computer with xp will not start up

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Dear Window Secrets readers,
I need some help here to get my wife’s computer going again.
The computer is a Dell 4600 with Windows XP from Dell.
She was surfing Face book and all of sudden a window poped up
saying something to the effect, backdoor.
She was concerned, so she ran McAffee anti- virus scan.
She then rebooted the computer and nothing came up.
Pressing F8 upon start up did not bring up the option for safe-mode.
I was going to go back in time with system restore, but nothing on the screen.
It seems like when starting up the hard drive wants to start but doesn;t.
Could the boot order have been changed?
Could I have a Trojan Horse?
Is the hard drive fried?
Any help out there?

d_may

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Is the Hard drive recognized in the BIOS settings?
Use F2 key during bootup to get to the BIOS.

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In the Bios, check the boot order. Is it possible a CD or DVD was left in the optical drive and the boot order is set to CD/DVD before HD?

Do you have installation disks, or a recovery partition? It’s possible a repair install would help. The 4600 is relatively old, it is possible you have experienced a hardware failure. Have you ever replaced the Cmos battery (open the case and look for a battery that looks like a watch battery) This is what keeps power to the Bios. It may be that a $2 battery will solve the problem.

If this is a more significant hardware failure you may need to visit a repair person. The cost of repairs could be higher than worth. It’s possible a replacement is in order. Good luck.

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Dale, a happy 2011 to you and your Lady, and her machine too.

It would be quite coïncidental to have the machine die after this “backdoor” event. It is possible but very strange. This said, it does look like malware and you might have to redo the machine, you do have a clone of it, do you not ? Well, lesson learned, after you get it going, do a clone.

You can try placing the XP install disk into your CD-ROM and after it starts, keep going throught the options until you get to the 2nd (R )epairs and select that. It will try to recover if at all possible and your Lady will think of you as an expert. I ignore if this is a good thing but try anyway.

Be good…………Jean.

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Hmmm, no feedback yet…first order of business would have been to try and boot with a LINUX live cd and see if the system operates from the CD, that you can access the hard drive and see the info. If so, probably caught a virus or some other system corruption occured. If the LINUX CD has a hard time or can’t see the internal drive, probably a hardware problem as in dead drive or video card/mobo-related, but so far, we don’t even know if the BIOS option comes up (“nothing on the screen” means different things to different people).

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Byron, a nice day to you.

Linux disk ? Do you not think that trying the repair route would achieve the same, ie: see if the system will turn ON with a CD in the device. The repair function of the install CD is quite compleate. I ignore the level of knowledge in Dale, why mix up the cards ? Very humbly written.

Be good……..Jean.

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Sure its possible Jean, like I said we don’t have any feedback so we don’t know if there is anything at all coming up on the screen at boot, so we’re in a barrel with the lid closed. You grab a shotgun, I got mine…lets start shootin’ (not at each other) and see if we hit sumthin’!

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I unloaded both barrels (over and under 16 gauge) Don’t know if I hit anythin or not!

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OH! Didn’t know you were in here too! Watch out for Jean, she’s over trying to knock out the bunghole plug for a peek!

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You mean one hour and 7 minutes into this thing and I’m watching The Crying Game!!!
I probably give myself away with some references here and there, but I most definitely do not resemble one Byron Tarbox in any way…he was one of the soldiers killed, along with good old George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn. Have y’all ever been there? The most striking thing for me besides the topography of the battlefield and surrounding environs, was how small those dudes were! Seriously, one of Custer’s uniforms was there and he’d be shopping in the boys section if alive today.
So from now on, call me Lorretta Tarbox …oh dear, there I go with the identifying references again …
So you see, from my perspective, I make no anthropological attchments to any moniker, because who knows if they’re even remotely associated with reality. I just go for the funny image words can build upon in the mind’s eye, and God bless me, I was laughing out loud!!

Did you hear Ted blasting away over on the left? I hear he may have made his own bunghole! Says he still (oops….she?…it?) can’t see a darn thing though.
Sorry I’m getting carried away now, target bombing my own funny bone does me a world of good but this probably isn’t the right place.—straight face…..straight face—ok, back to serious.

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