Computer's gone postal again (likely viral)

cj iwakura

I saved this thing from death once.

This time I think it's screwed.


Avast went nuts about a virus alert, then the computer resetted.

Ever since then, I can't get Windows back up.

I see this, then it goes dead:




I can't even get safe mode working.

I just see this:



Then it goes out.


How screwed am I?

Captain Vash

Use a live CD to see about any file recovery, but be sparing because any file is potentially a re-infection agent.

Then format.

ronya

It's probably fixable if you're willing to dedicate a few hours to it.

It'll probably be faster to get your data off and reinstall.

And that's how Windows rolls nowadays, pretty much.

e: similar problem?

ronya

Other thread says restart in Safe Mode and uninstall Avast.

e: which, of course, doesn't work on yours. Whoops.

e: by the way, you should be able to disable automatic restart on system error on the same screen you pick Safe Mode etc.

Zombies Tossed My Salad!

OK so I seem to have fixed it!

The problem was the spdt.sys file for some reason.

all that it took to fix it was bypassing it by pressing escape during the boot into safe mode and then renaming it and what ever copies are in other drives. it's located in the windows/system32 folder

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

normally that error is caused by driver conflicts. At least, that was my understanding when I started seeing that BSOD a few months ago.

you can try plugging the stop code into google and see if you come up with anything; if it's a common problem there'll usually be someone else out there who has posted on a forum about it.

Honestly if you have an easy way to back up your data the easiest thing is to just re-install windows. If you have the ability to run a repair install you can try that, but even a full on format is probably faster that figuring out what the problem is and actually fixing it.

cj iwakura

Update: a friend reinstalled Windows for me, and I did a virus check. It appears to be clear, at least according to Avast.


Downside: seems to be running a little slower, and I haven't got my sound card driver fixed yet. I did have to reinstall the video driver, but that went fine. I think.

Will reinstalling the service updates get the sound working again?

Captain Vash

If you re-installed windows you need to re-install all your drivers.

Update your sound drivers to the newest possible and it should work.

cj iwakura

Update the third: sound is working. All I have to do is stop the sluggishness.

I've had a heck of a time installing Windows Update 2. It freezes about a quarter into it. (Just the installation, not the computer)

Other stuff:

-movies aren't working in Street Fighter 4(weird)
-Not recognizing USB devices on input

Which I've been told the Windows Update will fix, hopefully. (If I can get it to install)

TelMarine

Seems a lot of people's answers around here to fixing windows problems is reinstalling, this shoulda been your last resort imo. It is a huge pain to have to reinstall all your programs, plugins, updates, etc. especially because the registry gets wiped. I woulda investigated the error more and tried to use the XP + safe mode to try and fix the problem.

Also I believe SPTD.sys has to do with loading DAEMON Tools services (which usually isn't needed in safe mode I would assume).

cj iwakura

Safe Mode couldn't start. My friend who helped me reinstall thinks a virus attacked the part of windows that reads the video driver, or something.


Service Pack 2's install stops at "Creating Cabinets", and I have no idea why.

TelMarine

cj iwakura wrote: »

Safe Mode couldn't start. My friend who helped me reinstall thinks a virus attacked the part of windows that reads the video driver, or something.


Service Pack 2's install stops at "Creating Cabinets", and I have no idea why.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314063/

Obviously too late now, but with an XP cd handy there are several additional options.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Reinstalling/formatting gets suggested because it's relatively easy to do (especially if you have a contemporary OEM disc), virtually guaranteed to solve the problem, and winds up taking much less time than working through every piece of hardware in your system. Yeah, you could take your system apart and test every part individually, but since you're pretty sure they all work the problem is probably a windows registry clogged with legacy drivers and so on that has finally started noticeably stumbling.

Assuming you have an easy way to back up your data (hell could be a couple thumb drives, these days) and a broadband internet connection, reformatting is a pretty trivial thing; certainly much easier and faster than digging around the guts to try and fix the acute problem.

Captain Vash

With all my vital data stored en cloud the majority of my hard drive is just televisions shows and movies that are easily replaced via either external HDD backup or physical media or re-dvr'd..

Websites like http://ninite.com/ make re-installing programs I like easy as pie.. and from there it's just reconfiguring settings in obscure programs like my media center remote or my G-keyboard..

Hell, sometimes on a rainy weekday I reformat just because.

ronya

cj iwakura wrote: »

Safe Mode couldn't start. My friend who helped me reinstall thinks a virus attacked the part of windows that reads the video driver, or something.


Service Pack 2's install stops at "Creating Cabinets", and I have no idea why.

This is going to sound supremely frustrating, but the likeliest cause of that error is a corrupted SP2 installer. Sometimes large files don't download correctly, or maybe your flash drive is failing.

The MD5 hash of WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe is 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7, for reference.

Download it again and give it a try.

Grey Ghost

I'm having this same trouble as of this morning, and it was also preceded by sudden virus problems

I'm not particularly computer savvy, so how is it that I could access anything for the purpose of backing up if I can't even boot the thing? Also, the university gave me this thing 3 years ago and didn't include a reinstall disc

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

if you can't boot at all, you will need a windows CD to either repair your install or access the recovery console. You can use the console to manually roll your system back to working restore point by copying system files out of the system restore directory. It's not an ideal solution but it should let you get to a place where you can back up your data.

Grey Ghost

Well, that's almost a solution
Like I said, the university didn't give me a Windows CD when they gave me this; it was free, part of my scholarship, so I guess you get what you pay for

I'll call the college IT guys and see if they can just gimme a fresh install

Captain Vash

if you have access to another computer that can make cds you could create, say, a linux live cd, and use that to see what kind of data can be recovered.

Grey Ghost

Yeah, my roommates all have functioning computers, but I wouldn't know where to begin doing anything with Linux

Captain Vash

If you're a competant navigator of things in windows it should be pretty intuitive to figure out how to mount your drives and copy files.

if you run into trouble, google it, these are the ways of the modern man.

ronya

Download Ubuntu, burn that to disc, and pop it in. Pick "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer". Then sit back and enjoy the show.

It should automatically detect your existing hard drive and display it on your desktop. Poke through it and decide what you want to do with it.

At this point you have a variety of options: renaming sptd.sys as someone tried successfully above, attempting to repair your Windows install as such (very difficult), moving your data off to an external USB hard drive, friend's computer, online cloud storage, etc.