HELP, comp crashed

[hckyplyr000]

My computer seems to have crashed and i do not know what is wrong. First of all, i built this computer myself, it has an AMD Athlon 2100+ with a mobo that came in a combo set, which is about 10-11 months old. I have a geforce2 vid card, a 10.2G HD for my OS, and i use a 120G for all my storage. I have a cd burner and a dvd burner. Also, i typically leave my computer on for long spans of time.

Now it started when i made the mistake of letting some people use my computer during a dinner party at my house. The next night, a navy blue screen appeared that said something like ' windows has detected a crash and has turned off windows to protect your PC' it said that if it was the first time, remove any newly installed HD and or software. It said other things and a lengthy coded message which i was unable to copy down. On the bottom it said something like 'beginning physical dump of memory.' Since i had not installed anything in a very long time, i decided to turn it off and let is sit, and try to reboot. So after i booted it up again, it remained at the screen 'Checking NVRAM....' It did not do anything else. So thinking that the problem lay with the memory, i removed it and reinserted it, and it worked. However, the same blue screen happened less than 24 hrs later. I was told that i needed to reset the CMOS, which i did. Since i thought that the problem was solved, i left my computer on. Again, not too long later the same thing happened. So once again i tried to reset the CMOS, thinking that it did not reset the first time. However once i tried to start the computer, it was not able to detect ANY of my four drives.

Now, just several days ago, we realized that someone had obtained one of our credit card numbers and used it in great britain. So after that i realized that there is spyware on my computer, which probably made my computer crash, which was installed onto my computer by one of the people using my PC during that dinner party. (When i had managed to start the computer after the inital incident, my dad had used my computer to order something online.) Now i am not sure what i need to do to fix it, whether it is a mobo problem, or something else. What can i do? Also, where does the spyware install? In the registry? On OS files? Or does it spread? Basically i am wondering if my second 120G HD that i use for storage is still safe to use.

PLEASE, I BEG OF ANYONE AND EVERYONE TO GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE, I APPRECIATE IT VERY VERY MUCH!!! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

 

[Juice Daddy]

hmmm... I suggest a reinstall if you are up for it(reinstall windows after backing up everything on cd's[most effective way to fix something] ), but if not, then there are a few things you could do about spyware. the first thing you could try is to go to start > run and then type msconfig, and along the top should be a tab that says startup, click this and uncheak things that you are unfamiliar with, if you use a virus scanning program then do not uncheck anything that looks like it relates, same with windows, and you can undo whatever you did in msconfig just by re entering it and turning stuff back on... and you could also download or buy spyware removeing software(I recomend Ad-Aware SE Personal)..., as for the blue screen, you could run a system restore which you can get to by right clicking on my computer and selecting properties, then clicking the system restore tab...

hope this helps...

 

[hckyplyr000]

Well as one of my main problems as i stated, my computer cannot detect any drives: neither of my HDs or my CD or DVD drives, so i cannot reinstall, nor can i access windows.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

It is possible the BIOS went corrupt. If you know how to flash a BIOS with a updated version safely, and you have done it before i suggest trying that. Also make sure the PSU is still in good shape, like how man watts are it and whats the AMPs on the 12v+ rail???

 

[daappleby]

oh man that's awful! Try pulling the battery out of the mobo count to like 10 and put it back in. That will set the bios to defaults. Disconnect all but your os HD and see if you can get it to boot. If so do the spyware/virus scan remove all the baddies and then shut it down and add one cdrom see if it will boot etc to isolate each drive to see if they are the problem. If you have another HD/CD connector around try using it to see if its a bad cable.

Post back with results.

 

[Juice Daddy]

"However once i tried to start the computer, it was not able to detect ANY of my four drives."

sorry, missed that part..., have you tried to disconnect different parts and leave just the ones you need and then tryed booting... ex: leave the hd ram vid and processor attached and unattach everything else, then try to boot it...

try resetting your bios...

to do this you have to enter the bios by pressing f2 or del when you turn the comp on and say load defaults...

if all else fails then try removeing your cmos battery for about 30min and then reinsert it and try booting then,,,

good luck..

 

[m3trj]

Unplug everything except the RAM, video card, PSU, and CPU and try to start the computer. Then if it boots properly, add the other stuff one by one, to find out where the problem lies.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

One stick of RAM is all thats needed. If that dont work swap that RAM stick with the next one. If it did add another stick of RAM, fails take it out, it pass's add another till all your RAM is back in there.

 

[hckyplyr000]

I appreciate everyone's comments, however before anyone wrote these comments, another person on a different forum gave me some different advice, can anyone verify this? :::

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Two problems may exist here. That blue screen you got that was issued at boot up is known as a stop code. Now, you may have noticed long numbers similar to this:

{0x00000100001AFF,0x00000110001AFF, 0x00000110101CFF}

This stop code signifies a portion of the RAM that has corrupted. However, be thankful the RAM did corrupt. Certain spywares try to rewrite themselves my caching in the RAM as an executable script (a virulent script as some may know it). What will happen as a protection basis is the RAM will not allow certain sectors to be written to in order to stop a massive corruption across the sheet discharge plate.

In order to start the PC properly, you need to first discharge the RAM. First, unplug the PC. Then hold down the power button for 45 secs, then open the side panel and remove the CMOS battery for 20 secs while still holding down the power button. Then remove the RAM. Then put the RAM back in, battery back in, start the PC, and enter the BIOS. Hold down CTRL, ALT, A, then hit enter once. Then type this in EXACTLY as you see it:

0001FFF10001110

Then hit enter. Let go of CTRL, ALT and A now. Then go into your RAM settings and correct any timings you need to correct. The sheet discharge protection should now be cleared and the transistor lockers will reopen to the locked sectors. Once you get into Windows in SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING, go to this URL:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Download and RUN stinger on the PC, and get rid of anything it finds. Then go to this link and DL and RUN this:

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Sear...subj=dl&tag=but

RUN it and clean everything up. Now, here is the important part. The RAM is cleared, but the CPU L2 Cache can still be infected by a variant trojan virulent script. If this is the case, it can redownload without you even knowing. To clear the L2 cache in windows, hold down CTRL ALT and A together once again IN WINDOWS on the main desktop screen. Hit enter TWICE while holding them. Type 1010101 and hit enter TWICE. Release all keys. You are done. See if that fixes it.
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So far, i have gotten to the Stinger phase, but unfortunately it is taking a very very long time. I am not sure if safe mode is supposed to be that slow, but it is. Can anyone verify this information? Do i have to use stinger in safe mode? Or can i attempt a normal boot and use it from there? If all else fails, I will try all of these suggestions immediately.