Aug 26, 2011
How to Remove a Boot Sector Virus
Friday, August 26, 2011
Has your computer been acting strange lately? Has it been running slow,
or telling you that your computer needs a certain program? If so it may
have a virus. This article deals with ones called Boot Sector Viruses.
These reside in the sectors that are used to start your Operating
System. Some of the viruses that reside here also store themselves in
your BIOS so they are booted even if you have just done a clean install.
·
1
Remove any important files and shut down the infected
computer. You can not begin to remove the virus if it is in the RAM in your
computer.
·
2
{START EDIT: NO boot virus are found in the BIOS - IF
your BIOS was infected by a virus your motherboard would likely be bricked.
·
3
There is NO NEED TO FLASH BIOS! Please read the many
comments regarding this- these are found by clicking on the "Discuss"
Tab!!
·
4
END EDIT}
·
5
Download a new BIOS flash utility (must be DOS version)
and copy it to the bootable floppy you are about to make. These are found
at your motherboard manufacturer's website, or at your computer manufacturer's
website if you have a laptop.
·
6
Create a bootable floppy from an uninfected computer.
Then write-protect the floppy.
·
7
Remove the HDD (hard disk drive or hard drive) from the
infected computer. Be sure to remove all of the static electricity from
your self by touching the metal case.
·
8
Start up the infected computer with the bootable floppy
in the floppy drive.
·
9
When the BIOS setup page shows, Push the corresponding
key to change the Boot Order.
·
10
Set the Floppy drive to boot first.
·
11
Flash your BIOS with the utility provided by the
manufacturer. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER UNTIL THE UTILITY TELLS YOU
THAT YOU CAN. DOING SO BEFORE IT IS FINISHED MAY PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR
COMPUTER.
·
12
Find out which company manufactures your HDD and see if
they have a utility that will do a Low-Level format. This part is important
because it deletes everything from your hard drive so that no one can get it
back, including the virus. Some common HDD manufacturers' tools for doing this
can be found here.
·
13
Run the formatting utility provided by your HDD
manufacturer.
·
14
Reinstall your Operating System of choice however you
want to.
·
15
And the most important thing is that you use trusted
software to remove the virus or else you will be in more trouble (if that
software is infected).
How to Figure out Why a Computer Won't Boot
Friday, August 26, 2011
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| This article tells you the basics of how to determine if there is faulty hardware in a computer and/or if you have configuration problems..... |
·
1
Turn off your computer. Make sure that all of your
wires in the front and back I/O panels are securely plugged in...
·
2
Turn your computer back on. Observe.
·
3
If the computer simply does not turn on, or you get
stopped at a screen with white writing and a black background, and does not say
"Windows" anywhere in it, it is a hardware problem. Shut down
your computer again and go to step 4. If you get stopped at a screen that says
"windows" anywhere in it, and it asks you to choose an option for
booting, read the directions on that page and select the choice based on them.
·
4
If you are not good with computers, skip to step 7.
If you are comfortable with working with the inside of computers, turn it back
on and get in the BIOS. From here you should be able to set everything back to
normal. If you have overclocked, set your FSB and vCore down to stock levels.
If your BIOS has the button, you can press "restore to factory
settings" instead of having to go through every menu. This button should
be near the back of the bios and is lodged between "exit and save
changes" and "exit and discard changes."
·
5
Try to start the machine up again. If the computer
didn't start up in the first place, check the power switch lead. These little
buggers can frequently get unknowingly moved to adjacent pins if you're not
careful. If your power switch lead is in the exact right place, check your ATX
12v auxiliary connector. It is a common mistake for people to leave this
unplugged.
·
6
If nothing is working, take the little battery out of the
motherboard (should be near the southbridge) and wait 2 minutes for it to fully
discharge. Remember, you must have the power cord unplugged to do this.
(You should never have cords attached to the back when you're working on a
computer.) If you know which jumper on your motherboard is the clear CMOS
jumper, you can just move that to the other two pins and wait 5-10 seconds to
clear your CMOS. If absolutely nothing works, try taking all of the parts out
and putting them back in. This shouldn't be just one by one. Take all of them
out, lay them on a table, and put them back in, making sure to connect all necessary
wires. Also, make sure you're grounded by simply touching the power supply
every 5 minutes or so.
