Home Page
   Articles
       links
About Us    
Traders        
Recipes            
Latest Articles
damn idiot boy's broken his netbook
Page 1, 2  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> IT Matters
Author 
 Message
toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 5:39 pm    Post subject: damn idiot boy's broken his netbook Reply with quote
    

the request for assistance is at the bottom of this. bit bear with me, i do need to rant first.

So, the beginning of last year, i purchased a perfectly working, but second hand so affordable netbook for son. it's handed over to him with instructions to update the anti virus, scan regularly and do his other housekeeping.

a few months ago, the sound on it stops working, he's told how to deal with fixing that and dosen't bother. so i don't either, if he can't be arsed to help himself, then he can go without.

so today, he finally starts complaining that it's not working like it should and i finally get the machine off him. he admits that avg disapeared off it months ago and until today he's not bothered thinking about replacing it. i look and there's a LOT of unrecognised processes running.

so, i start uninstalling stuff that dosen't belong. toolbars. stuff that is supposedly identifying itself as anti virus but not any sort i can recognise. ask him to complete the rest that he can see, pass the machine back to me and i'll have a look.

i look up and he's playing a game on it.

apparently he's doign this to pass the time while avg is installing.

i demand he turns off the game. get the machine off him and found he's done less than half the list he should have done of the uninstalls. i also suspect he's uninstalled stuff that should have been there. cause his excuse was 'i removed everything that hadn't been used in ages. not the criteria we were looking for my dear.

so, i finish the uninstalls. and we set up a virus scan. first look through nets a few tracker cookies, 3 trojans and half a dozen high risk rougues in system32/drivers. last lot need manual removal.

set another avg scan that he bitches about doing. got to 54 known threats and counting. when it bluescreens.

son finally admits he's done none of his housekeeping at all. ever. he throws a fit at me. this is all apparently my fault. cause he didn't listen when i told him what he needed to do. he rants and sulks. i give him no sympathy. give him half an hour to sulk, then tell him why it's his fault and he accepts this. Ok, he screwed this up but he is admitting responsibility. thats a start and I don't think this is terminal. here's the point.

1. the files i removed from system32/drivers. was careful to ensure they were the files identified by avg. but considering that a scan after their removal turned up 50 previously unseen threats, there may well be something interesting going on here that has caused ME to make an error in deleting one of those files.

2. hoiked the battery after the bluescreen. it bluescreened again. rinse and repeat. next time xp gives me the option of safe mode. i take this. it gets down at least a couple of pages of what ti's doing to install xp before it goes. I'm therefore diagnosing a buggered OS. possibly linked to point 1.

anyone seeing any major error in my logic here?

now need to check diagnosis, will do this

1 into bios, set to usb boot. find or create a new ubuntu stick and test system. this will tell me if it's a system fault. i think unlikely. but can someone tell me if i can access the HD windows is installed on using this? or is this going to be similar to not being able to read an NTFS partition from '98.

2. . i'm thinking recovery disk. parents have XP installed. create recovery disk off their machine. run that and see if i can fix xp.

i don't have all the paperwork from the machine and i don't have the win key from it. it was one of those stuck to the bottom and ti's worn blank. otherwise i'd torrent xp and reinstall using that key.

or any other ideas. been a while since i had to do this stuff

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you can, do a system restore to a good known point - which sounds like it's some time back. Unless disk space starts to run short, the system restore mechanism (the 'volume shadow service') will keep a goodly history of restore points (generated automatically on windows updates).

A.

cir3ngirl



Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 4846
Location: Cirencester
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I took my friends son laptop back to factory settings. Having looked on youtube first for what to do.

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 5:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

which will need that recovery disk, right? there might be something on there, there might not. IDK.

it's not short on space. i asked him about that and was told there was at least 80gb free space. although that was asking him, so maybee IDK>



Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sys restore does not need a recovery disk - it's an automatic process and built into XP onwards.
A.

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

ok. quick google is only giving me instructions from within windows. assume i'll need to find or create that bootable usb?

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

No. Not sure exactly where it'll be under XP, but under Vista it's Control Panel -> Backup and Restore.

You're looking for a link to access System Restore. Once found, you can pick from a (potentially large - see below) list of dates. Choose one, follow the instructions, and the restore process will commence. Expect to leave the machine doing it's thing for some time.

A.

Important - on Vista, if there are lots and lots of restore points, the system restore user interface can appear to be doing absolutely bugger all whilst it takes an age to build the list of restore points. Be patient, don't interrupt it, and let it do it's thing.

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

i can't get into xp. at all. it bluescreens partway through boting into safe mode

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

and i just scratched my head and a nit the size of a small prawn fell off

Nick



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I made some killer Marie Rose sauce last night. Want a recipe?

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Nick wrote:
I made some killer Marie Rose sauce last night. Want a recipe?


i think i draw the limit of adventurous eating somewhere before breeding livestock on my head

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Nick wrote:
I made some killer Marie Rose sauce last night. Want a recipe?


Yes please! I love a good old fashioned prawn cocktail.

Hairyloon



Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

toggle wrote:
i can't get into xp. at all. it bluescreens partway through boting into safe mode

Isn't the option for the last known good configuration on the same screen as the option to use safe mode?
But if it won't boot to safe, I doubt that'll work.

nats



Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 2374
Location: Swindon but not a Swindonian
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you can boot from an XP "disk" (either a bootable XP image on a USB stick or using an external disk drive - netbooks don't have DVD drives do they?) then you should be able to do a repair of XP. NOT from the recovery console (that's NASTY!) which is the first possible repair option but going through pretending that you are going to install XP afresh it should find the current install and say something along the lines of "you are being a bit silly here you already have XP on this. D'ya want me to try and fix it?" Select EVERY option possible within that and you'll be amazed what you fix. Then install Malwarebytes, and run that in safemode. (you have to install in normal mode).

HOWEVER (and it's a big one) I have found that often I can't find this option. I still haven't worked out if it's not on the disk that I am using at the time or it's something to do with the install I'm working on. If you can find it then this is your best bet.

If you can't, and you have enough disk space and you have the XP code to initialise a new install of XP then you can install a second copy of XP to boot to, use that to save any files etc, then format and fresh install. Either which way it's a PITA and I suggest extra chores for a very long time.

Nick



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 13 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Jamanda wrote:
Nick wrote:
I made some killer Marie Rose sauce last night. Want a recipe?


Yes please! I love a good old fashioned prawn cocktail.


Squirt of Heinz ketchup, good mayonnaise, lemon juice, black pepper, Tabasco (although last night it was a decent slug of Nandos piri piri sauce). Probably not the classic recipe, but worked.

Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> IT Matters All times are GMT
Page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2
View Latest Posts View Latest Posts

 

Archive
Powered by php-BB © 2001, 2005 php-BB Group
Style by marsjupiter.com, released under GNU (GNU/GPL) license.
Copyright © 2004 marsjupiter.com