[brainiac042003]

I have a dell laptop, it has windows xp and is a Latitude D610. It got a virus called the anti-malware doctor or something like that, and i used your malware cleaning guide and removed it. The computer was working fine then 10 minutes later it just crashed. I turned it off then back on and it didn't load. It didn't get any further then the windows startup screen.Also I got the laptop from someone and i don't have a XP disk to load from. Can someone please help me figure out what to do.

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See if you can boot into Safe Mode. Reboot and when you hear the beep, see the maker's logo, or it tells you to press F8, start slowly tapping the F8 key. Keep tapping until you see the Safe Mode Menu. Try Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode, Last Known Good, Command Prompt. See if any of them will let you boot.

Ron

[RKinner]

See if you can boot into Safe Mode. Reboot and when you hear the beep, see the maker's logo, or it tells you to press F8, start slowly tapping the F8 key. Keep tapping until you see the Safe Mode Menu. Try Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode, Last Known Good, Command Prompt. See if any of them will let you boot.

Ron

[brainiac042003]

I tried pressing F8 and i got to a menu and when i tried to put it in safe mode it just took me to a blank screen again. Is there anything else i can try?

[RKinner]

Did you try all of the F8 options?

Try Avira's rescue disk:

http://dlpro.antivir...m-common-en.iso

Instructions here:

http://www.techmixer...us-and-malware/

Since it's a Dell you should have a hidden partition with the same software as when it came from the factory. http://www.ehow.com/...y-settings.html Using that you can usually restore it to the way it came from the factory. You will lose all of your data (tho you can save it with the rescue disk) and will need to to spend the rest of the day downloading Windows updates.

Ron

[brainiac042003]

I used the Avira but all it did was scan my computer. When I tried to change the settings to remove the 1 threat it found in the first scan the whole thing just froze and every time i try to to change the settings to fix my computer instead of just scan it, it does the same thing everytime.

[brainiac042003]

Also when i try to press ctrl and F11 to do the dell restore thing, nothin happens, i just get a blank screen. Is there anything else i can try?

[RKinner]

It appears you have Vista which should use Step 6 in the instructions and not F11. Did you try that?

There is another method but its a bit technical.

Another bootable CD that is useful is PC Regedit. See the instructions in the BOTTOM half of
http://www.raymond.c...ing-in-windows/

Normally we see problems with this key:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
(HKLM is HKey_Local_Machine)

userinit which should have: c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,
shell which should have: explorer.exe

And with these:

HKLM\Software\CLASSES\batfile\shell\open\command => "%1" %*
HKLM\Software\CLASSES\comfile\shell\open\command => "%1" %*
HKLM\Software\CLASSES\exefile\shell\open\command => "%1" %*
HKLM\Software\CLASSES\piffile\shell\open\command => "%1" %*
HKLM\Software\CLASSES\regfile\shell\open\command => regedit.exe "%1"
HKLM\Software\CLASSES\scrfile\shell\open\command => "%1" %*
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System,DisableRegistryTools => 0x00000020,0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
AppInit_DLLs: Normally no entry except when you have a third party firewall or with some anti-virus programs. Verify that any DLLs it lists are associated with programs you know.

It's also possible that what you have is hard drive failure and not malware. Boot into BIOS or CMOS Setup and see if tells you what the part number of the drive is. Google the number and find the maker. Most have a drive test you can download and burn to a cd. The extended test will take many hours but it may tell you it found a problem and ask if you want to try to fix it.

Some people have had luck with this:
http://neosmart.net/...-disc-download/

Ron

Edited by RKinner, 20 June 2010 - 08:46 AM.

[brainiac042003]

Pressing F8 works but I dont have Vista, I have XP Professional. But none the menu options i tried when pressing F8 works. I can't follow the directions given in step 6 because the menu options i have are different from what they are talking about.Whenever i press anything it just goes to a blank screen.

[RKinner]

Your profile says:

"OS: windows vista"

which is why I thought you had Vista.

What threat did Avira say you had?

You can try the PC Regedit from Post #7. See if that works.


Ron