Diagnosis Assistance Please!!!

Hello Major Geeks!

Well, this is my first time in the Hardware Forum! I started a thread previously about my problem on the Malware forum - I'm fairly sure now that this is a hardware problem (my malware thread)...

Anyways, I tried booting from the Windows XP disc and at first, I was able to bring up the "Windows Setup" screen and the cd-rom drive appeared to be running. After a few minutes, I realized that the cd-rom drive was obviously NOT doing anything anymore (no lights on or anything) but I could hear this constant spinning, starting up and then stopping (I thought this was the cd-rom drive)...

Did a reboot and now when the machine tries to boot off of the cd drive it returns a drive failure message. So, guessing the cd-rom drive is dead now.

My question is, can you point me in the right direction for a diagnosis? (I was half expecting a nice long RUN & READ type checklist here that would help me, surprised that there isn't one! )

I was debating whether I should start this thread before I go open the system up - I figured I'd get my question in the queue!

Right now, I'm about to go to my in-laws and open the puter up so I can at least figure out what is running and what isn't. Also, I have one of those all-in-one hard drive reader thingees and a brand new dvd-rom - 1 option I was hoping on is to connect the dvd drive to see if I can boot from the windows disc on that, but 2nd option is also just to rescue their files from the hard drive (lots of grandchildren photos!) because at this point I think that the prognosis for the system is grim. It is fairly old and I suggest that they replace it, but it would be nice if it could "run" for a while longer for their email, until they can get a new system.

Thanks in advance! I'll be back later with (hopefully) more details!

 

Hmmmm, was just browsing through the Malware forum again and found this thread....

Not sure if it's related. sounds like the exact same problem (except I never got as far as scans!)...

Crap, hope it really isn't malware!