A am an old (and very tired by now) fellow who never posted anything anywhere and who feels a bit lost in a forum.
The problem is that my Windows XP Pro that always was on auto-update suddenly quit on me. Some virus must have disabled the Avast Home Edition that ran with auto-update on, the up to date free Zone Alarm, Spybot S&S, Ad-Aware, and almost every other program including all *.exe files I wanted to open, and I also couldn’t access the Internet (cable) anymore. Every time I tried to run a/any program the screen went black and Windows rebooted.
I did get lots of various different warnings, often that this or that file is corrupted. One warning was that that the file 'ashWebSv.??(most likely DLL) has was modified and that the program never changes and therefore the file has to be corrupted, or the True Vector Internet Monitor has shut down…, ZIclient.exe corrupted, DBA.TEMP corrupted, and so on.
Formatted the hard drive 5 times, intended to make a clean install but every time it turned out the same, I just can’t load Windows; it always stops after having completed about 61 - 62% of the loading routine. I did put another (different) hard drive in with exactly the same results.
I am now using my daughter’s PC and my son’s server to mail for help. Is there a virus, worm or whatever that is able to somehow mess up the BIOS? If not, the only other thing I can think of perhaps is having some (two weeks old) faulty RAM memory.
Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.
The problems only started after using the new memory?
Are you using the new memory + your old one together?
In relation to question 2, mixing ram should be avoided unless they are identical > same brand and batch (revision).
Its like buying wallpaper, if you dont get the same batch they dont match. With ram, the chips on the memory stick could be different, ie they dont match and are incompatible with one another.
Many times mixing does work but at the expense of some performance loss.
if using the new memory module(s) only, try running memtest,
Welcome bp to the forum,maybe try removing new memory and try with the old memory,or check to be sure the memory modules are fully seated into slots. Good luck
Lots of thanks for all the friendly and helpful advice.
Forgot to mention last time that the cable Internet also goes through a SMC Barrier router in addition to all the other software efforts to keep the system clean.
My son took the box to his home last night and took 512MB out of a slot and tried it with the remaining 256MB, WinXP loaded without any problems this time. He then today checked the memory five times with Memtest and the 256MB checked out alright evey time, the 512MB showed error-error-error… all the time; all components, including the memory, were bought at the same time, same place and worked fine until two days ago.
I would be extremely happy if he’s right and the whole mess was solely due to this faulty memory bank (that has a lifetime warranty).
What still worries me is that WinPatrol said time and time again said that a DLL wants to hop into Windows’ Start and that I idiot eventually accidentally let it in while wildly clickung on the many popups that continually appeared without end.
I am paranoid now, can’t help it, still think that there is more to it, will find out sooner or later…
Is there a program that an average fellow is able to use and that can find out if the BIOS (on the chip and that portion of the instructions that may or may not be on the hard drive) is still being manipulated by a possible virus, even after a full formatting?
Thanks again,
bp
There are a lot of free memory test tools… you can Google for MemTest (www.memtest86.com)
Why don’t you go to WinPatrol and remove the startup entries (allowed and banned). Then it should ask you again on next time you boot or start WinPatrol.
Yes, there is, but does not seem to be the case here… just a stick memory fault maybe.
Many good ideas, thanks.
Had WinME until a short while ago and therefore am quite used to make clean installs every two or three months… WinXP, what a difference in every way!
The reply re WinPatrol is a good one too; but this would have happened anyway because it’s always the third program being installed after Avast and ZoneAlarm, then SpywareBlaster, and so on. My God, nowadays everything wants to show up in the start menu and slow me down and also most likely report home.
I am now (almost) sure that the ram was the only cause of my problems; if so, you won’t hear from me anymore and I’ll be busy for the next two or three days installing a million programs and adjusting everything to my liking.
Thank you all for your help!
bp
You are also right assuming that I know a bit about computers, as a matter of fact, I do know a lot about many things, BUT I am just shy of 70 and,as you’ll too find out eventually, one becomes quite forgetful. I try to compensate whenever I think that I don’t know enough (anymore) about whatever it is by putting pointed questions, etc into my (Opera for years) browser’s address bar, relearn-learn, combine whatever I (still) know with what I lfound out by browsing the Net and such am able to fool many people with my ‘knowledge’.
I do like to help people and always did so in various ways whenever I was able to.
But to help someone in a forum, are you kidding me? This poor guy or girl most likely would be a heck of a lot worse off with my ‘help’.
However should I ever feel that I actually could contribute I will do so, I’ll watch you fellows periodically and one never knows what could happen…
8)