·
7
If you have a hardware problem and you aren't comfortable
working on the inside of computers, take it to a local computer repair shop and
describe your problem. The better you describe what's happening on your
end, the easier it makes their job on their end, and it'll be cheaper because
they won't have to screw around with it as much. If you're a brave soul, and
would like to try to fix it yourself, go to the next step.
·
8
Open up the computer. You should be able to do this
by unscrewing the screws on the back. DO NOT unscrew any screws that are near a
fan. Only ones on the very outer rim of the back.
·
9
Do not touch any components of the computer except for
the power supply, which you should touch every 5 minutes to keep yourself
grounded. This will keep you from frying any of the expensive components in
there. One electrostatic shock can bring your system down for good. The power
supply is located in the upper left hand corner, and it should have a lot of
thick wires coming out of one hole in it.
·
10
There should be a little battery located near the bottom
of the motherboard. It is shiny, and could be hidden by some wires.
Remember to not touch the motherboard or any other piece of circuitry unless
you have to. Locate the battery. It should be in a little holster, with a lever
on one end. Pop it out and wait 2 minutes.
·
11
Put the battery back in, making sure it's on the same
side it was when you popped it out. If you don't remember, try putting the
shiniest side up. This did not clear any memory on your hard drive, only the
CMOS memory, which you don't have to worry about.
·
12
Put the computer back together and plug it in. If you
have any more problems with starting it up, bring it to a computer repair shop.
There are so many complicated things that could have gone wrong that it would
take hundreds of pages to explain them all to you. But remember, computer
repair shops will take advantage of you. They're just like auto mechanics,
trying to raise the price out of your own ignorance. Be skeptical and be aware.
How to Reduce Computer Problems
Friday, August 26, 2011
How can I prevent Computer problems? This is a question that people
have asked me many times. The entire process of reducing Computer
problems can be bundled under the banner of Computer Preventive
Maintenance.
It is not rocket science and you don’t have to be an IT professional to keep your PC in a good shape. Any computer user can follow guidelines I have mentioned below and can reduce their PC problems dramatically.
It is not rocket science and you don’t have to be an IT professional to keep your PC in a good shape. Any computer user can follow guidelines I have mentioned below and can reduce their PC problems dramatically.
·
Use a good anti virus program. This is the most important piece
of work in preventive maintenance. Installing the anti virus program is not
good enough. You should do following as well.
· 2
Check the virus definitions date regularly and see
whether it is up to date.
·
3
Set-up your PC to Download and install “Windows Updates”
automatically.
·
4
Windows updates include Operating System patches for bugs
and PC security related issues. These patches can reduce many unknown
computer problems.
·
5
Install a good anti Spyware program to detect Spyware.
·
6
Install a Personal Firewall. Most of the anti virus
programs are bundled with a Personal Firewalls these days. Personal firewall is
a barrier between your PC and the outside world. This can prevent your PC from
hackers and Spyware tools.
·
7
Uninstall unnecessary programs installed in your PC.
·
8
Perform Scandisk periodically to check the Hard Drive.
·
9
Delete temporary Internet files every month.
Repair Slow Computer and Speed Up Your Windows OIperating System
Friday, August 26, 2011
Repair Slow Computer and Speed Up Your
Windows OIperating System
Get Rid Of All Malware and Registry Corruption and Get All Your
Drivers Up To Date At the Same Time ... In Other Words, Fix The Problems That
Cause 99.2% of All Computer Performance and Slowness Issues in Minutes Using
The Great Computer Tool; PC Health Advisor!
As a PC repair person, the four questions I am asked most by
computer owners are:
“Why has my computer slowed down so drastically?
"Why does my computer pop up error messages?” and...
“Is there anything I can do to get my computer back to its old self?”
"How can I speed up Windows?"
"Why does my computer pop up error messages?” and...
“Is there anything I can do to get my computer back to its old self?”
"How can I speed up Windows?"
There are three
possible reasons a PC will slowdown and commit errors. However, none of
these reasons are due to any problem with the computer itself. The trouble that
usually causes computers to become slow and develop performance issues, such as
frequent crashing and error message pop-ups, is a problem with the operating
system. It would be very unusual if the cause of slow computer performance
turned out to be a bad RAM stick or a bad microprocessor. When tracking down the
culprit causing computers to behave badly we often look to the following:
First, there could be spyware present
in the PC. If you have a spyware cleaner that is something other than an
old, cheap or free, and you have been using it regularly, your PC problems are
probably not due to spyware. However, if you need a free spyware scan to see if
you have parasites present in your system, I recommend you get one very soon.
