipe it.. how do I do it?

when I press the power on button, it makes a noise then nothing happens. Nothing happens on the screen, just the power light disappears…

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 14:28

#4

Epitome (Dave) wrote:

Hmmmm… I don’t know of any virus that can literally stop a computer from turning on - I’d say that’s more likely to be a hardware problem. I suppose I could be wrong, but I’ve never come across a virus that does that before :-S

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 16:39

#5

Gav wrote:

Quite often you find laptops will have a way to return them to factory preset. Google your brand - model no and the words factory reset and see what comes up. It can often involve holding certain buttons down when you switch on the power.

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 18:05

#6

Gav wrote:

Failing that - can you get into the system bios?

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 18:05

#7

Gav wrote:

Cause you would be able to swap the boot disc to a floppy / CD / Flash drive and use a windows recovery disc

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 18:06

#8

Auto_Surgery (Andy) wrote:

First and foremost - get your laptop away from the pikey monkeys at PC world, they haven’t got a fecking cluck what they’re talking about.

Your Virus, if it has been diagnosed correct;y will be hiding in the boot sector of the HDD meaning even if you formatted the disk and re-installed Windows (or UNIX?) the virus may still be able to get into the memory and cuase curruption again.

Do you know how to make a bootable CD? You could use something like BartPE etc. which will boot a slimmed down Windows desktop from CD & then you need to run something like McAfee’s Stinger to Nuke the virus. Once the CD boots you can run the McAfee stinger to detect and nuke the virus.

http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Windows/Create_a_Windows_Boot_CD … ue_CD.html

You can download the BartPE from:

http://www.nu2.nu/download.php?sFile=pebuilder3110a.exe

& McAfee’s Stinger (Antivirus):

http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/stinger1001870.exe

I realise this all may seem daunting but take you time and if you have questions ask - certainly don’t go back to PC world to be bent over the counter and…

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 19:05

#9

Auto_Surgery (Andy) wrote:

I’ve juse re-read your origonal post - then saw the post underneath.

Do you know how to remove the battery, memory and Hard Disk drive? I would remove all of those things, with the PSU attached try and turn it on and see if the behaviour differs at all (system beeps etc.).

Who is the machine by?

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 19:11

#10

CS (Colin S) wrote:

I’ll confess to knowing absolutely nothing about computers / laptops and the like!

Machine is by HP. It’s a HP Pavilion DV6000, decent spec and stuff, don’t have it handy to do all the stuff mentioned, will be able to do it in the next month or so.

Thanks for the replies guys :)

x

Posted on Mon, 31 May 2010 at 22:24

#11

Cuchulain wrote:

CS wrote:

when I press the power on button, it makes a noise then nothing happens. Nothing happens on the screen, just the power light disappears…

Don’t want to be the obvious smart arse , but are you sure it’s not just a dead battery that needs charging ?

Posted on Tue, 1 June 2010 at 09:14 in reply to an earlier post

#12

CS (Colin S) wrote:

I do this while the charger is plugged in and the mains are switched on :) tried various plug sockets too in case it was the socket that was the problem

Posted on Tue, 1 June 2010 at 15:12

#13

MisterHoppy (Jamie) wrote:

The first 2 things your pc likely does on boot is to check your RAM and then Video Card, if it’s not booting either of them could be faulty.

Posted on Tue, 1 June 2010 at 16:23

#14

Epitome (Dave) wrote:

The weirdest thing though, is having two with the same problem at the same time. Were the problems exactly the same with each one?

Posted on Tue, 1 June 2010 at 16:25

#15

CS (Colin S) wrote:

to be honest Dave, I’ve no idea..

I got this laptop (The Compaq Presario CQ71) before I came to uni, as my HP DV6000 packed in. I thought it (the HP) was just knackered and would’ve been pointless repairing.

Then, from around february, my Compaq has been making a few funny noises when it starts up (nothing wrong with performance, just a bit of screams). Ran a few anti-virus checks and it came up clear. Then, about 3 weeks ago it simply refused to switch on, which is when I took it to PC World. They wiped the Compaq and told me that basically, all the downloading and torrent sites I was using, was simply consenting to getting viruses into my system. As I said, it was wiped, decent antivirus is on it and I’m a lot more careful now.

I’m not too sure if the problem with the HP is EXACTLY the same as the problem I had with the Compaq, but it is showing all the symptoms. I’ll find out soon enough.

Does anyone have an approx. cost to get a laptop wiped and windows re-installed? My Compaq had insurance and therefore was covered.

I’m gutted too, as the HP had excellent specs.

Cheers,

Col

Posted on Tue, 1 June 2010 at 17:23

#16

Gav wrote:

Try doing a hard reset:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01684768& … ct=4029934

Factory restore:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en& … ct=4033905

Posted on Wed, 2 June 2010 at 07:20

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