XP booting from DVD drive

Hi

I'm not sure if I have a software or malware problem so I'll start from the beginning and tell all that has happened. Sorry it's so long :-o

System is AMD Athlon 64 x 2 dual core 3800+ 2.0 GHz 960 MBRAM with an ASUS motherboard running XP sp2

My problem started when I mistakenly deleted the wrong printer and did a system restore. PC worked ok, went online, etc but next day it got real slow and I mean real slow - 4-5 mins to react to a mouse click. Following a Google search I uninstalled HP printer and Nero Essentials as thay have been known to cause problems. No change so I went through clean up and malware procedure from this site because Panda anti-virus and Zonealarm wouldn't work. My wireless connection wasn't working so I thought I'd leave it in case I made the problem worse by going online.

I saved the logs and installed recovery console and can upload logs if it's a malware problem. (I'm using hubby's pc)

Following installation of recovery console I can only boot up by pressing F8 or from installation CD as hard drive doesn't show in BIOS. It's there as I can work with Explorer and have copied and saved files in case of re-install.

After that I was so fed up I left it alone for 3 weeks so logs are for 3 weeks ago but I haven't done anything but copy essential files since then.

So to recap: XP will only boot from CDROM or F8 - hard drive is on list at boot but DVD/CD drive is first; Primary IDE is DVD/CD drive and hard drive is not on list; hard drive is accessible in Explorer even without CDROM in drive and all files look to be there; Windows programs won't start e.g. Word, outlook, but other software (graphics) will work.

PC is so slow it took Malware bites over 24 hours to run!

Please can someone help

Regards

Carol

 

Well try the basics first and see what happens, meaning go to your BIOS and make sure you are booting from your hard drive (or not). To do this press DEL right after starting your computer which on most Asus motherboards will get you into your setup. From there you can make changes which in this case all we want to do is make sure your computer is booting from your hard drive. On some other Asus motherboards you will have to press the Ins key instead of Del just in case you may have one that requires that. Let us know the if you still need assistance.

 

Thanks for replying Vikingman

It's definitely booting from DVDRW and hard drive is not detected unless I override and press F8 to choose hard drive which is second in list.

If I boot without doing anything I get message " 0 bootable partition in table" on a black screen and can't do anything except turn off.

I configured my wireless connection last night but as Panda gets switched off after a short while I have disconnected. Zonealarm works ok. I only use one antivirus and firewall; windows firewall is turned off. Panda was updated also windows but I couldn't get IE to work although some other software will - e.g. Idaily diary and Artworks.

Carol

 

An update

I've been trying to see what software will and what won't. Problems with Word and Adobe Reader are InPageError. I'm attaching the minidump file. Still slow taking 3-4 minutes to respond to mouse click and 10 mins to boot up.

Is it a rundll problem? I have no idea how to fix it but am I correct in thinking that Nero could have caused the problem?

Thanks

Carol

 

Have you tried using system restore yet? It probably wouldn't hurt to read the malware removal section here at MG's and do the steps suggested there just to make sure you are clean as far as malware goes. I'm not saying this is the problem but it will eliminate the question of it. If everything checks out clean then we can work on the issues you are having.

 

Re: XP booting from DVD drive - damaged hard drive now fixed

I checked my malware logs and finding nothing untoward suspected a hard drive problem. I took it back to my local pc shop - where I bought it - and he confirmed a damaged hard drive so new hard drive £50 (over $100).

Thanks for the input Vikingman.

Regards

Carol