windows would not start

Hi all, Comp fine one day then the next it would not start, black screen after the initial beep and lines of text on the screen but no action after that,I could start it from original disc after doing a memory test, that takes an hour and a bit of a PITA, so saved piccies and favourites, and did a reinstall, I am now in trouble with her indoors cos have lost a favourite tool bar:rolleyes: and it wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't visited soooo many of those sites we/I shouldn't be looking at:;:B cos it picked up a virus, I don't know, a virus can be picked up from anywhere cant it? emails mostly? anyway why would windows not start is the guts of the question:?
Thanks in advance,


Pete

Sorry Pete I am no help with your problem, but I did have a guy from India ring me yesterday, he was very concerned about my computer which had some serious viruses that only he could repair once I let him connect to my computer.
He ended up hanging up after I gave him the runaround.

Pete

Not a lot we can tell for sure from the info you gave us, but there's a couple of things that may help avoid it in future.

- toolbars are often the baddies. There's very few that don't include some form of malware (advertising junk) and make a mess of your PC, or worse, are the carrier of an actual virus. Tell the other half she can't have any at all.

- on viruses - all viruses are is another program, but one written to self-replicate. Some programmer somewhere decided to feel big by trying to get attention by destroying other people's windows installs. You can get them from anywhere, but p**n sites and pirated software sites are the primary source. Install a good anti virus and make sure it stays up to date, and avoid these sites. You should be in the shed playing with a different type of wood anyway :D. Never ignore it if it says something isn't safe. I'd suggest Avast Free.

- why wouldn't windows start?. Could be one of a million things, from a corrupted file to you having something plugged into a USB port. I know my PC sticks at the same place if I forget to remove my iPod before rebooting. The corruption may not be virus related at all, it could just be bad luck or the result of a program crash or a power outage shutting the pc unexpectedly etc.

Cheers
Andrew

It would not surprise me if the toolbar was the culprit.

Toolbars belong to a class of software referred to as 'install monetizers' (google it) - ie they are installed by other (sometimes useful) supposedly free software on a pay per install basis (the company with the useful software gets paid for every toolbar that gets installed along with their software).

Toolbars can provide a number of useful features to advertisers and other internet scum, such as tracking user activity, changing search results and even misdirecting links and URLs.

The toolbar software (since it connects to the web by itself) can be an easy target for hackers as it doesn't get the same sort of security scrutiny and code checking that web browsers get; even reasonably reputable toolbars (such as the Ask.com toolbar) provide yet another security hole for hackers to exploit.

Google Toolbar Security Warning | Search Engine Journal
How do I remove Security Toolbar 7.1?
Upromise Savings -- At What Cost?

I've been visiting dodgy warez sites for many years and I've never picked up a virus from them; but then, my web browser doesn't run ANYTHING on a site without my explicit approval.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ironwood

Sorry Pete I am no help with your problem, but I did have a guy from India ring me yesterday, he was very concerned about my computer which had some serious viruses that only he could repair once I let him connect to my computer.
He ended up hanging up after I gave him the runaround.

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I think he might have rung me as well, I was not convinced that he was in Aus when the phone says OVERSEAS but he could give me a NSW number that I could call, yeh right, He had no idea about the weather so I think I left him hanging, he eventually hungup.

They probably only have to get a small number of people vulnerable enough they call to make it worthwhile.

Pete

Thanks for the replies, I didn't know toolbars were such baddies, I have AVG anti virus, with the 2012 version you get there toolbar (or it was an option) so you would think that there toolbar ought to be allright:;

Pete

The phone call from the indian has been doing the rounds. Was down the shed and my wife came down saying she had an indian lady caller frantically trying to tell her we had a virus on our computer. I asked my wife to ask if she was from our service provider to which she didn't answer. Told wife to tell her to ring me back when i'm not busy, never heard back. Am handy enough to fix all viruses we have had on our network (kids) so was sure it was a money making or info extracting call.

I haven't had one of the phone calls but have heard from a lot of friends who have. So why can't you tell them the computer is on when it isn't and when they can't connect offer to fix their's for a price. Should be good for wasting some of their time and a good laugh.

Not really enough information to tell for sure. Only getting to the black screen indicates that the PC could not boot. This could be something readable in the boot sequence prior to the drive with windows installed. Typically the sequence is cd rom then c:\. If you have an USB drive in the sequence before C:\ you will get some text telling you drive:\ is not a boot drive..... If it just did not start but will if you put the Windows disk in it is possible the boot sector or the allocation tables on the hard drive are damaged. Both of these are bad. The fact that you can still read the drive once you get the PC is started is hopeful. You should make sure you get your data off of the drive asap. If you have the knowledge replace the hard drive do so and copy your data to the new drive. There is plenty of sites that will tell you how to do this.

The reason for the failure could be anything. Virus, hardware failure etc. If you have antivirus, a firewall and have Microsoft Update enabled then it is most likely to be something installed by a user. Toolbars should be kept to a minimum, they often use a lot of the PC's horsepower. Less is best is a good policy.

Steve