Boot problem

[mrice256]

Hi

A family member attempted to download the Lime Wire software from the web onto her Dell Inspiron 1300 and has caused a problem. After the machine had slowed down considererably, it was powered off but we have not been able to reboot it since.

The reboot gets as far as a few seconds of the XP loading screen and then a blue screen indicating a 0x00000024 problem.

If we try to boot up in safe mode, the we get the same but with a listing of files, the last being MUP.SYS.

The blue screen advises chkfix (or something similar) but I can't even get to the prompt.

The DELL diagnostics program does pick up anything unusual.

Any ideas where to go next?

Thanks

[Jeremy]

Take the XPCD that came with the Dell (if one did), boot from it and perform a repair install. This will not affect your files. Sounds like they downloaded a virus from LimeWire and it hosed the OS. Always nice.

If the repair install gets you up and running again and you manage to get into Windows, do the following:

Spyware:

Download, install and update both Ad-Aware SE Personal v1.06R1 and Spybot S&D v1.4. Do full system scans with both and clean/fix any infections they report.

Viruses:

Download, install and update Kaspersky Anti-Virus v6.0.2.621. Do a full system scan and let it clean anything it reports. Reboot if an infection cannot be initially cleaned/deleted.

Kaspersky's trial lasts 30 days. If you wish to use this product for one year legally, use the AOL version labeled ActiveVirusShield.

Note: For ActiveVirusShield, enter your e-mail address here for a free 1-year activation code. Your e-mail will not be subjected to spam.

If you prefer freeware then use Avast! Home Edition v4.7, or AntiVir v7.00.04.13. The latter has an even higher detection rate than Kaspersky and NOD32. For more information about anti-virus products, please visit http://www.av-comparatives.org.

Use CCleaner to clean out the temp/cache files on your PC.

If you have Norton installed, please use this tool to remove it.

Use jv16 PowerTools 2006's Registry Cleaner on Aggressive Mode to scan, fix and remove invalid registry entries. Be sure to make a backup prior to removal.

Note: The developer of this software, Jouni Vuorio, created one of the first registry cleaners back in the late 90's which most of the dozens of other registry cleaners out there nowadays have duplicated. The 2007 release contains brand new features for the registry that will eventually be copied to other products later on down the road.

Afterwards, use the Registry Compactor feature to defragment your registry. Many people don't believe this benefits performance at all, but it does.

Note: When you remove an entry from the registry an empty space (gap) is left behind. Because of this, the registry will gain in filesize the more that is added to it, but regardless of how much you remove, the filesize will never decrease. Windows is always reading through the registry and it takes longer to perform operations the more gaps it has to skip by to reach the key it needs to. This is essentially the same concept as disk fragmentation.

Use JKDefrag v3.8 or a trial version of Diskeeper, PerfectDisk, UltimateDefrag to defragment your HDD(s). Make sure to perform a Boot-Time defrag upon next reboot well.

Edited April 21, 2007 by Jeremy

[mrice256]

Many thanks for this. Searching through the stack of CD's, I don't appear to have an XP CD from Dell. Where would I be able to get one from - are they available to download?

Regards

Martin

[[deXter]]

You can restore your DELL to the factory settings by using the Dell™ PC Restore Utility.

[sofolo]

to repair your installed copy of windows you must use the same CD u have used to install windows in your computer, if you used a different CD it wont work with you!

jeremy was helpful