[DonRS]

Can you get a virus in the bios? My grandsons Dell D400 running XP suddenly began to run slow. I ran Malwarebytes, avira antivir, and iobit360 and then also ran them in safe mode with system restore turned off. No virus shows up. Memory checks out and I installed different memory. Reinstalled XP, then also installed a different HDD with a cloned version of the uriginal HDD that works in another grandsons D400. Still runs very slow. My question; can you get a virus in your Bios and if so how do you find it and get rid of it? Any other suggestions?

Edited by DonRS, 25 April 2011 - 01:44 PM.

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You can get a BIOS infection but they are pretty rare. I expect you have a bad fan or a clogged heatsink. If the CPU gets hot it will slow down to save itself.

Get SIW

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/siw.html

Run it and under Hardware look for Sensors. Click on Sensors and look in the right pane there should be some temperature readings. What are they? Watch your video for a little bit then look again. Are the temps going up?

Start, Run, eventvwr.msc, OK to bring up the Event Viewer. Right click on System and Clear Log or Clear All Events, No (we don't want to save the old log), OK. Repeat for Application. Reboot. The disk check will run and will probably take an hour or more to finish.

Start, Run, sfc /scannow, OK

SPACE after sfc. This will check your critical system files. If it asks for a CD and you don't have one or it doesn't like your CD just tell it to SKIP.

Start, Run, sigverif, OK

Press Start. This will check your drivers. If you just get a few when it finishes tell me what they are. If you get a lot just look for those with newish dates (since about the time the problem started.)


1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwar...om/vino/VEW.exe
and save it to your Desktop:
2. Double-click VEW.exe
3. Under 'Select log to query', select:

* System
4. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning


Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:


1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application.

If you still want to pursue the BIOS infection idea what you do is download the latest BIOS from the dell support
http://support.dell....s=19&l=en&s=dhs
and install it.

Ron

[RKinner]

You can get a BIOS infection but they are pretty rare. I expect you have a bad fan or a clogged heatsink. If the CPU gets hot it will slow down to save itself.

Get SIW

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/siw.html

Run it and under Hardware look for Sensors. Click on Sensors and look in the right pane there should be some temperature readings. What are they? Watch your video for a little bit then look again. Are the temps going up?

Start, Run, eventvwr.msc, OK to bring up the Event Viewer. Right click on System and Clear Log or Clear All Events, No (we don't want to save the old log), OK. Repeat for Application. Reboot. The disk check will run and will probably take an hour or more to finish.

Start, Run, sfc /scannow, OK

SPACE after sfc. This will check your critical system files. If it asks for a CD and you don't have one or it doesn't like your CD just tell it to SKIP.

Start, Run, sigverif, OK

Press Start. This will check your drivers. If you just get a few when it finishes tell me what they are. If you get a lot just look for those with newish dates (since about the time the problem started.)


1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwar...om/vino/VEW.exe
and save it to your Desktop:
2. Double-click VEW.exe
3. Under 'Select log to query', select:

* System
4. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning


Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:


1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application.

If you still want to pursue the BIOS infection idea what you do is download the latest BIOS from the dell support
http://support.dell....s=19&l=en&s=dhs
and install it.

Ron

[DonRS]

Thanks for the reply RKinner. Sorry I've been gone a few days. I read your solution but I'm a bit curious. I removed the hard drive and replaced it with a clone from another grandsons identical computer as I had stated and it didn't cure the very slow running. I haven't checked the temperature but the laptop doesn't feel hot and it's slow from the minute I turn it on. I have a usb cooling fan I put under it also.It's a Dell D400 and I even removed the keyboard and blew out the dust accumulated aroung the fan and heat sink. The heatsink copper looks clean and bright.
I tried to re install the bios which was current but instead of re-installing when I open the bios from the desktop I get a read me box.
Would it really do any good to check the event log, the drivers etc. when it has a fresh hard drive and cloned OS that works perfect in a twin laptop? I have a couple more of the D400s and cloned hard drives I keep around for replacements when the grand kids [ who live a few hundred miles from me ] get a virus or some other problem so I thought I would download the bios to the desktop on one of them, CD it and put it on the slow running one to see if it would open and load that way. Any other suggestions?

Edited by DonRS, 01 May 2011 - 04:43 PM.

[RKinner]

The events logs are very useful for troubleshooting slow computers.

If you want to overwrite the BIOS feel free.

Ron

[DonRS]

Thanks for the reply and your help RKinner. I understand that the event log is very useful but since a fresh hard drive and OS are installed wouldn't a different set of events show up?

Edited by DonRS, 02 May 2011 - 11:21 AM.

[RKinner]

If there is something going on it might show up in the event logs. That's all I can say. It's a 5 minutes thing so I don't understand your reluctance to do vew or check the temps.

Ron