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Weird computer problem.
Drez
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My sister has a Compaq with Windows 7 Home Premium installed.
Two days ago it rebooted. The Compaq splash screen comes up (and displays fine) in initial bootup and then right after that it hangs on a totally black screen except for the flashing cursor in the top left and one square of the console that is yellow background with some red ASCII in it (one of the characters that looks like a double link border).
She has a USB keyboard. It lights up when I boot the machine, but the computer won't recognize any keypresses, so I am unable to go into the BIOS menu or even attempt to boot into safe mode. Worse, because I can't get into BIOS, I can't change her boot priorities so I can try to reinstall or repair her Windows installation.
This is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. I tried using a PS/2 adapter to plug her keyboard in that way, but that didn't do anything. It didn't even light up while plugged in that way. I do know personally that her keyboard normally works in, um, "DOS" so...yeah.
Im about to go and try to diagnose this thing. My first order of business will be to manually reset her BIOS settings with the jumper. After that I will start yanking her memory out, chip by chip.
Any other ideas? Any idea what this can be? Could this be some really, really nasty virus?
Two days ago it rebooted. The Compaq splash screen comes up (and displays fine) in initial bootup and then right after that it hangs on a totally black screen except for the flashing cursor in the top left and one square of the console that is yellow background with some red ASCII in it (one of the characters that looks like a double link border).
She has a USB keyboard. It lights up when I boot the machine, but the computer won't recognize any keypresses, so I am unable to go into the BIOS menu or even attempt to boot into safe mode. Worse, because I can't get into BIOS, I can't change her boot priorities so I can try to reinstall or repair her Windows installation.
This is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. I tried using a PS/2 adapter to plug her keyboard in that way, but that didn't do anything. It didn't even light up while plugged in that way. I do know personally that her keyboard normally works in, um, "DOS" so...yeah.
Im about to go and try to diagnose this thing. My first order of business will be to manually reset her BIOS settings with the jumper. After that I will start yanking her memory out, chip by chip.
Any other ideas? Any idea what this can be? Could this be some really, really nasty virus?
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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but they're listening to every word I say
After two days of not booting...it just booted into Wndows 7. I didn't do anything different.
Edit: I mean...it's still booting, but it looks good so far.
I wouldn't shut it off. If there is anything on there that you want to remove I would do it now.
Something could be loose or somesuch, I'd reseat all the parts whenever you do decide to shut it off.
but they're listening to every word I say
It booted up. It actually looks pretty clean. Except, of course, for two "registry booster" programs that inexplicably found their way to her computer.
I'm cleaning them now with Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot and whatever else. She doesn't really have anything of note on there...most of her data is (thankfully) on her external hard drive. Why? Because last time this happened, I asked her to please, please, please, please, please not store sensitive data on C: and she has apparently listened to me.
And yeah the keyboard thing was apparently a loose connection. I was trying to diagnose her PC at like 10:30 PM last night with a cold and I guess I wasn't very diligent in my diagnostic process. I plugged the keyboard into a different USB port and it worked fine.
edit: Thank you for the responses.