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Computer Won't Start Up

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noose

New member
Last night my desktop computer got hit with the rogue File Recovery software. I downloaded and ran Unhide to get the icons back on the screen and that worked fine. After that I did a full virus scan with Microsoft Essentials and it found a virus called Alureon, which I then removed, but it told me to restart the computer to finish fully removing it. I restarted the computer and it came up with the message 'auto adjust in progress' with a complete black screen and a short flashing hyphen in the upper left corner of the screen. Now I have no idea what to do. Was wondering if you had any ideas?

I did try unplugging the cords from the monitor to the tower and surge outlet but that didn't help. I'm curious to see what you guys think. Any computer whizzes here?
 
B

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
During the boot process, you'll have an option to hit a PF key to enter a setup. Hit that PF key when the option is presented on the screen and bring it up in safe mode. I don't recall if there's an option for display properties.

Once it comes up in safe mode, poke around and make sure things look normal in general as well as your video settings.

Good luck!!
 
jpr62902

jpr62902

Jeanclaude Spam Banhammer
SUPER Site Supporter
You can also try booting up from a usb drive with Windows Defender Offline to do a virus scan.
 
Doc

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
jpr62902 said:
You can also try booting up from a usb drive with Windows Defender Offline to do a virus scan.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion as it sounds like you might still have the virus. You had (or have) an ugly one. Very nasty. Booting from the usb allows the anti virus to search all files, even the OS ones that are in use when the system is running. I would also encourage you to run more than one anti virus program after you find you have a virus just to be sure your computer is clean.
Note, in normal operation you would never have two anti viruses running at one time. That causes more problems than it's worth.
Hope that all makes sense.
 
N

noose

New member
I also tried pressing F8 repeatedly to boot up into 'Safe Mode With Networking' but it won't allow me to. Same blue message briefly appears saying 'Auto Adjust in Progress' then nothing but the complete black screen with the blinking horizontal line in the upper left corner. I don't know of any other options left. Previously I had gotten the SmartHDD virus which I was able to successfully remove. This one not so much luck.

Also, how do I boot up from the usb drive?
 
muleman

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
I wonder if the virus just wiped out your driver for the video? Can you try another monitor? Can you type any commands at the blinking cursor? To boot from USB you need to select setup when it boots and change the boot device.
 
B

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Your USB and CD drives are checked before C: to load the operating system. If you have a recovery CD or recovery info on USB, put it in the drive and reboot.
 
N

noose

New member
muleman said:
I wonder if the virus just wiped out your driver for the video? Can you try another monitor? Can you type any commands at the blinking cursor? To boot from USB you need to select setup when it boots and change the boot device.
Click to expand...

I may give that a try as a last resort. First I'll find the recovery CD and see if that works.
 
muleman

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
It should be listed as a separate drive, most likely D or E. You select it and exit setup then reboot.
 
muleman

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
use the arrows on the keyboard to highlight cd rom group. Then save and exit. This tells it to boot from that drive.
 
N

noose

New member
My brother knows a guy at work who fixes computers so I'm going to let him take it to the guy to see what he can do. Hopefully get a better deal too. Thanks everyone for the advice and links though. Appreciate it.
 
N

noose

New member
Well I got my computer back a couple weeks ago. Apparently it wasn't the virus that did the damage but the hard drive itself was fried. Now it's back to the factory defaults and only have 149GB hard drive space instead of the 500GB I had. Better than nothing I guess and hopefully it will last for another 3 years.
 
Doc

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Congrats on getting it back alive. :thumb: Did they add a new hard drive, or is the fried one partitioned and you only have 149gb available? I hope it is a new hard drive. Otherwise you might look into buying a new disk and adding it to the computer. You can get a decent hard drive for less than $100.

I would also recommend getting an external hard drive. You can get those and all you do is plug them into the USB port. An easy way to back up your important data. The USB drives are slower than the internal ones but they are great for saving your important stuff in a 2nd place for safe keeping. As we all know, it's not will your hard drive fail, it is when will your hard drive fail. They all fail eventually.

Seagate 500 gb for 69 + shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767

Here is a Seagate 1 TB (1000gb) external hard drive for $89 free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178245

(I could use that myself. :D)
 
N

noose

New member
thank you

He did add a new hard drive but I believe it was a used one. I could be wrong. Fortunately I do have an external hard drive with 200GB storage capacity. Nothing is truly built to last.
 
N

noose

New member
This is slightly off-topic but what do you guys think about companion antiviruses? Should they be used alongside a primary antivirus?
 
Doc

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
noose said:
This is slightly off-topic but what do you guys think about companion antiviruses? Should they be used alongside a primary antivirus?
Click to expand...

Short answer: NEVER!
Causes way more problems than it is worth. Get a primary anti-virus that you can trust and keep it at that.
 
N

noose

New member
I use AVG AntiVirus Free 2013 for my primary but I found a cloud-based antivirus that says you can use it as a companion to any main one. Still not recommended?
 
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