Computer Woes

[outoftime]

So a few people have expressed interest in what is wrong with my computer, so I thought I would photo document it so if any of you have suggestions/ideas, I'm ready to hear them!

So a little backstory: about two weeks ago or so, I thought I had a virus. I started up my computer, and it wouldn't let me open programs or anything and was saying I had a virus and kept linking me to this anti-virus software I'd never heard of. I thought it was strange, so on my iPhone I googled it and it said it was basically spyware or something? So I did a system restore to a week or so before that and everything was fine. I downloaded a reputable free virus program and scanned  my computer. Had some spyware (cookies and the such) and got rid of them and everything continued to be fine.

A few days ago, I ran the virus search again and everything came up fine. 

Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not, but if it's important, I'd rather not leave it out. 

OK, so now! Here goes: 

OK, so I start up my computer. I get this: 



then 


 

Finally



Starting Windows normally just eventually brings you right back here. So I click on Launch Setup Repair. 

then this for about 10 minutes:

then this for about 5 minutes:



then finally this:



and then 



No Operating System shows up in the list. I click load drivers and I get this. I  have no installation software at all. 



So I go back and click next 



The first thing I tried to do last night was the first option: Startup Repair. It brought me to this window, which ran for 8 hours last night and never found/did anything. 



So, I try to do a System Restore. I click on that and get this: 

OOOOK.... so next I go to the control prompt window and try to type in what they tell me to, and I get this: 

Which isn't true because I did a system restore within the last two weeks. 

OK, so I go back to cmd.exe to see if I'm getting an internet connection. I try pinging yahoo.com 



Nothing doing. 

OK, so that's pretty much it for those options. I don't have a backup, 

So I go back, restart the computer, and try hitting F8 while it's booting to go into safe mode and try something from there:



I click Safe Mode, I get this:



And then after that Please Wait... it starts you back all over again. 

I feel like I've exhausted all options. I'm extremely frustrated. Help?

 

Comments

[sellthelie.livejournal.com]

I have no help. Computers are not my thing, I got a similar virus, and didn't system restore, just took it into the shop and they proceeded to come to the conclusion that there was no point in fixing it because it was dead, only now it works.

I really hope you figure something out. ♥

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard one person say my hard drive crashed/died, and someone else said I had a virus. I'm not sure.

Thanks.

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Yea it looks like a virus has eaten your OS.

You need to reformat it. To do this you will need a disc with your OS of choice (vista sucks don't use it) and the drivers for all your hardware.

Do you have access to another computer? You can download all of this.

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

I know Vista sucks. :(

I do have access to another computer, but how would I be able to get a disc of m y OS and all that other stuff?

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

You need to be able to download them and burn them to cd.

It's unlikely to be a HD problem as windows is still starting up. If your HD had died all you'd get it a DOS prompt asking for an OS.

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

I don't think my parents' computer has burning capabilities. :(

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

What about anyone you know? :(

It is still possible that it is your HD that is the problem if some parts of the memory are degraded (or mouldy, it happens). In that case you would still need to format after replacing the HD.

Hmm do they have an OS install disc? (Their comp should have come with one)

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Are you still online? I found an install disc and I ran it but my computer is now frozen on a black screen. I posted on twitter and could use help

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Yea I'm online do you have msn or gchat? (will be easier)

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Normally yes but I'm only online through my iPhone right now :(

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Aah sorry I forgot :(

Ok so you need to get your computer to boot off of the CD

When you start you computer you have to press the button to enter setup (which button should show on the very first screen you see). If you don't see it tell me anything you do see.

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Did all that. It did Windows loading files for a few minutes and the. The starting windows s screen for over a half hour. I posted a pic on Twitter. Now the last twenty minutes I've been froZen on a black screen with an arrow. I don't k ow what to do.

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Reboot it (just hold the button till it turns off). When you first start it up it will put a screen up for a couple of seconds (less if your comp is fast). You need to press the enter setup button when that screen is up. It's commonly F2 or DEL (sometimes ESC or F10). Just mash the button as it starts up and you should get in to the BIOS menu (likely a blue screen). Tell me if you can get that far or need help.

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Even if I did that already? That's how I started

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

If you get to the loading windows files you've gone too far without pressing the right button.

What type of computer is it?

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

It's a Compaq Presario. And when I had started the computer I had hit the system restore button (f10 I think) and it had gone from there

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

So F10 gets you in to the BIOS settings? And are you pressing it repeatedly the instant you turn the computer on?

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Ok I went back and redid it and now I'm in the BIOS menu. What now?

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Yay! (sorry I was afk)
You need to find the boot settings and change it so your CD drive is the first priority. Then it should boot from the install CD

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that! I figured you were gone so I went to sleep lol.

OK, so! I've gotten into the BIOS menu and looked around and couldn't see anything that I could change.

There is one place where it's like

Drive 1 zxofcdsjgikkk
Drive 2
Drive 3
Drive 4 DVD/CD Rom

but it doesn't let me do anything to that.

