Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)
My roommate was online yesterday afternoon & downloading the necessary system
files to play a public on-line game (ex - Yahoo! Games), and he called me at
work to say that the computer wasn't working anymore. I got home & let the
computer startup just to see if I could figure out what was going on. Here's
what happens:
The system displays a Windows ME startup screen - which I thought was weird
considering my roommate & I are both currently running XP on our computers -
and then jumps right in to what is perceived to be a Windows ME environment.
However, prior to that, none of the regular system bios messages (ie - hard
drives being recognized, keyboard & mouse drivers being loaded) are displayed
on the screen.
After the "Windows ME" (in quotes b/c obviously it's really not) opens, it
displays an "Updating system hardware database" window, which errors out
around 75%, and then the following window pops up:
CMDINST
An error has occured in this program. To keep working anyway, click Ignore
& save your work in a new file. To quit, click Close. You will lose all
information entered since your last save.
<Close> <Ignore>
If you click Close, the following window pops up:
CMDINST has caused an error in setupx.dll CMDINST will now close. If you
continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer.
<Close>
Clicking Close brings up:
Error
Could not find symkrnll. (Error 1)
<OK>
In addition, I also get a warning that one of the system files for the
antivirus software is missing & that program needs to be reinstalled. After
clicking ok, the system hangs & there is no further action of any kind.
If you hit CTRL ALT DEL, it brings up a list with two items:
Lucomserver_2_6
Cmdinst
Both of which, if you click close, the system says aren't responding.
I took the hard drive out & scanned it on my computer with Norton AntiVirus
& SystemWorks, but amazingly, no viruses were found on it...just a bunch of
adware that I removed...I also had Windows check the drive for errors, and
found none.
From what I can tell from watching as the virus & system scans ran, all of
his software is still on the hard drive, but I'm stumped as to what is going
on.
Is this some kind of Trojan horse environment? How do I fix it? At this
point, I'm thinking the best course of action would be to try to salvage what
he needs from the hard drive & then re-format it, but I thought I'd check to
see if anyone out there could suggest something other than that which would
fix it.
I appreciate anyone's help!!
My roommate was online yesterday afternoon & downloading the necessary system
files to play a public on-line game (ex - Yahoo! Games), and he called me at
work to say that the computer wasn't working anymore. I got home & let the
computer startup just to see if I could figure out what was going on. Here's
what happens:
The system displays a Windows ME startup screen - which I thought was weird
considering my roommate & I are both currently running XP on our computers -
and then jumps right in to what is perceived to be a Windows ME environment.
However, prior to that, none of the regular system bios messages (ie - hard
drives being recognized, keyboard & mouse drivers being loaded) are displayed
on the screen.
After the "Windows ME" (in quotes b/c obviously it's really not) opens, it
displays an "Updating system hardware database" window, which errors out
around 75%, and then the following window pops up:
CMDINST
An error has occured in this program. To keep working anyway, click Ignore
& save your work in a new file. To quit, click Close. You will lose all
information entered since your last save.
<Close> <Ignore>
If you click Close, the following window pops up:
CMDINST has caused an error in setupx.dll CMDINST will now close. If you
continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer.
<Close>
Clicking Close brings up:
Error
Could not find symkrnll. (Error 1)
<OK>
In addition, I also get a warning that one of the system files for the
antivirus software is missing & that program needs to be reinstalled. After
clicking ok, the system hangs & there is no further action of any kind.
If you hit CTRL ALT DEL, it brings up a list with two items:
Lucomserver_2_6
Cmdinst
Both of which, if you click close, the system says aren't responding.
I took the hard drive out & scanned it on my computer with Norton AntiVirus
& SystemWorks, but amazingly, no viruses were found on it...just a bunch of
adware that I removed...I also had Windows check the drive for errors, and
found none.
From what I can tell from watching as the virus & system scans ran, all of
his software is still on the hard drive, but I'm stumped as to what is going
on.
Is this some kind of Trojan horse environment? How do I fix it? At this
point, I'm thinking the best course of action would be to try to salvage what
he needs from the hard drive & then re-format it, but I thought I'd check to
see if anyone out there could suggest something other than that which would
fix it.
I appreciate anyone's help!!
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