Need help. Possible virus/trojan/whatever on laptop with XP

[N8WWM]

Thank you to all who have responded. Many good ideas. I am currently sitting at a wi-fi location in the hospital. When I get home today I'll look more carefully at all that has been offered.

My main hope at this point is that the puter will give me enough time to bring up F12. We will see.
73 Doug

[N8WWM]

OK, I am home. The last known configuration advice worked, apparently. The puter says it orphaned 2 files. In any case it boots, goes to windows, and then to explorer with no trouble.

Many thanks to all,

Doug

[AA9DD]

Cool but you’re not quite done. When you find orphaned files you should try and clean them up. What you need to do is run a utility called check disk (chkdsk). Launch it by:

1. Double click on My Computer
2. Right Click on the “C” drive
3. Select “Properties”
4. Select the “Tools Tab”
5. In the “Error Checking” section push the “Check Now” button, another window will open
6. In the check disk options section tic both options
   
   1. Automatically fix file system errors
   2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
   
   
7. Select “OK”

Windows will yell at you that you must reboot in order to execute check disk so close all applications and reboot.

Once you reboot check disk will run automatically, be very patient and let the utility do what it does, this can take quite awhile to finish. Do not power down the machine until it’s finished since it could cause more problems.

Let us know how it turns out.

73
Tom

[AF6LJ]

Cool but you’re not quite done. When you find orphaned files you should try and clean them up. What you need to do is run a utility called check disk (chkdsk). Launch it by:

1. Double click on My Computer
2. Right Click on the “C” drive
3. Select “Properties”
4. Select the “Tools Tab”
5. In the “Error Checking” section push the “Check Now” button, another window will open
6. In the check disk options section tic both options
   
   1. Automatically fix file system errors
   2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
   
   
7. Select “OK”

Windows will yell at you that you must reboot in order to execute check disk so close all applications and reboot.

Once you reboot check disk will run automatically, be very patient and let the utility do what it does, this can take quite awhile to finish. Do not power down the machine until it’s finished since it could cause more problems.

Let us know how it turns out.

73
Tom

That is a good last step provided the OP doesn't have a Windows system disk...
If he does then I would run System File Checker....
And repair any system files that may be damaged.

[AA9DD]

That is a good last step provided the OP doesn't have a Windows system disk...
If he does then I would run System File Checker....
And repair any system files that may be damaged.

Yes, running SFC is excellent advice, but as you pointed out you need the install disk and it’s not available. It’s always a challenge to repair an OS without the install disk but there is a work-around at least in this case.

Go to Windows Update and install the latest service pack. The installer will scan the local i386 folder and make any changes/repairs as needed. Further, and we have all heard it before, backup… backup… backup. It can be painful but it’s not as painful as staring at a black screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner.

73,
Tom