Virus/System Restore Problem

[invinciblehobo]

on a laptop w/ windows xp pro, i did system restore cuz i had a lot of viruses and i thought it's only bad if the viruses were there b4 the checkpoint-thing was made, but when i did it, no matter what mode of windows (safe mode/normal/...) it always goes "low on virtual memory..." and then it has the popup "drwatson postmortem debugger closed" (send or dont send), constantly, and nothing opens. when i try doing task manager, it has "task manager closed" (send or dont send). overall, i cant open anything. how can i fix this? (please explain)

 

[Trotter]

System Restore does not eliminate anything on your computer. It simply reverts your computer's settings to the snapshot it took at the restore point you choose. All the programs, files, and viruses are still there. All you have done is to change what you see.

The best thing you can do is try to load an anti-virus program on your laptop and clean it up. If you don't have much on the hard drive that you want to save, you can reformat it and reinstall your OS.

There are some good free AV out there. Check out AVG (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download886.html) or Avast! (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html). You can also download trial versions of major AV suites.

Edit: Try starting your laptop in safe mode, and installing the AV.

 

[invinciblehobo]

as i said, i cannot open anything. we have a good AV on our comp, but dont have cds (only reason we got the good AV was when we got roadrunner, their AV was messed up and wouldnt work), i tried doing the map network drive and scan that b4 it was messed, but it did the error message, which i heard was b/c of no Service Pack 2, so how would i reformat and reinstall windows xp pro since i dont have the cd (we have an hp comp)? (can i download stuff, or should i just borrow from a friend (does it matter if they have xp pro or xp home?))

 

[Trotter]

I don't know about the disks and all of that.

Can you access the start menu? Can you get into the Run command? How about safe mode?

 

[invinciblehobo]

i cant get into anything. literally, the only things that work in normal mode or any other mode r turn on, login, logout, and shutdown, or click dont send as many times as i want

i think i can get the xp pro cd 4 the laptop, so how would i reformat the os?

 

[Trotter]

Boot from the CD, and have it reformat the drive, then reboot and have it install the OS.

You need to get into the BIOS to set it to boot from the CD. Hit Delete repeatedly from when you start it up, and it should pull up your BIOS settings. Search around and you'll find where to set the boot order. Set the computer to boot the CD first, put the CD in, and save your settings. The computer should continue on with the boot and boot from the CD.