Flame on! a Real Newbie Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Donald Wilkinson
  • Start date Start date
D

Donald Wilkinson

My sister in law called last night and says her computer boots to a clown
face with the words " Got Ya" in bold letters. Nothing else works.
Oh! and she hasn't updated her Norton in about 3 years

Since I'm the computer guru in the family (It's been many years since I
worked on an individual desktop problem) I've got to fix it.
I will "acquire" this problem in a few days.

Since it's not even booting up to Windows, I suppose I have to boot it to
something ( DOS 6.1???) just to run some anti virus utilities
(maybe I could boot it with a Linux anywhere CD-ROM??)

Will some kind soul take a moment to give me a child's primer on how to
recover a really sick machine that won't even boot correctly?

Thanks

DonW
 
My sister in law called last night and says her computer boots to a clown
face with the words " Got Ya" in bold letters. Nothing else works.
Oh! and she hasn't updated her Norton in about 3 years

Since I'm the computer guru in the family (It's been many years since I
worked on an individual desktop problem) I've got to fix it.
I will "acquire" this problem in a few days.

Since it's not even booting up to Windows, I suppose I have to boot it to
something ( DOS 6.1???) just to run some anti virus utilities
(maybe I could boot it with a Linux anywhere CD-ROM??)

Will some kind soul take a moment to give me a child's primer on how to
recover a really sick machine that won't even boot correctly?
Click to expand...

If she is using Windows 9X/ME and you have access to a clean Win 9X/ME
machine, you could download F-pup.exe from my web site (see last item
on main page). It's designed for use with F-prot for DOS. It will
download the av program and bring the defs up to date. You can then
prepare a four diskette emergency boot set. One is the special boot
disk and the other three contain the av program and defs.

If she's using Win 2K or XP with NTFS, it's more involved. Most
probably use Bart's PE builder. You need access to a Win XP machine
to build the CD I think.

BTW, I wonder if she got hit by a "inside job" ... some kid playing
with her machine who planted a homemade joke program :) What you've
described doesn't sound familiar to me.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
If she is using Windows 9X/ME and you have access to a clean Win 9X/ME
machine, you could download F-pup.exe from my web site (see last item
on main page). It's designed for use with F-prot for DOS. It will
download the av program and bring the defs up to date. You can then
prepare a four diskette emergency boot set. One is the special boot
disk and the other three contain the av program and defs.
Click to expand...

I just noticed that the def files have grown to the point where four
diskettes are insufficent. Use this program instead:

http://www.overselfresearch.com/software/downloads/avdefsupdaterfprotdos/

I see it creates a five diskette EBD set.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
Dear Art

Thanks for the advice on recovery and especially thanks for your suggestion
about "an inside job"

She does have two sons ; 10 and 8 years old. I'll bet one of them has been
"exploring" their skills

Once I get it straightened out, I'll set up some limited privilege accounts

Thanks again

DonW
 
My sister in law called last night and says her computer boots to a
clown face with the words " Got Ya" in bold letters. Nothing else
works. Oh! and she hasn't updated her Norton in about 3 years

Since I'm the computer guru in the family (It's been many years since
I worked on an individual desktop problem) I've got to fix it.
I will "acquire" this problem in a few days.

Since it's not even booting up to Windows, I suppose I have to boot it
to something ( DOS 6.1???) just to run some anti virus utilities
(maybe I could boot it with a Linux anywhere CD-ROM??)

Will some kind soul take a moment to give me a child's primer on how
to recover a really sick machine that won't even boot correctly?
Click to expand...

No one has mentioned Safe Mode yet. See if it'll boot up that way.
If it's Windows 98 or above, check the startup list (Start,Run,msconfig).
Also look under Programs - Startup
If it's win9x, check the autoexec.bat file.
If it's kid's play, yoou should be able to find it that way.
If it snot, then follow the other posters' advice.... :-)
 
Art said:
I just noticed that the def files have grown to the point where four
diskettes are insufficent. Use this program instead:

http://www.overselfresearch.com/software/downloads/avdefsupdaterfprotdos/

I see it creates a five diskette EBD set.
Click to expand...

When I worked for NAI, I spent ages (with the help of one other, who
incidentally has since died) creating a thing called "Cleanboot". It was
a bootable CD that handled NTFS quite well. Did this product not take
off? Did I waste 2 years of my life? I heard that maintenance was moving
to India. Did the Indians muck it up?

I wonder if anyone here remembers me? Used to post in ACV back in the
old days.
 
When I worked for NAI, I spent ages (with the help of one other, who
incidentally has since died) creating a thing called "Cleanboot". It was
a bootable CD that handled NTFS quite well. Did this product not take
off? Did I waste 2 years of my life? I heard that maintenance was moving
to India. Did the Indians muck it up?

I wonder if anyone here remembers me? Used to post in ACV back in the
old days.
Click to expand...

