Archive through December 07, 2002
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: The return of The Return of the Gripe Thread (ARCHIVE): Archive through December 07, 2002

Car54

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 06:55 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
once you get to the C if you type WIN, does it do anything?....going from A to C is exactly
what I was thinking... I was able to do that when mine was down. Then I could go to my directory and copy all my documents and stuff.

When you go to C can you do DIR and see what EXE files you have to work with...is there any kind of start.exe type thing...

Crossfire

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 06:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Bummer, that's not a whole lot to go on. I guess you can't even try the press and hold F8 key thing to try booting into safe mode?

Best of luck on that. I'll post again if I think of something clever.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 06:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Car,

I tried WIN already. Nothing. I didn't see a start.exe file, but I'll try again. I'm willing to poke around and see what works.

The only problem when I type DIR is that the first part of the list disappears. I've never known what to do about that. Is there a way to retain the whole list on the screen, or look at it in parts?

Draheid

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Weinermr: Do you by any chance have a bootable antivirus CD that you could run to see if you have a virus that's causing your problems?

Do you have a Win/ME system CD that you can try to recover from without having to do a full recovery??

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Crossfire, yeah it looks pretty grim. Thanks both of you for giving me some ideas. I'm running another virus scan right now, and when it is finished, I'll try some of these other suggestions.

Car54

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
depends on your version of dos...try /p for page or do XDIR /p... or do DIR *.EXE

I am wondering if we could get you to the startup program that comes with the machine if you could run some diagnostics and see what is happening.

This is an HP right? That was what mine was...this sounds kind of familiar.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Draheid,

I ran the virus scan using the Norton Systemworks CD and it came up with nothing.

I then made Emergency Disks on my unaffected desktop PC (which use the UPDATED virus definitions), and I'm running that virus scan on the laptop right now. So far, it hasn't found anything.

I don't have a Win/ME CD, just the System Recovery Disk that came with the laptop, that will overwrite everything.

Thanks for pitching in. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Car,

Yes, it's an HP. I ran all the diagnostics I could get to, but they checked out the hardware, not the software. I can't get to anything past the BIOS, and the hardware diagnostics.

I will try your suggestions after the current virus scan finishes its thing.

Draheid

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Weinermr: When you get to the A prompt and then move to the C prompt, try changing to the windows directory by typing:

CD C:\Windows and press Enter

Then type WIN and press Enter

Since your booting from a drive other then C, your system doesn't know where to find the files in the C:\Windows folder because a PATH hasn't been setup.

See what the above does for you.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:16 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This all sounds very promising. I'll give it a shot.

Assuming I can get Windows to load, I will still have to track down the intruder program and get rid of it, or the problem may keep happening.

Car54

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
If you get Windows up, tho, you can do a restore back to yesterday..or before you think the problem happened. I have done that before.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 07:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Good idea Car. I'm eager to try, but I'm going to be patient and let the virus scan finish, just in case.

You are all the greatest. I came here to gripe, and I got answers. Thank you SO MUCH.

Spygirl

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 08:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
i have a gripe...why can't people just come here to gripe without getting all this wonderful help???

sneaks quietly out the back door

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 08:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Spygirl. You're a peach.

Draheid, I tried your suggestion. I am fine until I hit enter after typing WIN, and the PC just freezes. Nothing further happens, and I have to reboot.

I searched the C:\Windows directory for the right .exe file, and don't know which one it is. There are 104 .exe files, and even some that start with WIN, but I haven't found the right one.

I will keep on keeping on.

Crossfire

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 08:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Try getting into safe mode using the Ctrl key.

Turn the computer off.
Press and hold the Ctrl (control) key.
Turn the computer on (keep holding the key, don't let go).

Hopefully a menu will appear, try selecting safe mode from that menu. If windows will start in safe mode, you can then use the built in tools to solve this problem. Let me know if it works and we can then talk about the system rollback features.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 09:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Crossfire,

Good try. I get the menu and choose Safe mode. Next I get the same dark screen as before, except for the following words with the cursor blinking below it:

Windows is bypassing your startup files.

And everything just stops there. My files must really be hosed (that's a technical term).

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 09:21 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I tried booting in "Step-by-step confirmation" mode. I get this far:

Process the system registry Y
Create a startup log file Y
Enable SMARTDRV disk cache Y
Loading and initializing IFSHLP.SYS driver...

And then it freezes.

The same sequence happens in both "Safe mode" and "Normal" mode.

Crossfire

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 09:23 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Mmmm, that is no good. There's just no catching a break on this one it seems. Thinking...

Crossfire

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 09:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh, hang on... you posted the extra info while I was replying. :)

Crossfire

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 09:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hmmm. ifshelp.sys, that is the installable filesystem support driver for things like vfat and cd filessystems.

Try the same thing again, but selecting N for smartdrv. (That will make things slower, but you might be able to get the system started.

You might also have a peek in the log that is created. I think its called bootlog.txt and will be in the c:\ directory.

Weinermr

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 10:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Crossfire,

I selected N for SMARTDRV and it still stalled in the same place.

Also, there is no BOOTLOG.TXT file, either in the C:\ directory or in the C:\WINDOWS directory.

Draheid

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 10:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Weinermr: You could try disabling those by renaming the two files being executed. I'm not exactly sure where they are on your computer, but I'd bet they're in the C:\Windows folder.

Type ren ifshlp.sys ifshlp.old and press Enter

Then type ren smartdrv.exe smartdrv.old and press Enter

Now try booting again.

Edit to add: If you can't find them, type CD \ and press Enter

Then type DIR IFSHLP.SYS /S and Press Enter

Note where the files are located and CD to that folder to rename them.

Draheid

Friday, December 06, 2002 - 10:09 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
P.S., Weinermr: Can you get into chat with the computer you are using? Or do you have any instant messaging programs on there like AOL Instant Messanger or MSN Messenge or ICQ?

Might be a way to 'talk' through your struggle! :)

Kstme

Saturday, December 07, 2002 - 07:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
See? It does pay to gripe here!

One resolution to "one" of our problems with our slumlord. I called our Health Dept. yesterday and found out SHE MUST take care of the pigeon problem IMMEDIATELY! I called her with this news and we are getting estimates next week. I believe she was more frightened by the words Health Dept. and Public Response than by our concerns. She doesn't know if I made the contact or a neighbor made the call. Keeping my fingers crossed!

DJ...I can't thank you enough for the Nevada link. It saved my rear when the man from our Public Response quoted the area of the tennant/landlord act that pertained to this and I actually knew what he was talking about!!

Weinermr

Saturday, December 07, 2002 - 08:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Yes Kstme, it does pay to gripe here. I'm glad you have at least part of your problem taken care of.

Car and Crossfire, thanks so much for your help last night. As Draheid already knows, my laptop is hopelesly affected and infected by whatever program I unwittingly executed on it. Most of the Windows files are obliterated, some replaced by a cryptic text message that says you should "Bring peace not war".

I'll be running my System Recovery disks sometime today, and I'm also considering upgrading the laptop to Windows XP as a holiday present to myself.