(no subject)

[oyceter]

Hey,

So Rachel's computer seems to be fried... she says got the Spyware Protector virus, ran her SVG antivirus on there, but then couldn't seem to log into LJ (she deleted all cookies, then said to accept all for LJ, but got the "you could not connect" screen. She says she could see other sites, as well as log into Gmail, but just not LJ). She then turned off her computer.

When she turned it back on, it went through the Dell start up screen, the Windows start up screen and the Windows progress bar, but when it gets to Windows, the screen goes blue-gray (the normal color, not Blue Screen of Death color), the cursor freezes, and that's it. She's left it on for a while and it's frozen like that, and she's turned it back on and off several times by using the power button. Ctrl+alt+delete, ctrl+shift+esc don't seem to work.

I asked her to close the screen to see if it'd go into standby, and it doesn't seem to. I also tried getting it into safe mode by pressing F8 while it was loading, but I think either it didn't work or it just missed the tiny window where it works.

Any ideas?
Oyce

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Has she disconnected it from everything in existence that could even think about giving it power or a connection to anything, and let it completely power down yet?

[jiawen]

A Linux bootup disc, maybe? Could such a disc practically get to her? Or maybe trying to boot from a Windows disc if one's available?

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

This was my thought as well--it should be possible to download an Ubuntu .iso (CD disk image) onto a 1 GB USB drive (or larger), set BIOS to boot from USB, and load from that. I don't think one can exactly run that trick with Windows, since a Windows disk will try to reinstall the system, but reinstalling might not be a bad idea.

oyceter, you say "close" the screen--is this a laptop? For a desktop, my first impulse would be to hook up the hard drive to another desktop and copy off vital data, *then* fuss with things like alt boot possibilities. Hooking up the drive could occur over a local network, if it's feasible, or physically: over the network = slide in via any shared directory from a second computer; physical attachment is harder with laptops than desktops.

Hope things resolve soon.

[oyceter]

Yeah, it's a laptop (Dell Vostro 1500)... And I think the boot thing may be complicated enough so that Rachel would have to take it in to get that done anyway.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Other things she could try, if she hasn't already:

1. Clearing the browser cache. The cache (local computer copy of internet stuff) is different than cookies. On Firefox it's: Tools > Options > Advanced > Network (2nd tab). Find "Offline Storage" and press the "Clear Now" button.

2. If she's got more than one browser, she could try using another one and see if she can get to LJ. For example, if she normally uses Firefox, she can try and see if LJ comes up on Explorer. If it does, then it's a browser problem.

3. Check any firewall, ad blocking, anti-spam, or internet censoring programs she might have to see if they've blocked LJ.

Something more major:

Has she made any major changes to the computer? Is the problem only a few days old? If it is, she could try Windows system restore to reset the computer to a previous (presumably working) state. It only undoes recent major changes, and all of your data is kept. The link explains things better.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I was about to come suggest system restore, since my husband's Dell did something very similar two days ago and that's how he fixed it. (I've used his bad experiences to help Rachel before; I think they must have just about the same model of [crappy] computer.)

[oyceter]

Huh, was this from inside Windows to fix the LJ problem, or more to fix the weird blue screen problem? I think right now she can't even get Windows to load properly...

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he just told me that he was actually able to get into Windows, but the desktop wouldn't load until he got it into safe mode and did the restore. So maybe it was a different issue. Still hate stupid Dells, though.

[oyceter]

Haha, yeah. Mine is pretty slow too, and it just has all these weird quirks.

Maybe I'll see if she can keep trying to turn it on and hit F8 at the right point to bring up safe mode...

[oyceter]

Well, the problem is, the computer won't boot at all right now... it seems to be loading Windows and then getting stuck somewhere in the process. I think she mentioned that she deleted all the cookies prior to it completely crashing, but now she can't even get into windows...

I think the problem just started today after the virus hit. Do you know if system restore works if Windows is not booting up properly? (as in, Task Manager won't come up, the Windows button doesn't do anything, and the mouse doesn't work, and the screen just stays blue.)

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Sorry, should have read closer and realized that the problem was more than a blocked website.

Fully powering down:

To make sure that the laptop's really powered down, she could try taking out the laptop's internal battery. It's not the external battery that you plug into an outlet. To get the internal battery, you have to flip over the laptop, and look at the bottom. Sometimes the battery location is labeled; sometimes you have to consult the laptop manual and look for a diagram. Take the internal battery out, wait for a couple of minutes, then put it back in.

Then start the computer.

Safe Mode:

If she can get to Safe Mode, then she can get to something like system restore for Windows XP. (There's also a Vista version of it.)

If that works, then run the computer on Safe Mode again, and then run an anti-virus program, or online anti-virus scanner like Microsoft's PC Protection, or McAfee. Follow directions, etc. A couple of years ago I had a bad virus on my computer, and this is how I deleted the infected files.

You have to do something like this, because the system restore point might still have the infected files. System restore only undoes changes back to a couple of days.

If that doesn't work, all I can figure out to do is reinstalling Windows (which will take the laptop back to the original factory settings), rebooting from a different operating system, or taking it into the shop. I don't know any intermediary steps between Safe Mode/system restore, and rebooting.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I reached a point like that with a virus I had, and I ended up having to use the system restore disk to reinstall. But I am not a techy person, and neither was my tech support guy, so there may have been a better alternative.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

My laptops have frozen at times -- taking out the battery is the quickest way to get it to turn off.

[silveraspen]

I'm not familiar with that virus/malware, and a quick search of some of the virus encyclopedias didn't give me a good answer, I'm afraid.

That said, it's possible it might have corrupted something in the registry or startup files, or it had installed itself into the startup sequence and is trying to load after having been incompletely removed.

Can she boot to command line? Boot from an external disc/CD? Or as you said, into safe mode? If she can get to that last one in particular, then system restore back a few days may resolve it.

(And then she'll probably need to hunt that virus down again and maybe do a manual or safe-mode removal, but at least it's a start...)

[octopedingenue]

If it's any help at all, here are portable versions of WinPatrol and ClamWin Antivirus, which can be run from a USB flash drive without installing them on the computer itself. You'd have to get the computer on first, though, which I'm not much help with. ETA because I read this time that she's tried starting it in Safe Mode. Here's a boot-from-CD version of Spybot, which I haven't used. If she can get the computer to Windows, installing the regular version of Spybot may help; download the Detection Updates as well to install them so she won't have to connect to the internet to get updates from there.

I'm not sure what virus she has, but the Spybot forums have removal instructions for various things if she knows the name. Asking for help at the forums may prove useful.

[kate_nepveu]

Apropos of absolutely nothing: http://www.cuteoverload.com/2009/02/rat-with-doll.html

[oyceter]

AWWWWWWWW!