madcat1488

Hey first of all any help would be greatly appreciated as
it's getting really frustratiing not being able to use my
PC at all

I'll start at the beginning after not being hooked to the
internet for about 8 months and finaly hooking back up
I decided to run a virus scan as I had brought files from
other PCs onto mine. It showed about 400 Viri and Ad/spyware
after removing them all my PC started to "act up" slightly
so I decided a nice clean format would be a good idea.

I formated it and almost right away it started acting up again.
My CPU usage was always at 100% even though Task manager says
that nothing is running that much. it was constantly restarting
itself. I could barely open any programs without it locking up
so I decided another format may work. Formated and wasn't even able
to install my drivers. I try and open IE and it locks
up/restarts right away. Even typing this for my friend to post was a
chore.

My PC is
Athon XP 2000+

3 Sticks of 256 DDR Ram (I know one is PC 2700not sure of the other 2)
Radeon 9800 Pro.

Asus 87V8X or somthing like that motherboard (I can't remember exactly)
I custom built it.

I'm using Windows XP home.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

swimtech

I would start (especially in cases of virus infection) with destroying the original partitions as well, re-partitioning, then formatting and installing from known virus-free media (such as a published CD).

You can check and clean your drive with a program called Stinger - available at McAfee's site - do you have a virus now too according to the software that found the previous infections?

Maybe you can even find a utility that will wipe the drive clean of all partitions and wipe the data clean in one operation such as the Ultimate Boot CD (it has the drive manufacturer's own utilities on it) available as a link in this thread:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardware-discussion-support/59193-ultimate-boot-cd-bootmanager-bootable-cds.html

Let us know - OK?

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

MythicaL

You said the computer kept restarting, so you might wanna make sure your CPU or other components, such as your PSU, are within reasonable temperatures.

I use SpeedFan to check my CPU temps, but I know there are other proggys out there

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Always knew I didn't belong in this world. I wasn't made for this. But I'll never forget those who betrayed me, and those who never failed my trust.

Tipstaff

As a note, one thing people forget to do when reinstalling their system is that they leave the network cable plugged in. Why is this bad? Well, XP has a lot more updated nic drivers now, and usually right after XP installs you will find that your nic is actively talking on the net. XP will start right away with Auto Updates, and other tasks as soon as XP is up and running, all this before you have a chance to protect yourself. If your using an older version of XP, such as before the Blasterworm and Sasser patches came out, or more current security patches, then chances are pretty good you will get hit by something active on the network.

So, my suggestion is to disconnect your ethernet cable before you install XP. Do as Simtech suggests with the partitions, get as much done that you can driver wise first after the initial install, install your protection (Anti-virus, spyware protection, firewall), THEN plug your ethernet cable back in, and do the rest.

Foreplay... condom ... then the real fun. Works for every situation.. including computers. LOL

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madcat1488

well I do appreciate all help. The way I formated was to take out the HD move it to another PC and set it up as a slave and completely Wipe it twice.

and I think I will try what you say about formating again and not having it hokked up.

Thanks again

swimtech

The manufacturer's utilities on the Ultimate Boot CD will wipe the partitions and the formatted data area - two different things - if you're not aware already.

The partitions are the defined areas of a drive that can be formatted. The partition information area is not touched by the format procedure and some viruses hide themselves in that partition information area.

Run your antivirus and spyware programs after your installation as a check, just to be sure...

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

madcat1488

ok well maybe I'm confused on what exactly a Partition is?

Is it the NTFS or Fat32 File system or is different Sections of the Hard drive?

if it's different Sections of the hard drive I have never partitioned it it's always been one section as splitting it up has always seemes useless to me.

Tipstaff

Ok Madcat, you asked for it.. a partition is.... ok.. just kidding. It would take a while. Long story short, NTFS, FAT32, or FAT16 is just way of formating a drive to store information. Each has it's benifits. XP primarily uses NTFS now as it allows for individual file sizes to be bigger than 4 gigs, plus it is also better able to work with file security features of the operating system. Like I said, long story short, so if you want the full details you might wanna check around the net for more detailed info.

No matter what, you partition a drive in order to be able to use it. Whether you create smaller ones, or one large one doesn't matter. All your doing is saying "here is my house, I want a room here, here and here, but I want them this big, this big, and the rest this big". Just follow the normal routine of the XP installation. You will eventually get to the part of the installer that will ask about partitions. Just remember to read carefully cuz it will ask about creating/deleting partitions. The reason you want to delete the partition first is that some viruses can infect the boot table or index of that partition. Deleting and then recreating a new one will rid you of that possible threat. There are 3rd party utilities that allow you to delete/create/format partitions, but in your case it's not necessary. Those utilities just allow for more control over the way you install a particular operating system (like having multiple partitions), or allowing for multiple operating systems (which I won't go into).

Edit: of note, some people like to divide a large hard drive into smaller paritions (pieces). Normally they'd get assigned drive letters liks C: and D: by the operating system. They'll install the operating system on C, and all their important files and downloads on D. If they want to reinstall the operating system they just have to format/delete C, and they don't have to worry all the precious data on D. However, if the master boot record gets infected then it won't matter squat. You would still have to toast both partitions.

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