Perplexing computer problem

[endezeichen]

I built a computer for a friend about 3 months ago. A few days ago, I ran trojan remover on his computer (great program) and it found something suspicious in the registry. I googled it, found it to be "suspicious" and removed it. Like an idiot I didn't back it up, still don't know if I should have. I also partitioned his hard drive, adding another partition for his music/docs. I tried formatting it through Windows a few weeks ago and it simply wouldn't work. So just the other day I decided to use partition magic, which worked.

Anyway, now the problem starts. Within an hour of performing this maintenance his system became extremely slow, to the point where it was unusable. I restarted and was stuck at the CMOS logo. This happened a few times. I don't see how this can be related to the registry or Partition Magic, but I used a few registry repair programs, which found over 200 errors. Problem still was not fixed. I ended up reformatting the computer and ran Orthos to test the cpu and ram. All was going well for a few days, then the computer started to bog down again. Now, I can't even reformat with Windows XP, it gets stuck somewhere in the process.

This sounds like a hard drive problem to me, but I can't figure out why it was getting stuck on the CMOS logo. How can this be related? Is it possibly a RAM problem? I plan on heading down there tomorrow with some of my own components to test, but where do I start?

Sorry about the long post, I appreciate any advice. Thanks

 

[roadrunner197069]

Your friend is probably going back to the same questionable sites after you fix him up. Tell him guit pirating stuff or looking at porn.

 

[Shadow703793]

Listing full specs would help. But I believe it's:

1. HDD (highly unlikely a virus since the OP couldn't re format with Windows)

2. Check to makesure that if the HDD is a SATA2 drive it is running at SATA2 speeds, I have seen SATA2 drivers having problems running at SATA1 speeds.

3. Could be driver conflict /virus etc.

 

[jitpublisher]

Your friend is probably going back to the same questionable sites after you fix him up. Tell him guit pirating stuff or looking at porn.

Uh, yeah. roadrunner197069 has hit the nail on the head.
You are going to be fighting a never ending battle with this one.
FYI.....those registry cleaners and other programs like them are totally useless, and far more times more than not you will end deleting critical files from your system. Leave your registry alone. Use the program removal tools to remove programs and a good driver cleaner.
Other than that, don't use registry cleaners! They simply don't work very well. Some of them are a virus themself. They are completely useless. Don't use them. Okay?

 

[rodney_ws]

The fact that you reloaded the PC and it worked fine for a few days and THEN bogged down again suggests that the user of the PC is doing this to himself/herself. I've seen this time and time again... some people just like to click on everything they see... a pop up appears and they just know that whatever it's advertising they need... a few clicks later their system is hosed. If you REALLY want to validate the source of the problem, tell your buddy that you need to take the PC home with you and reload it there... keep an eye on it... use it... and if it works fine for you, well I think you know where the problem lies.

 

[Murissokah]

Agree it might be caused by the user. Just to clear something, if you somehow corrupted the MBR or some HD blocks of the HDD, that might cause your system to lock at CMOS logo because it can neither read the disk nor find it to be corrupted. You can re-format, re-partition, clear boot sector and ultimately do a Zero-Fill (may take a very long time depending on disk size). Try Hiren's boot disk, it has a lot of utilities that can help you with this.
You will never be able to safeguard this pc so long as the user is actively infecting the pc over again. Try to keep an eye on everything that adds entries to the startup key in the registry (via msconfig). Keep an eye on running processes. Might try a NETSTAT to see active connections on the box. Just be watchful and you can solve this (In my experience I find AVs and virus/trojan removers to be more of a hassle than the virus's themselves).

 

[endezeichen]

Well the thing is, I know for a fact that my friend is not going on questionable sites. I've ran hijack this, winsecurity task manager, etc. I don't really see anything suspicious. He even never had viewpoint media player on his system (damn that thing to hell) However, a virus in the BIOS? I've never heard of that, but I DID flash the BIOS. Is there a chance that it can be hardware failure or are you all sure it's in fact some sort of virus?

 

[Grimmy]

Perhaps the HD is going out, so you should take some steps in finding that out. Try going to the manufacturers (whether is Seagate/Western Digtial) website and see if they have a program to test the HD.