[Vuley]

First time to do this, but here goes...

Okay, I have two computers and two problems. The first I'll address here. My brother lent me his computer to do whatever I can to fix it. Compared to what I have, this thing's awesome.

From what I can tell, his computer has been jacked up by a virus. The computer starts up just fine, and the welcome screen appears. Then, I click a name. It reads "Loading your personalized settings..." and then flashes the desktop. After that, the desktop flashes off, the welcome screen appears again, and the name has "Logging off.../Saving your settings..." beneath it. Sometimes, the desktop doesn't even flash up.

Starting up with "Last known good settings" doesn't work, Safe mode does the same thing, and so I can't get into any of the restore utilities. The worst thing is, I have lost my Windows XP disk, and I don't think my brother has one. Any suggestions?

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You will probably need to borrow and XP CD for this, it needs to be the same version as was originally installed, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD. If you use it to repair XP then you need to enter your product key, not the one from the borrowed CD

[Retired Tech]

You will probably need to borrow and XP CD for this, it needs to be the same version as was originally installed, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD. If you use it to repair XP then you need to enter your product key, not the one from the borrowed CD

[Vuley]

I was looking through some old boxes today and I found a three-disk Windows XP installation set. So, I followed the insturctions, written and on-screen, and got the computer back up and running. Sadly, but not unexpected, everything had to be wiped from the hard drive, and some drivers refuse to load, but it'll soon be out of my hands and into my brother's.
Thanks for the help. I was actually trying to see if there was a way to fix it without the disk(s), but, based on the response, there probably wasn't.

While I'm thinking about it, a bubble keeps popping up in the bottom right to get me to activate Windows, but when I click the bubble, the window says that "Windows is already activated. Click OK to exit." When I click OK, however, after I restart the bubble in the bottom right pops up again saying it's not activated yet. I'm clueless on this.

[Retired Tech]

Try here

http://support.micro...kb/312295/en-us

[Vuley]

I'm about to try that.

First: Should I have gotten a window or prompt to activate Windows, or is it automatic during installation? I was never asked to do so, and the bubble just confuses the heck out of me. Mostly I'm asking because the page says "After you successfully install and activate Windows XP..." and I am not sure if I ever successfully activated it.

[Retired Tech]

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools, activate windows

[Vuley]

It's... not there. I'm assuming that means it's activated?

[Retired Tech]

It should be there, see what the edit from the link does

[Vuley]

Okay, something's not right here. I restarted the computer in safe mode, like it tells me to, and I open the Run dialog box. When I type any key on the keyboard, the mouse and keyboard both freeze, but the cursor on the screen keeps blinking.

I'm not liking this computer as much as I was an hour ago.

[Retired Tech]

Run this then re-visit the activation thing

Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then also from system tools, run disc defragmenter

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, (all files will highlight), right click any file, click delete, confirm then reboot.

Download, install and run Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up disc clean up

Run Tune Up registry clean up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, the screen will lose colour during the process which can take a few minutes and then needs a reboot

Those will have cleared the drive of obsolete software errors

These are suggestions for making the most of the free trial

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot.

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[Vuley]

Disk defragment: Good, something to sleep on. I'll do the first half tonight and finish tomorrow, when I can think clearer. Thanks for the help so far.

[Vuley]

The instructions on the website tell me to change the directory the command prompt applies to. How do I do this?

exact words: "Change to the %Windir%\System32 folder, and then type the following command:"

I *think* I know what the prompt wants, but not how to give it to it.

Edited by Vuley, 27 March 2006 - 02:05 PM.

[Vuley]

Okay, finished with that, and half the files it asked for weren't there. Still asks to activate windows, and the balloon never changes how many days I have left. Thirty til the end of time, I suppose.

I figured I could ignore it for a bit, and just get used to it. No. Can't do that.

I tried to install the .NET Framework, and succeeded, to an extent. I was told to restart. I did. Now, when I log on, it says "This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?" Why yes, I do.

It logs me in temporarily, flashes up that big blue window that says Windows is already activated, I hit OK, and it logs me right back off, only to repeat this process. I'm back where I started, just being screwed over by Windows rather than a virus. What now?

[Retired Tech]

Contact your local Microsoft Office and ask them to give you a new product key