Inspiron 5100 XP "Please wait while the connection etc."

[JanetE]

I was going to try to run FRST because I suspect that my elderly neighbor's Dell Inspiron 5100 with XP may have been infected, as she told me she had had the all-too-familiar screen about "Please wait while the connection is being established."

I don't think I'm competent to run this without help because I'm not seeing what I expected based on the instructions I've read here.

When I try to enter System Recovery Options from Advanced Boot Options by rebooting and hitting F8, I don't find any option "Repair your computer." What I see is:

Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA Mode
Last Known Good Configuration
Directory Services Restore Mode
Debugging Mode
Disable automatic restart on system failure

Start Windows Normally
Rebott
Return to OS Choices Menu

If I choose the last option, it tells me "NTLDR is missing. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart." Which I did.

So then I tried Safe Mode with Command Prompt. I played around with this to see if it would work the same as you describe, but I got lost in these instructions:

In the command window type in notepad and press Enter.
The notepad opens. Under File menu select Open.
Select "Computer" and find your flash drive letter and close the notepad.

I did get Notepad open, and I went to the File menu and selected Open, and I navigated to "My Computer" and clicked on the letter of the flash drive (where I had placed my own flash drive with FRST.exe on it). But Notepad wouldn't let me do anything but Cancel. I lost confidence and did not enter the e:\frst.exe command.

Before that, I had been installing a whole list of program upgrades from FileHippo that the computer's owner has not kept up with. Mostly that has worked, although the machine is very slow. (Not as slow as it was before we installed some more RAM last year.) But now and then it goes to a black screen and doesn't seem to come out, and I've resorted to a manual interrupt with the power button. It reboots normally after I do that, at least so far!

I was able to reboot back into normal mode after trying to use Notepad to run the FRST. I'm not sure what to do next. Please could someone lend a hand?

Oh, and am I foolish to be using my own flash drive to stick into that other machine? Probably. But I already did.

Thanks very much.

[chaslang]

Originally Posted by JanetE

I was going to try to run FRST because I suspect that my elderly neighbor's Dell Inspiron 5100 with XP may have been infected,

FRST was designed primarily for Win 7 and Vista PCs. It can be run on Win XP but it would require that you first create a special Win PE boot disc to run it from and for many people who are not experts, PE disk building can be too complex.

I suggest that you do the below:

The Kaspersky WindowsUnlocker utility to fight ransom malware

[JanetE]

Oh cool, thank you, chaslang. Much appreciated. Her computer seems now to be running normally and I'm working on getting her whole anti-malware arsenal up to date, which it was not. Then I'm going to question her a bit more closely before I try to fix something that might not be broken. At least I will sleep better knowing where to turn if something rears its ugly head. Meanwhile my own computer remains clean as a whistle, thanks to you guys. You are the very best!

[chaslang]

You're welcome. Surf safely!.