pc hangs at bios needs to restart it several times`

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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i have i3 540,4gb ram with win 7 32 bit ultimate that was bought 3 yrs back . it was hardly used. i decided to use it now and it started giving me burning smell from disuse which i got checked by a professional.

it vanished on its own as suggested by him after couple of weeks, to come back again for a week and vanished again.
also had winexplorer and media player crashes that got solved using anti malwarebytes. one problem with chrome not working remains despited repeated uninstalling/reinstalling.

main issue now is that it takes me many restarts sometimes getting into boot options by pressing q key to get into those ... suggested by someone and it works (otherwise it doesn't even recognise f2 though used to till recently). although i can exit without saving changes and boot continues.

at other times it will start properly.
yet at some other times if i unplug from socket and wait for 10 sec it starts.

any help on this is appreciated. thanks in advance.

betn had checked harddisk for errors and found none.

latest update is that after cmos reset everything is up and running, didn't find time to update bios but system works perfectly, one problem remains and it is crucial one burning smell reappears again and again after few days, although i have cleaned it up for dust.
is there any way to pin point where it is coming from, it is not from psu but looks like from cpu (by sniffing though i may be wrong) and way to prevent it? cpu max temp is around 56 deg celcius but usually operates around 35-42 degrees. could it be something else near cpu that causes it and how to test it? don't want to burn my mobo/cpu/ram or anything while i can prevent it.
 
Solution

Sam Tyagi

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Mar 16, 2014
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I had a similar problem and the main culprit was a bad capacitor in the psu.Get the psu checked

Also recheck all the connections and just run memtestx86 to test the ram.

generally if pc hasn't been used from a long time,it will give u some problem which mainly arise due to humidity or some capacitor gone bad.
 

kaur123

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thanks for quick reply Sam .my professional had checked the psu last month and given me green signal when i got the burning smell.he had told me the smell would go off on its own as it did . do i need to check again. also what is memtestx86 test and how to do it?
thanks in advance.




 

Sam Tyagi

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Mar 16, 2014
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Sorry for replyin late kaur.

Memtest x86 is a ram test which is needed in order to make sure whether your ram is functioning normally or not.Generally if the ram module is faulty,it will fail in this test.So i recommend you to download memtest from here http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Download the ISO current version

*Note* If you have WinRAR (or similar) installed, it will look like an unzippable archive with nothing inside. Do not open it with WinRAR.

-Go to your favorite CD burning software, and choose to burn from an image file. Simply point to the memtest.iso file and hit the "burn" button.

Eg: Nero>Disk Image or Saved Project>[select the memtest iso file]Ok>Next etc.

-Insert a blank CD into the drive and let it do its magic.

-Presto, you have a memtest bootable CD. Simply leave the CD in the drive and boot from CD by pressing a key (if needed) then running the test.
 
Solution

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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update....
i had stopped getting even bios screen after reconnection everything on my mobo. called a professional who checked with his psu
and he even tested my mobo and told me that it needs repair.he pointed out some wrong connections that i had made on mobo and toldme that may have caused it to die. i thought of giving it for repairs and tested my mobo myself as mentioned on some forums.
and viola with cmos reset my system is up and running again. also , i had read somewhere that bios update may solve my problem and found that indeed there is an update that solves this problem . will do that and see.

will post my update in few days after i do it.
 

Sam Tyagi

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Ok...let's see :)


 

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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Regarding that burning smell coming on and off i think it may be due to dust --on days when air is dusty --since pc was kept near window.

latest update is that i updated BIOS to latest version but still it hangs sometimes at BIOS screen and at other times within windows7 , moreover cntrl+alt+del will not get me to task manager or reset it, i have to reset using reset button .irony is that then it hangs at BIOS..

i think i am still infected with malware since after i copied data from this desktop to laptop using external hard disk, it also starts hanging moreover not able to use chrome at all despite uninstall/reinstall.

i remember the first guy i had called was pushing hard that i buy antivirus saying ur pc may be infected..(.it wasn't i knew well since i hadn't used it at all in the first place )- till he installed and deleted something on it using his pen drive when i was distracted for a few minutes so cant pin point what . i realized this as soon as he left since windows explorer started crashing and other issues i mentioned in beginning.

i saw there were changes to program files folder but nothing was installed, despite he telling me that he is giving me some free software which ofcourse i hadn't asked

anti malware bytes removed some of the virus--is there any virus that is causing hangs at BIOS and windows .
will it go after a reinstall or should i use any other method to remove the virus.


before my bios update,when it used to hang on BIOS screen, sometimes i could see that boot devices in BIOS will not get my hardisk name at all instead priority would be @PATA while there is no device by that name !!! is there a virus that can do that??
couldn't enter into boot devices upon hanging after updating BIOS..

