My PC has a virus - it won't start up. How do I fix it?

Question

I'm using Windows XP - what happens is I turn on the computer and it begins to load, but then the computer will shut down and restart itself. I can't even get to my desktop. The thing I see different is on the first screen that comes up when I turn on the computer, it says something along the lines of "Primary Master" and "Primary Slave" followed by numbers, and it shuts down shortly after. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

Sounds like the system is hosed, if you can't boot into safe mode (F8), then you will have to reinstall windows.

Answer 2

There are many reasons why you could be having this problem. It may not be a virus at all but a bad hard drive. The first thing you should try to do is hit F8 while the computer is booting to get to a list of options offering things like safe mode, start windows normally, last known good configuration that works (your most recent settings that worked), etc.. then try choosing last known good configuration that works and see if that works for you. If thats no good then try booting into safe mode and scanning for virus/spyware programs. If those options don't help or if your unable to even get the F8 menu then you might have to resort to reinstalling windows. To do this insert your Windows Setup disc or your computers system recovery discs and reboot, then follow instructions. If your successful you will get the computer back to factory default (how it was the 1st time you turned it on) If your computer won't boot off your cd/dvd disc then go into the BIOS settings and change the boot order to first try booting the CD or DVD drive and then the hard drive. To enter 'setup' or 'BIOS' look for which key to press immediatly after your PC turns on. Hopefully you have backups of your important information, if not I sympathize with you. If your feeling a little adventurous download the ISO for Kanotix Linux at kanotix.net and burn the ISO with software such as Nero. Put the CD into your cdrom and reboot, you will be booted into a Linux desktop that is running completely off your CDROM (or your RAM if you have over 700mb available) From here you would mount your windows partition/drive, plug in a external usb or firewire hard drive and start backing up your data. You can also load the included k3b cd/dvd burning software. Now you can use your dvdr or cdrw drive to burn your data to disc. This only works if you have 2 optical drives in your pc or 1 drive and over 700mb of ram. This works only If your windows installation was messed up your data is still safe. If you have a hard drive failure on your hands then your out of luck. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Try pressing f2 when booting. It opens you PCs Bios. From the way you say it, it could be that your Primary Master(Main Hard Disk) and Primary Slave(support Hard Disk) are swapped? If you don't know what to do, get someone to help.

Answer 4

Do you know of someone, a friend, that knows what to do about these things?
I live in Canada and if my son doesn't have time to come and fix something on
the computer, I take it to The Source. We are fortunate to have wonderful people working at ours. They are honest. Don't take it to Staples as they messed mine up and I wound up taking it to the Source. At the time I didn't know they fixed computers. I know I am not a lot of help, but I hope someone here can give you some ideas. Good luck. : }

Answer 5

If you are using windows XP, when you start your PC start pressing F8 to get to safe mode, it may be a different key for your PC depending on the brand, but once you are in safe mode, do System restore, by clicking Start, Programs, accessories, and system tools and the restore your PC to 1 or 2 days before the problem started to happen.

hope this help you.

Answer 6

Start your system, immediately press the delete key several times.

The system should enter the Bios.

Go along the top menu until you come to a tab that says BOOT Device.

Insure that BOOT Device one is set to your hard drive and boot device 2 is your DVD/CD drive, save and exit.

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http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Windows-XP-PowerPacker.shtml

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,674406,00.asp

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Answer 7

Start the Windows in safe mode by pressing F8 key. Mostly viruses resides in c:/Windows directory. Right click and set arrange icons modifies. Now look at the bootom for any suspicious .EXE file. There might be a virus named mblast.exe. u should also look for that.
Also search for *.exe in the Windows folder and look for any wrong file.

Answer 8

How did you get the virus? if you cant get the desktop to start up then try hitting random buttons when this "primary master" and "Primary Slave" screen pops up.

Answer 9

Hi. Boot into safe mode by tapping F8 while the pc boots. Try 'Last known good configuration'. If this does not work continue into 'Safe mode' and run your AV and AS programs. Good luck!

Answer 10

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS
1)MAKE THE HARDDISK AS YOU FIRST BOOT DEVICE FOLLOWED BY THE CDROM DRIVE
2)OPEN YOUR COMP AND SEE IF THE HARDDISK IS ON A DIFFERENT IDE CABLE
3)IF NOT THEN MAYBE HDD AND CD ROM ARE USING SAME CABLE USING PRIMARY MASTER/SLAVE
SET CD ROM JUMPER TO CS
AND SET HDD TO MASTER