I also tried going into the boot menu

and there it has something like four options and cd rom was one of them - I tried changing it to where it was the number 1 option and then restarted my computer, but I got the same thing over again.

It's hard because now the other computer is hooked up so it's not visible.

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Haha no worries I assumed as much :P

Sounds like you've got the right thing in the BIOS menu. Do you have the windows install CD in your computer as you start it?

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Yep!

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That is odd...

Can you take pictures of your BIOS settings? :S

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

I'm about to jump in the shower and then head out to dinner, so I'll do it when I get back in a few hours. Sorry!

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

Haha no worries, I should do some school work :P

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Ok so I found the boot menu and selected the first option as the cd rom. I saved it, exited and it said like usual to press any key to have it load from the cd, which I did. This is what usually happens. It goes to that loading window files window for a bit and right now it's at the starting windows screen. It usually stays on that for about 30 minutes and then goes to a black screen with just the cursor arrow. I've left it on that in the past for 8 hours and nothing has happened. If it gets to that point again now that I'm sure i have the boot order correct shod I leave it at that? Is that normal? any help would be appreciated!

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

That's not normal :S

This is vista?

I'm used to doing this with windows xp :(

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

I'm off home now, I'll be AFK for an hour or so. I can help more once I get home.

[sweet-lil-rach.livejournal.com]

Oh sweet Jesus, I'm having flash backs to uni when my laptop would just load a black screen with an arrow! I wanted to seriously hurt the tech support team when they said "ok ... click the start button at the bottom of your screen" DID YOU NOT HEAR ME???? MY SCREEN IS BLACK!!!!

I honestly wish I could be of some help baby, but this was the most stressful time I can remember ... it was under extended warranty but they wanted me to use the recovery discs on it first - which the computer never came with, and I had no internet access ... so it was a vicious circle.

In the end I sent it off to get repaired, they replaced the hard drive .... it worked for a month, then did the same thing, by which time the warranty had expired :(

My boyfriend used his XP disc on it and that worked for a short while, but in the end it kept doing the same thing - replacing the hard drive and reformatting it were only temp fixes in my case, so the best advice I can give you?
Get an extended warranty on it, throw it down the mother fucking stairs, and get a new computer out of it!!! Or just throw it down the stairs and buy a new one ... either way launching it down the stairs gives you a great sense of justice against the fecking thing!!!!

Sorry I can't be of any help, just wanted you to know you're not alone lol x

[nothing_to_say]

Is your computer come from a big computer companies like Dell? You might able to ask them to send you a copy of the windows installation disk. I am not sure if you need to pay for the shipping, but at least you'd have another option besides asking a friend to help. :P

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

Hey, Could we email instead? I'm at wrongheaven@gmail.com Every time I have to respond to a  
comment my iPhone has to reload that post with all those pics and it's  
a pain in the butt!

Ok, so my computer normally has Vista but the disc I found is for  
Windows 7. Does that make a difference?

[adolwyn.livejournal.com]

Is there any way you can acquire some Windows software at all? The easiest thing would probably be to just reinstall the software... I'm not sure why you don't have the software, but if you have a friend or someone who could help you get it, I'd say go that route.

[nothing_to_say]

From what I can think of, this sounds like that you might have removed something (either as the result of your first system restore, or the subsequent anti-virus (what brand was it?), that now your computer can't detect your previously-working OS (Vista, from the screen I am assuming). In a simpler words, your vista is completely crashed (at least from the computer's point-of-view).

Did your computer come with a windows disk? If you do you might be able to boot it from disk and it should give you an option to 'reinstall' Vista. From what I know it shouldn't remove any data that you have that is not part of the Vista OS, but since I only did a similar try under XP, you might want to double check to make sure it won't clear out your data completely.

[nothing_to_say]

If you don't have any windows installation disk that comes with your computer, and you have access to another computer (with a CD burner), and you want your data back before you completely reinstall the computer to factory state, you might want to try to download Ubuntu (a linux system). The installation disk (which is offered at the site for download free-of-charge, virus-free), once you burn it onto a blank CD, you can boot that CD directly and let you get access to your broken drives and retrieve your data without having to fix your windows OS.

[afrocurl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the HD got fried at some point. I don't have a real help, except to maybe whip it down and re-install a version of Windows.

[beyondthepen.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the same goes for Dell, but I do know that with HP, if you contact the company, they will send on all discs for your system, free of charge (I know, I've had to do this before...maybe more than once *shifty eyes*). It could be worth a try (and the hours of time you'll be on hold waiting for someone in Indian to take your call, haha).

I hope you figure something out!

[defyingstars.livejournal.com]

I showed this to my boyfriend, Mr. Computer Guy, and he said what I see some others already said, about reinstalling Vista via disc.
(I have Vista too. It suuuuuuuucks)

I had the same virus type thing on my computer that you described in the beginning (so did the bf) but after fixing it with F8, things went back to normal. So now I'm paranoid..

Good luck! Computer crashes make me break out in hives.