My daughter has a computer with which she and I have tryed to provide protection from some of the ugly stuff that is out there. I thought I had her following a regime of cleaning, protecting and mucking out some of the bad stuff still I missed a couple of weeks of follow-up.

I have downloaded and installed the following freeware and antivirus:

Spybot
Adaware
SpywareBlaster
Sygate antivirus
Registry Mechanic

In addition I have done the Windows disk cleanup with a defragmentation within the last two weeks.

After reading Owen's admonition regarding cleaning, I went into the Add/Remove utility and with her help tryed to remove programs which she was not using and were definately foreign to her.

One item which we could not get rid of was an untitled menu bar unfamiliar with either of us which I suspect is part of our current problem. It provides an unstall program which it wants me to download from an unknown site. I think that will be suicide and have not done so.

We had reached a point where we could not successfully complete an Adaware, Spybot, or Reg. Mechanic scan without the computer locking up. Even more frustrating is that this morning the entire computer will not complete a boot in safe or normal mode.

I managed to get a "successful" AdawareSE, Spybot, SpywareBlaster and Reg. Mechanic scan last night. I followed with a HiJackThis scan and log.
Unfortunately, the log is saved on the desktop but I can't get to it. My intention was to send it this morning but its not going to happen.

Although we are not very experienced with solving these problems Jephree and Shadow have helped us before and we trust and would welcome any advice you would have to offer.

Tom Hennings
theaviator@verizon.net

So at this point you cannot boot into Windows?

What is the Operating System? What types of Windows Disks do you have?

What is the make & model of the computer?

What exactly happens when you power on? Is there a Logo screen? a BIOS POST?
Do you ever see the Windows logo screen? Do you ever see a blinking _ in the upper left corner of the screen?
Does the computer do anything? Does it restart?

Jephree:

The computer will not boot past the Windows ME screen. O.S. is ME, make and model is Dell 4100 Dimension.

No blinking in the left corner. It will restart but will only go to the ME screen. The machine drive seems to be caught in a cyclical operation.

We have never had anything like this before and have always had good performance from this machine.

Yours, Tom

And you cannot get the Safe Mode Options Screen? Pressing F8 or Ctrl after the BIOS POST/ Dell Logo?

Dell has few options: You can try Clearing NVRAM. You can try the Dell Diagnostic. You can Flash the BIOS.
I do not see off hand instructions for repairing ME but at this point I would run thru the Dell options first. Do you have some sort of Dell/ME CD?

Anyway here are some excerpts from Dell:

Entering the System Setup Program
Turn on (or restart) your computer.


When the blue Dell logo appears, press <Del>.

If you wait too long and the operating system begins to load into memory, let the system complete the load operation. Then shut down the computer and try again.

Clearing NVRAM
To clear NVRAM for all devices and restart the computer:

Enter the system setup program.


Press the right-arrow key to move to the Advanced menu.


Select the Boot Configuration submenu by pressing <Enter>.


Press the down-arrow key to highlight Reset Config Data. Then change the setting to Yes (see Table 3).


Press <F10> to exit the program and restart the computer.

http://support.dell.com/support/trou...=19&l=en&s=dhs

Dell 32 Bit Diagnostics
http://support.dell.com/support/down...37400&vercnt=4

Dell Dimension System BIOS
http://support.dell.com/support/down...5081&vercnt=10