PC will not update

[superdave1984]

I posted a HiJack This log in the virus forum but maybe somebody will have an idea. It belongs to a friend at work. Will NOT update. Goes to the windows update page, "checking to see.." blah blah blah. Then an error message that it could not be displayed. A couple days ago when I tried to do updates, it opened the update page fine and said there were 76 critical updates. Tried to update, the download would hang at about 2.5 MB. I thought maybe her internet connection was just slow so I had her bring it here. Now I get "the page can't be displayed" message. She has no anti-virus and AVG will not install. It gives me an "AVG has encountered a problem" message. I went to trend micro and ran their online scanner. It found a bunch of minor stuff and deleted them all. Then went to CA and ran their online scanner and it found nothing. Tried to install CCleaner, same message as I get with AVG. There MUST be some kind of malware on this thing but if I can't install anything how do I get rid of it without format/reinstall? I was thinking that maybe there was some windows installer package that was needed, but I can't get the windows updates. She doesn't have a real XP disk, just the recovery CD that came with the computer. I have an XP Pro SP2 disk here, can I format/install with it and use her COA key? She said she doesn't have anything on it that she would be upset to lose.

EDIT: She has XP Home. And one more weird thing, sometimes when I try the windows updates, the theme changes during the scanning process. The taskbar goes from blue to grey like the Windows Classis theme.

 

[EricB]

wipe the drive with powermax. use her recovery cd so that she will have a legit version. a pro key won't work with home anyway. do she have an I386 folder on her c drive? you can use that to install xp. you will need a bartpe or erd commender cd too.

 

[superdave1984]

Yes there is an i386 folder.

EDIT: More info from the owner. She bought it from Wal Mart last year. It was a returned item. New in box, but the original CD's and manual were missing. Her "recovery CD" is just programs that came bundled with the computer, not the actual XP disk or even the real recovery CD. Kill me now...

 

[Ste]

If you use Spybot tea timers feature turn it off then try to update.

<had similar problem..

 

[EricB]

check it for a winnt32.exe file (it should be in there). click on it to see if it will initialize a xp install then exit it. copy that I386 folder to another partition or Usb Hdd.

get the bart or erd cd. if you want to keep her computer on one partition boot from one of these cds and delete all of the folders inside of c drive except for the I386 one. then skip to 2 below

if you want 2 partitions boot from your xp pro cd and create 2 partitions. format the first and immediate eject the cd before it start copying files. hit enter than f3 to exit.

erd has the ability to create and delete partitions but xp doesn't recognize them for some reason. I haven't tried to make partitions with the bart cd.

now boot from the bart or erd cd. copy the I386 folder to the c drive. you don't have to do this but this may setup a little easier and saves you a couple of extra steps during the install process.



2. click on the winnt32.exe file, then follow the instructions. it's like a regular install now.

 

[superdave1984]

I went with your suggestions Eric. WINNT32.exe was corrupt. Tried the .msi that was there as well, and figured I had nothing to lose. came back with with a hal.dll missing or corrupt error. Since I have no XP home CD and it no longer boots to Windows, looks like a format/reinstall is the next step huh? Might be the best method anyway at this point.

 

[EricB]

yeah. it might be.

what kind of computer is it?

 

[superdave1984]

eMachine
Trying to keep up with it and get my work done. Makes me look really busy today. Used killdisk on it, got XP on, now getting SP2. I know, my XP disk is OLD.

EDIT: AARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. SP2 encountered an error. Now IE doesn't work right.
Another format because I don't wanna fool with this.

 

[superdave1984]

Well, after a complete format/reinstall of XP, I get to SP 2 download. It installs. Then the thing goes into a continual reboot loop. Running memtest now. This is frustrating..

 

[EricB]

try slipstreaming sp2 into xp with nlite or autostreamer