Any Suggestions? thanks in advance
 

Sam Tyagi

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I strongly recommend doing a full format of your hard drive+a hard drive check up using windows diskcheck utility.Do not use any previous backup under any condition.Also check all the connections on your motherboard.
it sounds like a device enumeration issue, something wrong with the hard drive probably. If you try swapping it out for another hard drive you know functions well elsewhere, does it again stall?


 

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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Thanks for your suggestions, Sam.
I would format and reinstall my desktop in couple of days.

could it be that when i used external hard disk, it caused my device boot order to get corrupted?although now when i know that it may cause problems, i remove it before i start my desktop.but even when i was trying to boot from dvd a week ago, it had shown me that @pata whatever that means instead of my dvd or hdd name in boot devices order.


last time my desktop was hanging at bios screen , it gave me cmos checksum error,which again went off with cmos reset.anyway everything is running fine since past 4-5 days.but it is more than a month with new problems every week so i can never be sure.

Read somewhere about some port touching mobo causing similar issue.i secured a port coming from dvd that was not used and was touching mobo. didn't have boot problem since then.hopefully solved it but then can't be sure.
can a virus alter boot sequence?
read about virus that resides in masterboot record i think it said something on those lines. any suggestions on how to remove it since i think it may survive a format.

is there a way to remove the boot sector virus ?i read about it and have a feeling that may be the problem since my hdd shows no errors.is it possible that virus may not go even after a format?

 

Sam Tyagi

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Mar 16, 2014
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­A bootkit is a type of malware that infects the Master Boot Record (MBR).
This infection method allows the malicious program to be executed before the operating system boots. As soon as BIOS (Basic Input Output System) selects an appropriate boot device (it can be a hard disk or a flash drive), the bootkit that resides in the MBR starts executing its code. Once the bootkit receives the control, it usually starts preparing itself (reads and decrypts its auxiliary files in its own file system that it has created somewhere in the unallocated disk space) and returns the control to the legitimate boot loader overseeing all stages of the boot process.
The main feature of a bootkit is that it cannot be detected by standard means of an operating system because all its components reside outside of the standard file systems.
Some types of bootkits hide even the fact that the MBR has been compromised by returning the legitimate copy of the MBR when an attempt to read it has been made.
A system infected with a bootkit can be cured with the TDSSKiller utility(Courtesy-Kaspersky)

Here is the link:-http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/VirusUtilities/EN/tdsskiller.exe
 

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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thank you for your reply Sam. TDSSKiller didnot detect anything.
I got cmos battery failure recently and changed it. Chrome still doesn't work. I want to go for reinstall as i want to ensure i am problem free.
I however have valueable data which i want to save on external hdd. how can i ensure that i can reuse data and not get reinfected
the virus was installed using a usb(by that hardware professional) . i mean when i put my external hdd, it is likely to be infected how do i take care of that.

Also if the virus is still in MBR , how to reinstall /format so as to remove it.

is there any some way that u can suggest to get rid of it.
Thanks in advance
 

Sam Tyagi

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Mar 16, 2014
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Dear Kaur, It is likely that u don't have a mbr virus....maybe the problem is with the hard disk itself. I may be able to help you more easily if we could contact over Skype, Gmail or some social media. Meanwhile, you should take a backup and do a full format of your pc.Incase you need to contact me,my Skype id is-Saurabh Tyagi(masterchief.tyagi@hotmail.com )
 

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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Thank you for your reply Sam. Will try full format and see. between i am still getting stuck at Bios screen sometimes.

will again check hdd for errors.
and ofcourse format it in any case.
will contact you if i get stuck
 

kaur123

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Mar 18, 2014
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Thanks for your suggestions Sam. you were right my hdd and cd drive sata cables were not seated properly and so it would hang at bios.now i put them properly and it looks like i finally solved it.
i did a reinstall and now chrome is working too. however i made silly mistake and feel like i downloaded virus while downloading drivers from microsoft website or maybe my external hdd. ms website didn't have publishers certificate but was secure download with https: .

i know it since i was getting application icons changed in shortcut and windows explorer hanged for a while .i was sleepy and wanted to finish the thing off. silly excuse but it will be big trouble. scanned with antimalware bytes and it did not detect anything.may have been from my external hdd since moment i downloaded browsers on my desktop and connected external hdd for copy paste, i started getting browser crashes, win explorer crashes.

is there any way i can save data of external hdd, it is imp to me (since virus may be present on this).Can you suggest me something on those lines. have scanned it with antimalwarebytes and it didn't show anything.

will have to wait till symptoms show up again.

thanks for your input it was always bang on.couldn't have thought these loose/improper connections myself.
couldn't take your suggestion of not taking data from external hard disk since it was important to me and mostly messed up because of that.
surprisingly, i put same external hdd on my laptop which was also formatted last week and it doesn't have problems till now(only a few days since i did it, this virus takes a few days to activate.) may have been since i didn't copy data only some drivers. it may have to do with i didn't connect external hard disk ever since i installed web browsers ....
not sure on this one though. just a guess.
 

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