The reason Spyware/Malware slows down a computer is Malware is a type of
software and software uses computer resourses when it is running.
Spyware/Malware is always running in the background when it is present. More
details on getting a Free Spyware Scan in a moment...
Secondly, there could be registry
corruption in the Windows operating system. Registry corruption causes
more computer slow downs than anything else. Corruption builds up in a Windows
registry unprovoked and without warning. This will raise havoc with a
computer's performance! It does so because it tells the operating system to do
things that are counterproductive. This wastes the computer's time and makes it
appear as if the computer is slow. The best antidote for this is to get a free
registry scan. More on this in a moment, too...
Thirdly, is the possibility of a mismatched
or out dated device. We usually don't look here until we are sure there
is no registry corruption or spyware. However, a problem driver wll cause
the same exact troubles registry corruption will and Spyware/Malware will,
without actually spying on you, of course.
Namely, the problem a bad driver will
cause will be a slow, poor performing computer. The point is; if you believe
your computer may have a driver mismatch or a bad driver you can get a free
driver scan with the same piece of software that will scan your PC for registry
corruption and Spyware/Malware!
Yes, that's right! You no longer need a
Spyware/Malware cleaner and a registry cleaner and a driver scanner/updater. We now have one piece of software that
does it all. You can now get a free computer scan with PC Health Advisor and it
will scan for Malware/Spyware, registry corruption and bad, missing or outdated
drivers!
Back to the question "Is there anything I can do to get my
computer back to its old self?" Yes, there sure is! In fact, now it
is easier than it ever has been before.
Through
the years, I have changed by recommendations on how to keep a computer up to
speed. I have done so a few times. Of course, I have always recommended people
keep spyware, malware and viruses out of their computer. Even though these
things steal resources and slow down the computer, the big issue with spyware,
malware and viruses is they can steal information about you and this will hurt you while it is
destroying your computer.
There
was a time registry cleaners were unavailable. When some one's registry needed
to be cleaned I, or another technician, would have to do it manually. Cleaning
a registry manually was a lot of work. It was also something that came with a
certain amount risk because if it was improperly done, it could ruin the
operating system altogether.
If
this happened you would have no other choice but to re-install Windows. When
you did you would lose all your information that was saved to the hard drive.
Of course, you would only have lost some time if you had been backing up your
files everyday.
Registry
Corruption Used To Go Unnoticed Until It Was Too Late
Fortunately,
registry corruption in older operating systems, such as Windows 95 and Windows
98, was not nearly as big a problem as it is today. The reason for this is
everything was a lot smaller back then. With today's huge files, registries
have to be kept in perfect condition or the computer will suffer significant
slowdowns.
Many
times, the solution in one of these older computers was, as we elluded to
before, to reinstall the Windows operating system altogether. Perhaps you have
had that done to one of your older computers as it was a very common process.
Other times, if the computer was three or four years old, people might have
decided it was time to get a new higher powered computer. Bring on that
spanking new Pentium II!!!
You
Used To Have To Do It All Yourself!
Until
recently, upgrading a driver was done 100% manually. This meant you would have
to surf the web for the exact right driver, download it and then manually
install it. Probably an even bigger stumbling block to this process was finding
out which driver was causing problems your computer was experiencing. In fact,
many times people would stumble around for months trying to find exactly what
the problem with their computer was before they actually found the driver that
was behind it all.
Now,
we are very fortunate we have PC Health Advisor! It scans for all types of
malware; it scans for registry corruption and also outdated, bad and missing
drivers. If it finds any of this stuff, it can clean it all up. It cleans
malware in minutes, registry corruption even more quickly than that and though
device drivers need to be installed individually, PC Health Advisor will find
which ones need to be installed, download new ones for you and allow you to
install them one by one just by clicking a button.
One
Piece Of Software
So,
you can see my job of keeping your computer running fast has become very easy.
In fact, you can do the whole thing yourself! All you need to do, as the first
step at least, is get a free scan with PC Health Advisor. Even if you need a
malware/spyware cleaner and a registry cleaner and a device driver updater, you
now only need one piece of software!
Note: PC Health Advisor Is
Compatible With Windows 7, Vista And XP Both 32 and 64-bit!














