Old IBM having a tantrum

babystep

We have an old IBM NetVista desktop running XP, that my son used for internet access with a dongle.Unfortunately he fell victim to one of those pop up adds that says you have lots of problems with your PC but this magic programme can fix it!He thinks it was called antivirus 8 (av8)
So now the poor pc wont start up.If you press F8 when it is starting you an get to the Windows Advanced Options menu,but no matter what option you choose,the screen just goes blank.
Please can anyone help a non too teck minded Mum perform a miracle and fix this PC?
Thanks

fwor

Do you have a Windows XP installation CD? If so, a Repair Install (Google will show you how) may get things running again, though you should not assume that this will clear the virus - hopefully just get it running enough to run through the Malware sticky at the top of this forum section.

If not, and he only uses it for browsing the internet, probably easiest just to wipe it and install a Linux variant (e.g. Ubuntu) instead. Ok, he will have to learn a couple of different point and clicks to start a browser up, but from then it will be just the same as on XP (and probably quicker and almost certainly safer). And before you start thinking that will be difficult: it won't.

If you're thinking of giving that a try, download it and run it as a LiveCD first before installing, so that you can be sure it will work ok with the PC's hardware and the dongle.

babystep

Thanks for that answer,the only problems with wiping the drive are
a.I don't have an installation disk(the whole thing was bought 2nd hand)
b.It also has word and office installed that he uses for school,again no install disk.
I do have Windows 7 that at a push I could see if it works but the poor old hard drive and processor are only small(so tiny and old someone told me I was lucky it was running at all with XP!

closed

safe mode with command prompt?

which antivirus software was installed?

Highway61

When you press F8 and select, say, Safe Mode, are you leaving it for a while (a couple of minutes) to see if anything happens?

candtalan

babystep wrote: »

b.It also has word and office installed that he uses for school,again no install disk

Just so that you can consider the options, I can tell you that Open Office is an excellent product and is (almost) fully compatible with Office. Unless he uses unusual facilities, he will find he can read and write, save etc, all Office stuff. So although there might be reasons to stay with Office, compatibility should not be one of them unless you have actually checked it out! It can be downloaded for Windows XP and Windows 7, no problem. Why not give it a try while you are solution finding? It also exports to PDF very well. The site http://www.theopendisc.com/education/ is also well worth knowing about.

candtalan

As mentioned by fwor, the possibility of using Ubuntu is worth considering. Try it out first using the CD as a Live session. Nothing is installed with that, but you do have a full version. If installed you will probably find it runs faster than XP did. There are pros and cons if you have been committed to Windows, however, one of the pros is that a little experience now can offer a lot of options and choice in future. And you still keep Windows.

babystep

Sorry,safe mode with command prompt?I don't:doh: know what you mean!
I tried to get it to boot in safe mode,leaving it for 20 minutes and still nothing.
There was no anti virus:(I was between programmes and was going to install AVG but hadn't got round to it.
Looks like I am in trouble unless I try and learn about this command prompt thing.Any easy learn sights you could recommend?
Much Thanks

closed

when you press F8, what options do you get?



http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

basmic

Sounds like BartPE (link) could be of use to you to grab any needed documents/photos/favourites before doing a clean install of XP.

candtalan

babystep wrote: »

There was no anti virus:(I was between programmes and was going to install AVG but hadn't got round to it.

For information, a BBC techie program a while ago ran unprotected XP machine on the web to see how long it might take before it got into trouble. How long do you think? 8 seconds! http://www.xpmaximized.com/archives/fighting-spyware-viruses-malware.html