PC problem

[HankB]

I have a 4 1/2 year old Dell desktop running Windows XP. Yesterday while surfing (at the Jiffy Lube website, of all places!) my AVG antivirus gave me a popup warning of a trojan virus - I clicked on it to remove it, and got a warning that "forced removal could result in system instability."   I clicked on it anyway    and my computer shut down.

Now when I attempt to reboot, it gets as far as the WinXP splash screen and shuts down, giving me the dreaded blue screen with the message:

STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000135 (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system has been shut down.

It won't boot in Safe Mode either, and for some reason I never made myself an emergency repair/boot disk like I did for my previous PCs, which ran earlier versions of Windows.   

I recently downloaded a BitTorrent client, so all I can figure out is that I picked up "something" along the way that was either nasty, or which AVG considers to be nasty. But now I'm kind of dead in the water.

I've done recent (within the past few days) full scans with AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot S&D with nothing found, so maybe whatever was lurking just chose that time to become active - I dunno.

Suggestions? (Other than nuking it from orbit . . . )

[vaskidmark]

Suggestions? (Other than nuking it from orbit . . . )

Det cord? 

   Waiting for the 'puter gurus to show up and mumble strange incantations.

stay safe.

[Jim147]

All of the Dells I have bought came with a Windows disc and a driver disc. If you can find the windows disc you can pop it in and try to fix to os without wiping everything out.

jim

[HankB]

That was my thought too, since I remembered reading somewhere that Windows XP discs would also function as boot discs . . .

So last night I dug out the Win XP install disc that came with the computer, put it in, turned on the PC . . . no joy, same result. 

[lee n. field]

I have a 4 1/2 year old Dell desktop running Windows XP. Yesterday while surfing (at the Jiffy Lube website, of all places!) my AVG antivirus gave me a popup warning of a trojan virus - I clicked on it to remove it, and got a warning that "forced removal could result in system instability."   I clicked on it anyway    and my computer shut down.

Now when I attempt to reboot, it gets as far as the WinXP splash screen and shuts down, giving me the dreaded blue screen with the message:

It won't boot in Safe Mode either, and for some reason I never made myself an emergency repair/boot disk like I did for my previous PCs, which ran earlier versions of Windows.  

I recently downloaded a BitTorrent client, so all I can figure out is that I picked up "something" along the way that was either nasty, or which AVG considers to be nasty. But now I'm kind of dead in the water.

I've done recent (within the past few days) full scans with AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot S&D with nothing found, so maybe whatever was lurking just chose that time to become active - I dunno.

Suggestions? (Other than nuking it from orbit . . . )

"How do you perform a reinstallation of Windows XP, sometimes called a repair installation? "

F12 on startup on a Dell will bring up a boot device menu.  Pick CD.

[HankB]

"How do you perform a reinstallation of Windows XP, sometimes called a repair installation? "

F12 on startup on a Dell will bring up a boot device menu.  Pick CD.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight.

[Brad Johnson]

If you get it repaired enough to get it it to boot, do a full backup of all your data and then proceed to blow away and reload Windows.  I've done many a repair on XP.  In none of the cases did the machine remian stable for long after the repair was done.  It's FAR faster, simpler, and more reliable to get it booted, get your data, then reinstall.

Brad

[Perd Hapley]

I have a 4 1/2 year old Dell desktop running Windows XP. Yesterday while surfing (at the Jiffy Lube website, of all places!) my AVG antivirus gave me a popup warning of a trojan virus

Suuuuuuure.

[never_retreat]

Yesterday while surfing (at the Jiffy Lube website, of all places!)

I bet the site sold lube but was not of the Jiffy variety.

[HankB]

I bet the site sold lube but was not of the Jiffy variety.

I knew the website would amuse some folks when I wrote it . . . was just wondering who'd be first to comment. Sure enough, it was our scapegoat . . . and never_retreat followed close behind.

*****************************

In any case, reinstallation using the original CD seems to have mostly worked - a few minor burps during repair (e.g., prompting me to find a particular file) but in due course the computer began booting normally again. Of course, it only had IE6 which was a bit balky, though Firefox worked OK. Updated AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot S&D and ran all scans with no nasties found. Other programs (Excel, Photoshop, Cadkey, DVDFAB, etc., all worked OK.)

IE8 downloaded via Firefox didn't install for some reason, but I managed to get to Windows Update indirectly with IE6 and got SP3 and IE8 installed, so now the browser is working. Of course, there were 90+ updates to install . . . got a bunch this morning before work, but still have about 70 to go. What fun!

Still, I'm glad I kept important data (Tax forms, budget spreadsheets, etc.) on separate hardcopy media.

Thanks to Jim, Brad, and Lee for their advice.