Is it a virus...?

radio1_mike · September 25th, 2002, 10:40 AM

Any suggestions??

My comp has been acting a little slow and a little weird. And my A: drive is in MS-DOS compatibility mode. Which is weird because I have nothing in my config.sys file, and only a bootup for NAV2k1 in my autoexec.bat.

So I started with some diagnostics...

1) Checked for trojans w/the Cleaner. None were found.
2) Checked for viruses w/NAV2k1. No viruses were found, but my boot record was modified.
3) Before doing 1 and 2-- I defragged my hard drives and ran through msconfig and sysedit to see if everything was okay.

Then...

Norton AV said, we can restore your saved MBR. I said fine. But the computer is still running slow and erratic.

So, I decide to restore my MBR from a Windows98 startup disk, I reboot and go into my bios to try to set it to boot from floppy, but there was no option. The last time I checked there was....

What gives...? While I am always up for a good wiping and reinstalling of my C: drive, this time, I'd rather not.

jman01pa · September 25th, 2002, 10:51 AM

Running anything in ms-dos compatibilty mode will cause your system to function real slow. Basically you blew your drivers out for your floppy somehow. See if you can remove the floppy disk controller in device manager and then reboot. this should let windows redetect it.

Are your IDE drives running normal or are they in ms-dos compatibilty mode too?

I am sure that others will give you better solutions than I have. Good luck...

fatal xception · September 25th, 2002, 11:07 AM

I recommend trying a online virus scan just to make sure you're clean.

After that remove the floppy in device manager, reboot the computer and go into the BIOS and reset it (write down any changes prior to resetting) then boot into Windows.

But maybe, before doing the BIOS thing, read this article:

Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks

Good luck.

jman01pa · September 25th, 2002, 11:27 AM

This online Virus scanner works quite well...

http://housecall.antivirus.com/

radio1_mike · September 25th, 2002, 12:07 PM

Yah, thanks guys...

The IDE Controllers are fine. All IDE drives are running ok. Just the floppy has a problemo. Also, I did neglect to mention, that I did uninstall and reinstall the floppy drive controller as per M$ suggestion...

All to no success.

jman01pa · September 25th, 2002, 01:08 PM

Try removing the floppy controlling, then disabling the on board controller in the bios. Tehn reboot letting Windows sort out the new changes then go back into the bios and enable it again. Once windows it may fix everthing...

If your running AMD then maybe updating the 4-in-1 drivers

Or

Intel by updating their version found here

radio1_mike · September 25th, 2002, 03:15 PM

That's a good idea... I'll do that. I would not have thought to diable the FDC, and try it that way...

Thanks!

radio1_mike · September 25th, 2002, 07:29 PM

Well, now for an update-

1) The easy thing was, well, I plugged in power to the FD. I checked the data cable but not the power... Oopsey.

2) I removed the FDC in Windows and BIOS.

3) Rebooted. Restarted. Put the FDC back in BIOS then Windows.

4) Restarted. Booted w/Win98 startup disk. Did an a: fdisk/mbr then a c: fdisk/mbr and finally a c: sys.

5) Lo and behold ran AV check and a Trojan check and everything is hunky-dory.

I know there's a moral w/this story, it probably has to do w/#1; but I am to embarassed to say it!