HELP! potentially bad problem

[butch81385]

my roommates computer supposedly had a virus and took out the internet for two buildings, so rescom took his computer, and basically spent 3 days reformatting the thing. now when he boots up its an all black screen with a little white box. only after he clicks the mouse or keyboard will it start windows. then when it finally gets to the windows xp password screen, it flickers what looks the size of an error box behind where you type the password... and when you finally get things up and running, his computer is very unstable, freezing and shutting down.
another odd thing is that when you hit "shut down the computer" it shuts it down without giving the option of reboot, shut down, or cancel. its almost like just pulling the plug out where it shuts down instantly. and then the power led just flashes until the next time you turn it on

HELP!

I don't know who "rescom" is, but it sounds like they may have used the Group Policy editor to disallow him from doning anymore possilbe damage to the network.

They may have even installed some sort of "big brother" software to see what he's doing.

If it's his PC, I'd reformat and install AV software, a personal firewall, and get all the latest security patches.

I'm curious to know what virus he might of had that would take out a couple of buildings. That just sounds kinda "fishy" to me.

[butch81385]

rescom is residential computing - a bunch of computer illiterate people who run the network

supposedly the virus flooded all the bandwidth allotted for both buildings (shared connection to the main connection) within a 3 hour period (just to let you know, each person is allotted 1.5 GB per week, and it checks every 8 hours, so he used up 1200 GB of upload/download in less than 3 hours...)

another interesting thing is that a kid in the next room over had a hack attempt in that same time....

[butch81385]

UPDATE!!!!
well rescom said they finally got the computer fixed.. brought it up to the room and hooked it up... it worked for about 2 mind (just enough time for the guy to leave) then it rebooted and went through a series of floppy not found, cd not found, floppy not found. when we could finally get the rescom guy back up here he said that it looked like there were 2 BIOSes trying to load at the same time and that my roommate needs a new mobo. he has an asus p4c800 deluxe mobo if you were wondering. btw, he also tried updating and flashing the bios with no luck. how could a computer work, then all of a sudden, overwrite the bios and stop working? any help?

[VaTech]

2 BIOSes trying to load at the same time
-----

SPEWWW!!! OK.

If you overwrite with the wrong bios, that will hose it up. Can you do a Repair with XP like you do with Win2K? With Win2K, you just put in the CD and do a Repair.

I'd say the "rescom" dorks need to get this sorted out. The PC worked before they took it.

Sounds like they tried to fix it and F'd it up instead.

If I were your roommate, I'd start making a lot of noise about this matter.

And the business w/ the 1200GB/3 hrs., that's just B.S.

[osprey4]

Originally posted by butch81385
....he said that it looked like there were 2 BIOSes trying to load at the same time....

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!

Rescom, huh? Don't think I'd let them near my computer.

[VaTech]

That was a good example of a random answer. I'm guessing the Welchia virus is to blame and they trashed the box trying to take it off.

[butch81385]

so do you think it would work if i just do a repair with his xp cd?
the rescom guy said he needed a new mobo...

[VaTech]

Do a repair first.