Hello Paul. Not sure if I remember you but I sure do remember
Cleanboot. I followed the development for some time and was
in contact with you guys early on. Did some Beta testing as I
recall. Then the project just seemed to dry up and disappear.
I have no idea what the status is now.

I recently spent considerable time trying to work something
out using the free-for-personal-use NTFS4DOS version. But
I wanted to use KAVDOS32 and I couldn't find a suitable
DOS environment that was compatible. I did have success
though with the McAfee command line scanners and F-Prot
for DOS. They worked ok under Free DOS with NTFS4DOS
enabling read/write (clean/delete) capability on NTFS
partitons. The only way I found (so far) to use KAVDOD32
in a DOS environment is to use MS DOS and SysInternal's
NTFSDOS. But the free version of NTFSDOS only allows
a read capability, of course.

To me, NTFS is just a royal PITA :) My Win 2K Pro ran
fine using FAT32. So I really have no personal interest
in the whole crazy mess. It's just that I supplied updaters
and emergency boot disks for the fun of it back in the
Win 9X/ME days and I have a lingering interest in that
sort of thing.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
Paul said:
When I worked for NAI, I spent ages (with the help of one other, who
incidentally has since died) creating a thing called "Cleanboot". It was
a bootable CD that handled NTFS quite well. Did this product not take
off? Did I waste 2 years of my life? I heard that maintenance was moving
to India. Did the Indians muck it up?

I wonder if anyone here remembers me? Used to post in ACV back in the
old days.
Click to expand...

i do vaguely recall the name paul carmichael, but so many have come and
gone... your picture was on a page of acv regulars, was it not?
graham's or dr. solly's (not the current one laura has)...

i have a better recollection of cleanboot... lots of promise but as far
as i know no delivery...

so i take it you're not working for nai anymore...
 
When I worked for NAI, I spent ages (with the help of one other, who
incidentally has since died) creating a thing called "Cleanboot". It was
a bootable CD that handled NTFS quite well. Did this product not take
off? Did I waste 2 years of my life?
Click to expand...

I've often seen it in the list of files we have licences for, but despite the name
indicating possible usefulness, never looked at it. Nobody put any promo literature for
it in front of me...
I'll have a play with it later!

--
Post presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 - scrollbars at
the sides of the screen are normal in this format. This high-definition
digital message was created on a run-of-the-mill PC from the restored
35mm negative. To further enhance it, many grammar and spelling errors
and other inaccuracies have been removed using the DB EBD-TC system.
 
kurt said:
i do vaguely recall the name paul carmichael, but so many have come and
gone... your picture was on a page of acv regulars, was it not?
graham's or dr. solly's (not the current one laura has)...
Click to expand...

No idea. I started with Sollys in 1995.
i have a better recollection of cleanboot... lots of promise but as far
as i know no delivery...
Click to expand...

It was a good product. You could boot from the CD and it would fix just
about anything, including writing to NTFS and fixing the registry etc.
so i take it you're not working for nai anymore...
Click to expand...

Living a lazy life at the moment. Haven't written a line of code in a
couple of years.

I believe there's been a few staff changes since I left 3 years ago.
Who'd have thought that Vinny would ever leave?
 
Paul said:
No idea. I started with Sollys in 1995.
Click to expand...

my mistake... i checked - you are neither here
(http://web.archive.org/web/20000919212405/http://members.aol.com/altcompvir/)
nor here (http://members.aol.com/drasolly/ which doesn't even have
pictures, except one of lucky)... oh well, i'm not on either of those
either (and i used to be responsible for 10% of the traffic in acv)...
It was a good product. You could boot from the CD and it would fix just
about anything, including writing to NTFS and fixing the registry etc.
Click to expand...

i remember that being said about it, but like i said, i don't remember
hearing about it ever actually getting out there...

i suppose now, with av plug-ins for the bartpe disk, a proprietary (and
non-free) ntfs boot cd/scanning tool isn't as big a deal anymore...
Living a lazy life at the moment. Haven't written a line of code in a
couple of years.
Click to expand...

?!?!?!?

my condolences... ("after three days without programming, life becomes
meaningless" - the tao of programming)
 
kurt said:
Paul Carmichael wrote:


?!?!?!?

my condolences... ("after three days without programming, life becomes
meaningless" - the tao of programming)
Click to expand...

And my sincere condolences to anyone who feels that way.
 
And my sincere condolences to anyone who feels that way.
Click to expand...

I can hardly believe what's happening to me lately. I quit full time
engineering way back in 1985, feeling rather burned out. But
boredom and depression gradually set in. Now, nearing 70, I'm
all wound up again and I'd love to be pursuing some of the work
and investigations I was doing toward the end. At least I have
my computer interests to stimulate what grey matter is still
functioning. Without computers and engineering, life would be
a mistake :)

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
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