Help help help with laptop

[savageman25]

Ive got an IBM think pad laptop with windows xp on it, for a few days now its been getting really slow and kept coming up with 'infected file' warning, that id send to the virus vault, to find it was a trojan in 'documents and settings', tried everything to get rid of them as i had 118 of them and couldnt do it, went to use it yesterday, and it took about 20 minutes just to let me sign in, it usually takes about 3-4 minutes from turning it on to getting to my documnets, adter 45 minutes! it eventually loaded my desktop, but as soon as i click anything it just freezes and then after abotu 20 minutes the screen goes blank and i cant do anything.
I was jsut wondering what i can do, as i dont have an xp disk and wanted to no if its possible to wipe the hardrive or what ever it is to reset it all????

[Shaun_23286]

I don't know the correct name for this but its actually a virus inside of a fake virus. The first warning you get about the virus is just a fake but then when you click the option to remove using your anti-virus, it actually unleashes the 100+ trojan's you have now. I had the same problem a year or so ago and the only option is to rebbot your systems. This is what i got told by Packard Bell technical support. If you didn't get a reboot disk with your lappy there with be an option on:

Start -
All Programes -
Accesories -
System tools -
System restore.

Then just follow the instructions mate. Apparently its because the virus itself had got into your anti-virus software so when it is saying they have been removed, they havn't!

Hope this helps.

[savageman25]

ok will try that, only problem is that it seems to freeze when i click on start menu

[Shaun_23286]

In that case then, remove the hard drive from underneath of your laptop (only a few small screws) then when you first turn the computer on, at the bottom it will say 'press delete to enter setup'.. Press delete, go to the boot menu and change the boot device from hard drive to any of the other options. that way it isn't running the hard drive and the infected programmes and should give you the freedom to reboot without freezing.

[Shaun_23286]

sorry it could actually be ' press escape to enter setup

[savageman25]

sorry if this is a stupid question, but how do i tell which is the hardrive, as underneath laptop is quite a few screws and i dont want to remove somthing i dont need to

[Shaun_23286]

It should be a small plate on the underneath of about 4x5 inches (roughly) if you take a cover off you will be able to tell if its the hard drive. it looks like a silver plate with (usually) a circular piece of plastic in the middle, looks a little like the back of an old floppy disk.

[savageman25]

only small plate there is a one bout the size you said, but underneath is a blue plate thing, with 5 black plate things on it, with one long black one as well.
Otherwise, all the other screws will inscrew the whole bottom off the laptop

[Donutt]

What model of Thinkpad is it?

On the bottom of the laptop there should be a label with all kinds of info - have a look for "Model No" and post it here. I can talk you through removing the hard drive.

If you are looking to re-install XP, let me know which version of XP you have (don't need to know license key - DON'T post that on the forum!) - just the version. XP Home, XP Professional, etc. It'll be written on the green-ish microsoft label.

I can send you a copy of the right install disk - that's allowed, as long as you have the right install key. If you don't have the MS Licence key, you'll have to buy a new one.

A license key looks like this

[savageman25]

its xp proffesional with the green sticker ont he bottom, is that the key?
Cant find model number but got this on bottom
type 2373-8RG S/N99-R4AT3 04/09
At the bottom of the screen its got T41
Or on the green label its got
the product key number and an 8 digit number up the side, not too sure which one is what as i dont want to post the number you told me not too

[JCJC]

On most laptops a small amount of the drive is retained to store the operating system files for backup, you may or may not be able to see this. Do you have your personal stuff backed up ?

[purpletimbo]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...IGR-50021.html
There you go

[savageman25]

i removed the hard drive, and when i first turned it on, it said 'press the access blue ibm button' to interupt normal setup
then it came up start up interupt menu
press one of the fo,lowing keys to continue
esc to resume normal setup
f1 to enter IBM BIOS Setup Utility
f12 to choose temporary startup device
i chose f12 and it brought up the boot menu
these are were the optoins
ATAPI CDO:/CDRW UJDA775-(SM)
Legacy floppy drives
PCI LAN: IBA GE Slot 0208 v121

if i can finally manage to get to the start up menu and rebot, do i reinstall the hard drive just before i click reboot?

[savageman25]

anyone?

[Themaddog]

Set the boot device to CD get a installation disc and reinstall a new copy of windows on the newly reinstalled Hardrive


The time its taken to get to here it would be working again Now


Glyn

Make sure you have learnt the lesson of NEVER opening anything your not sure of

[rowanp25]

another idea could be to get a live dos cd that could run an anti virus. not exactly sure on the setup but im sure someone on here should be able to advise......... errrrr the windows reinstalls prob gonna be your safest bet as already said but id make sure you format the disk with a propper editor ( g parted can be run as a live cd just make sure you format your hd to ntfs and label it boot or windows will refuse to install)