Dell Studio XP 1645
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with Service Pack 1
So a few days ago, my computer suddenly failed to be able to boot. So I formatted the partition Windows was installed on and did a clean install from a Windows 7 CD. Everything appeared to be fine.
A week later, my computer is having troubles again. After an initial failure to boot (with the computer not even being able to successfully enter into start up repair), Windows does successfully start now, but the start up time is VERY long, and for about 5 to 10 minutes after reaching the desktop, the system is still very slow and unresponsive, up until a certain point where it is responsive enough to be useable but still noticeably slower with intermittent slowdowns.
I’ve tried to reinstall Windows from the CD again BUT, I cannot successfully boot from the CD. Like what happens when I try to access startup repair, I get a black screen for a long while and then eventually the harddrive light stops blinking which I can only assume means nothing is happening. So I try an the “upgrade” reinstall option by launching the installer from inside Windows (since a “custom” install, aka a clean install cannot be done when Windows is already running), but some time during the second stage of the installation, I get the message “Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation” and I have to exit the installation.
So I considered perhaps I may have a malware infection of some sort. Avast Anti-Virus did not find anything but it gave me a message that a certain files were not able to be scanned…suspicious??
message that a certain files were not able to be scanned...suspicious??
[b]files that can not be scanned[/b] for reason given by avast, are just that, it does not mean they are infected
and it is normal to have some files that can not be scanned
this is the most frequently asked question in the forum so lots of info if yoy forum search
malware removers are notified and will check your logs tomorrow…
Okay, but I have never gotten this error before, and the error perfectly coincides with the occurrence of all the other symptoms my computer is experiencing, which is why I thought it might be an issue.
The reason why I have so many out of date drivers is because last week I reformatted my system and reinstalled windows since it was completely unable to boot up previously.
If there is no apparent malware, could these problems be hardware related? What can I do to be 99% sure there is no malware on my system?
I explained the problems in detail in my first post, but to summarize: the computer takes a very long time to boot and is performance is slower than usual. This happened about a week after I formatted and reinstalled Windows. I had reinstalled Windows because previously because my computer could not boot at all. Also, in its current state, I cannot reinstall Windows 7 at all from the installation disk, or access startup repair, due to various errors as explained in my first post.
Now your PC will be restarted 6 times. With a two minute pause before the tool runs after the desktop loads
After the second reboot the MS defragmentation program is running and is placing the files into an optimized layout, so that Windows will boot up faster
The last Reboots are training of readyBoot. After the training is finished, you’ll notice a huge improvement in startup.
Readyboot
The logical prefetching described above is used when the system has less than 512MB of memory. If the system has 700MB or more then an in-RAM cache is used to further optimize the boot process (it’s not clear from the book whether or not this ReadyBoot cache completely replaces the logical prefetching approach or just builds on it, my assumption is that both work together).
After each boot the system generates a boot caching plan for the next boot using file trace information from up to the five previous boots which contains details of which files were accessed and where on the disk they were located. These traces are stored as .fx files in the
Is there any kind of prompt to let me know when it is done? After entering the command in the command prompt, it did restart once and I had to log in, I saw the 2 minute countdown and after that went and did something else but I don’t know if it has restarted 6 times since I did not stop at the log in screen more than once.
It will require permission for every boot on completion of the two minute wait period, whilst the programme is running you will need to be present at every boot to allow it to elevate
After the two minute period, it simply asks that I need to elevate but there are no buttons to click or anything, then that dialog box disappears and nothing happens afterwards. There are no further prompts. During the two minute countdown, the dialog box has the buttons “finish” and “cancel”. Do I need to click finish? That’s the only thing there is for me to actually interact with.
Also to add to the list of symptoms, it seems that certain services are not starting up consistently/correctly. Avast sometimes completely doesn’t start, or it starts but is disabled, or it starts but is only partially enabled. Sometimes MBAM starts, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the sound starts disabled until I set a volume, this time, I don’t even see the volume icon on the tray.