Posted on 06/18/2011 5:40:28 AM PDT by TheRobb7
First the setup: Computer is a Dell Dimension E521 running Windows Vista Home Premium.
My antivirus software is AVG free edition.
The other day, I ran the AV, using the "Rootkit scanner". The PC was acting slower than usual, even after a few complete scans.
The rootkit scan showed a file that was possibly malware. I chose to remove that file.
The AV then prompted me to restart for the change to take effect.
Now, Windows will not start. A black screen appears with this message:
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer. 2. Choose language settings and then click "next". 3. Click "repair your computer".
None of the above is possible because the PC won't talk to the disk drive, even after pressing F12 or F2 or F8 during restart...it's just a constant loop.
Any help ya'll can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you :)
Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot
The darn keyboard has an F lock that enabled
the F12 key to take me to setup and boot from
a DVD.
The PC loaded windows and is giving me 3 options:
1. Install now
2. What to know before installing windows
3. Repair your computer
The last 2 look like information guides.
What say you?
BTW....that was GENIUS!
Maybe the F-Lock key is affecting your ability to get into BIOS.
On my daughter's computer, one press of the F-Lock has to precede sending the normal F2 sequence to the computer. On her keyboard the F-Lock key has just an "F" on it -- not the letter "F" key, this one is to the left of all the Function keys.
Hah! Good. I'll defer to others who have experience with the "Restore" function. I've done that maybe twice (always worked), and had to refer to instructions. Something about "do NOT choose 'repair'" comes to mind, but honestly, I don't recall what the correct sequence is to refresh the OS.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
The part that was sort of coming up in my memory was to not choose the option, "To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console ..."
I was repairing from Windows Media (A Windows XP CD, not an OEM CD), so my experience is not applicable to your situation, on two counts! Good luck - sounds like you can get back in order without any data loss.
More often than not this is a specific failure of AVG, but first you have to check to see if Windows Vista is corrupted.
-— IF YOU GET INTO SAFE BOOT IN WINDOWS< YOU NEED TO FIND THE AVG LOG files to find out exactly which file was deleted. With that info you can easily fix your problem. -—
step one.. checking Windows:
I would suggest you to boot the computer into Safe Mode and check if you can boot, here are the steps:
1. Restart your computer if it is powered on.
2. Tap the F8 key after your computer initially powers on.
3. Once you see the Advanced Boot Options menu you can stop tapping.
4. Use the up/down arrow keys to highlight your selection.
5. Select Safe Mode and press Enter.
6. You should see drivers loading, and then please wait.
7. You should then be at the Welcome Screen.
8. Logon to your computer using an account with Administrator privileges.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode
Once the system boots into Safe Mode, try restoring the system and check if it helps, here are the steps:
1. Click Start, type system restore in the Start Search box, and then click System Restore in the Programs list. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue. 2. In the System Restore dialog box, click Choose a different restore point, and then click Next.
3. In the list of restore points, click a restore point that was created before you began to experience the issue, and then click next.
4. Click Finish.
You may visit the following KB Article link for reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936212
You can also try startup repair, here is the link:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-7
Step two ... checking AVG:
This is my thoughts... Microsoft just sent out a large monthly batch security update for Vista, you might have removed a file with AVG that required a reboot at the same time a Windows Update procedure required a reboot.
I can point you in the right direction but the fix will require registering the file you deleted from AVG back into the Windows registry, using 4 command line entries per file deleted. Never have I tried this without the PC in front of me and each time it’s an adventure trying to find the correct files in the AVG vault.
The “Repair Computer” function ran a diagnostic and then prompted me to do a System Restore, which i was familiar with.
It worked out good (no loss of data) and now I am responding on the repaired PC!
Thanks to everyone for your help. Once again, Freepers prove that they are the BEST!
http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd
Boot from the Rescue disc
Select AVG Rescue Disc from the menu below
You will need to look in the virus vault, find the most recently added files, and restore them to your system.
I have't used AVG Rescue disc for long enough I forgot the steps involved. So here is a guide to acquire, create, burn, and use the AVG Rescue Disc:
http://free.avg.com/us-en/226162
Good to hear.
To make sure this doesn’t happen again in 24 hours when AVG does a full system scan, go to your AVG Virus Vault, find the files that were false positive detected.
1. scan them with another anti-virus and something like malwarebytes and anything else you want. Make sure it’s actually a false positive as best you can.
If other virus scanners do not show a virus/trojan,..
2. inside the AVG Virus Vault, create exception rules to 1. not scan , or 2. to perform no action upon detection, for those specific files.
I posted reply 87 before reading 86.
However you should read reply 88 and try that.
Burn to a CD and make sure that you set the CD drive as first boot device in BIOS (if you can't even access BIOS then I think your PC is fried for good).
You'll need to spend a few minutes reading the online tutorial for the various functions PTD provides. Don't be put off by the very simple looking user interface. The actual repair of my friend's problem only took a second or two. And then it booted right up as if nothing had ever happened.
Hope it works for your Vista too!
WOO-HOO! I’m saving this thread for future reference!
Heh. See you’re up and running again, so...never mind (except for future reference ;-)).
Tiny Personal Firewall was a good one. It doesn’t come with a heap of presets, so you have to follow prompts or set things up by hand, but you can easily simply wait til each thing asks for access and make a decision, if you know what you’re doing.
The first few days, lots of requests...once you’ve been prompted and rules created, it quietly does its thing and you can pretty much forget it’s even there.
Yeah. I thought about that after I wrote it.
Years ago I worked for a company that used an old IBM 8088 and the software they were running was pretty much ‘dos’ oriented.
I had to copy files from the main computer to an office one by using 3 1/2 inch disks.
I took the disk and ‘formatted’ it before transferring files from the ‘main’ computer to the disk.
Well, as bad luck would have it, I accidently typed ‘format’ while still logged onto the ‘C’ drive. Ooops!
Luckily, I knew enough about the header information that I booted from floppy and used ‘debug’ to go in and correct the ‘pointer’ to the first sector and the ‘80h’ drive indicator.
Still lost the days work, but it was restored from a tape backup.
Needless to say. I never did it that way again.
Tape to Tape was MUCH safer!
:)
“Maybe he can’t use a Mac because he’s a heterosexual.”
Laughed at the original comment THEN at your reply.
What were Velociraptors like back in those days?
They were pretty scary, but my trusty 10mhz PC got me through it! I just cowered in a cave playing ‘Pong’.
:0)
yes I have a great one for you BUY A MAC
If you had listened to me, instead of sticking your head in the sand, you would be much happier now. Enjoy your misery.
The stuff you say about the life of Apple products and viruses is 100% inaccurate. But typical of mind numbed Microsoft droids. You probably have a Zune. And your advise about reinstalling the OS sounds like a lot of fun on a new computer.
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