Troubleshooting a problem that popped up yesterday on one of our puters running XP SP3. This machine has 3 user accounts...an administrator with a password, a second regular account without a password, and a guest user account we rarely if ever use. Regardless of which user account I try to log on with, Windows will load the desktop icons and sometimes the quick launch and taskbar icons, then several seconds later the puter will simply turn off and begin the boot process all over again without any popup warnings or error messages. It now does this repeatedly and consistently. Could be corrupt Windows files but I suspect a virus or malware. I yanked out the hard drive and currently have it hooked up to another working computer as an external drive, so I am able to access it via Windows Explorer. Been running various scans on it all day but so far no viruses or malware have been detected that would indicate a likely culprit.
I am able to get into BIOS by hitting delete during the initial boot and the keyboard works fine...I can scroll around with the cursor keys and make changes but there is not much one can do in BIOS to solve this problem. The weird thing is that if I instead hit F8 during bootup to get to the safe mode boot option screen the keyboard apparently then gets disabled, which is why I suspect a virus/malware is at fault. Since the default selection is a normal boot, with the keyboard not working I can't use the cursor keys to scroll up and select one of the safe mode boot options, so after 30 seconds it just tries a normal boot with the same result each time. I also can't boot from a CD with the keyboard disabled, because you need to hit any key to begin a boot off a CD...so after 5 or 10 seconds the puter will skip past the OS disk and try booting from the hard drive again.
Was wondering if anybody here knows which Windows file or program gets run when you hit F8 to get to the safe mode boot option screen? If it's a script-type file, thought maybe I could take a look at it to see if some a$$wipe hacker slipped in a line or two that somehow disables the keyboard to prevent booting in safe mode. Failing that, I thought maybe I could simply copy a good file from this working puter and replace the one on the affected drive, just to see what that does. Similarly, does anyone know what file or program tells the computer to try and boot from a CD, so I could maybe take a look at that or replace it as well? What I'm trying to do here is figure out exactly where the keyboard is getting disabled, and what file or files may be doing it.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Over the years I've encountered many hardware and software problems that I've always been able to overcome with the help of forums like this one, but this latest one looks like a real challenge. In the worst case I'll simply transfer the files and data I want off the affected hard drive, then do a full reformat and clean install. At this point I suspect that is what I'll end up doing...but right now I'm just curious what the hell the problem might be.
I am able to get into BIOS by hitting delete during the initial boot and the keyboard works fine...I can scroll around with the cursor keys and make changes but there is not much one can do in BIOS to solve this problem. The weird thing is that if I instead hit F8 during bootup to get to the safe mode boot option screen the keyboard apparently then gets disabled, which is why I suspect a virus/malware is at fault. Since the default selection is a normal boot, with the keyboard not working I can't use the cursor keys to scroll up and select one of the safe mode boot options, so after 30 seconds it just tries a normal boot with the same result each time. I also can't boot from a CD with the keyboard disabled, because you need to hit any key to begin a boot off a CD...so after 5 or 10 seconds the puter will skip past the OS disk and try booting from the hard drive again.
Was wondering if anybody here knows which Windows file or program gets run when you hit F8 to get to the safe mode boot option screen? If it's a script-type file, thought maybe I could take a look at it to see if some a$$wipe hacker slipped in a line or two that somehow disables the keyboard to prevent booting in safe mode. Failing that, I thought maybe I could simply copy a good file from this working puter and replace the one on the affected drive, just to see what that does. Similarly, does anyone know what file or program tells the computer to try and boot from a CD, so I could maybe take a look at that or replace it as well? What I'm trying to do here is figure out exactly where the keyboard is getting disabled, and what file or files may be doing it.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Over the years I've encountered many hardware and software problems that I've always been able to overcome with the help of forums like this one, but this latest one looks like a real challenge. In the worst case I'll simply transfer the files and data I want off the affected hard drive, then do a full reformat and clean install. At this point I suspect that is what I'll end up doing...but right now I'm just curious what the hell the problem might be.