Bizarre Computer Behavior

My PC at home is bogged down like a ************ with spyware and is now at the point where it doesn't work (though I'm not positive it's due to spyware). What it does is boots up, then ends up with a black screen and just a mouse cursor on the screen. I can move the cursor around, but clicking it doesn't do anything. I boot it up in safe mode (with and without networking enabled), and it says "safe mode" at the top and bottom of the screen and gives me the mouse cursor, but again the rest of the screen is black and clicking does nothing. Same with safe mode with command prompt and last known good menu. I can't find the original Compaq CD (I'm not sure if it's actually a boot disk or not). Other than buying a new computer which I might want to do either way, and recommendations as to how to approach this or anyone seen anything similar before?

 

you have spyware.



http://forums.spywareinfo.com/start here.

Hijackthis - you can post your registry and the dudes there will analyze it for you and tell you what to delete. after about a month I got rid of all mine (for awhile)

 

I can't even get to a command prompt.

 

If you cannot get to a command prompt, then you need to get a Windows CD and repair/reinstall windows.

To do this, you need to setup your CD drive as the initial boot disk in BIOS. Most people reach BIOS during the boot up screen (actually called POST screen) by hitting F3, F11, or delete. That will take you to a blue DOS screen with computer options. In there, you will find settings for boot drive #1, #2, etc. Just toggle through the options until you have CD drive set as #1.

then reboot with your windows CD in. Follow prompts to repair or reinstall windows. Once you get done doing that, you need to re-enter BIOS and reselect your Hard Drive as your first boot device. Also, remove the windows disk.

At that point, I'd make backups of ALL of your important docs, music, etc. because its likely you have a virus that may reinfect your PC. After you have it backed up, it would be better to get a boot floppy and run format.exe (off boot disk) if you continue to have problems, then reinstall windows from scratch.

 

POST being power-on self-test, fwimfw

 

Mercury is currently in retrograde which tends to increase the problems associated with electronics. This includes but is not limited to computers, automobiles, and entertainment systems.

 

F1 for IBM, F2 for Dell, F10 for HP

 

Thanks for the detailed response (and for all contributions).

OK, so reinstalling Windows won't automatically delete all my files? What's the best way to find a Windows XP cd, other than buying a new version from the store?

 

Before doing that... try Ctrl+Alt+Del to see if you can get the task Mgr. to open. Go to processes and end explorer.exe and then go to File > New Task and type in explorer.exe to restart it. I'm no assuring that this will work, but it has on occasion in the past. Then you can start the cleanup process. If this works let me know and I'll walk you through cleaning your system.

 

I haven't been able to get task manager to come up, but thank you. It's really bizarre to me that I can see and use the mouse cursor, vut the whole rest of the screen is black.