HP Vectra no go

[Nuclear Krusader]

The client called me last tuesday to check this machine. An HP Vectra, Pentium II and 2 GB HD. It had Win98.

My client's story:
The machine was working, then a floppy disk was inserted, it started opening lots of Word windows, finally I printed the file I was trying to print and then there was a blackout. When power returned the machine would not boot.

When I checked the machine I found out it was victim of a virus created here in my country. The virus deleted all the lines in the config.sys file and replaced them with the message "Esta máquina está siendo atacada por el virus Lourdes. Feliz 2003" ("This machine is being attacked by the virus Lourdes. Have a nice 2003"). I retyped the config.sys but still no go. The machine kept hanging in the "Starting Windows 98" screen.

I took it to my store, hooked the HD to one of my PCs to make a backup of his files. I was afraid the virus could also infect my machine but what other choice did I have? If the virus copied to my PC I have no way of telling since WinXP don't have config.sys anymore and the machine is still working without problems. Anyway, I made the backup and then procceeded to use the Restore CDs to return the Vectra to its initial state. The machine came originally with Win95, the reformat and the reinstallation finished, and when the installation program rebooted the machine hung in the "MODE codepage prepare" message. No go from there.

I inserted a different stick of ram. Same result. So memory was not the problem.

I rehooked the HD to my PC and checked it with Scandisk. All fine. Downloaded the diagnostic utility from WD's site. Ran all the tests. All fine.

Then I zero filled the HD. And it was worse: now the machine won't install anything from the Restore CD! The program creates the partition but refuses to continue the installation and spits the message: "Operating system missing". ***!

I inserted a W98 boot disk and deleted the partition and created a new one. Same result.

I then tried to format the HD with the boot disk but this message appeared whenever I tried to do so: "Not enough memory to load the system files".

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

Now what? Where do I go from here? Any ideas? What is happening?

HELP!

TIA for any input.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Tried the machine with another hard drive. Same results.

Installed Windows 98. Same thing.

Safe Mode does work but not normal boot.

What can be happening?

[KHT]

If you tried a new drive with the same results, possibly a virus infecting the bios. Maybe try downloading and flash updating the BIOS.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I tested the drive with another mobo, CPU and RAM. Used the Vectra's VC, modem and sound card.

The original HD isn't even recognized by the BIOS.

Tested with another drive (the one I used b4 to test with the original HP mobo) and it worked no problems.

So the prob resides in the mobo-HD combination. Right?

Any other suggestions?

[GaryRouth]

Nuke -

Been looking around a little to see if any news on the net might help - and was surprised to find very little information at all on any virus having anything to do with "Lourdes". Not much info on "MODE codepage prepare", other than that it's a line usually added to (you guessed it) the config.sys file to help display the different "diacritics" (special accent marks and characters) for different families of languages.

Did you try flashing the bios on the original board? (like KHT suggested) If it's bios virus protect wasn't enabled it could still have a problem in there.

After you flash the bios, you could try a downloaded bootdisk from bootdisk.com, delete any existing partitions, then try the Restore/Recovery disk from Hp again. Seems like you shouldn't be seeing memory manager errors with a decent bootdisk.

Not sure about what sort of Recovery disk you have. Some rely on a partition on the hard drive & grab info & files from it. Others recreate the whole kaboodle. You might ask your client if he's got a bootable floppy that goes with the CD - it might be that you need that floppy first, then the CD.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[one other thing: some of the older Compaqs had a special early version of the cable-select type (only a 40-wire, in the early going). . . perhaps the Vectra has something unusual there, too. When trying over again, have everything back in the original box, with the same jumpers & cables . . . might try the WD diagnostics from the older machine, too =just to see what you get when the diagnostics test the motherboard's bios for info]

[bailey]

nk:

I don't know much about virui, but it looks to me like you got a good one that took out the motherboard and hard drive,

I have read that there are some that can do that,

hope it did not get into your testing system

[Nuclear Krusader]

This darn machine is already wearing on my nerves! I am about to throw it in front of a passing truck!

The flash program didn't work.

The HP diagnostics didn't work.

No matter how much times I use the recovery CD to recreate the partition the result is the same.

I tried the step by step confirmation boot and got this message:

Error when initializing VFAT.
Device or resource VFAT not found. Cannot continue booting.
System halted

What gives?

What puzzles me is that the HP HD can be read in my XP machine no problem. Why couldn't it be recognized by my old P2 mobo?

[bailey]

maybe the controler is damaged

[Nuclear Krusader]

Hmmm

The HD controller? Could it be damaged by the blackout?

[bailey]

most defenitaly, I have seen that happen before, the ide controler went out slowly a gradual down grade over two days till nothing would work, ended up replaceing the m/b, to cure problem

[Nuclear Krusader]

Thanks, Bailey. It definitely seems what happened here. Too bad, since there are no more slot 1 mobos around.

Thanks everyone for your input.