Dead Computer! Please Help!!!!!

[dakuff]

Please can anyone help me???

Something is seriously wrong with my computer. i think got a virus from being on the internet without an up to date virus checker and firewall. I reformatted my computer and reinstalled XP.
It went kindof OK. Except now when i try to extract rars or install software it tells me the Rar's/CD's are corrupt. But i know they are not as i bought them and they used to work fine until this happened. This must have been going on for a while..
I got a copy of Norton2003 and used liveupdate and all that..
Things ran fine for a bit but i noticed on ZoneAlarm some wierd buch of characters and letters [acting as a program] trying to get onto the net. When i tried to get its details it said 'wrong address / file size' or something and could not locate its properites. Then Norton Antivirus crashed and said that something was trying to disable it and to reinstall the package. I did that, it did nothing, the same thing happened again!
Anyway my computer totally died and i reinstalled it all again but it is the same, if not worse.
Does anyone have any idea of what this could be or what i can do?
This is my system:
Windows XP
AMD Athlon 2200+XP
120gb Seagate Barracuda V HD [master]
60Gb Maxtor Diamond 9+
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard
CReative Audigy Soundcard
Herecules geforce MX 2 graphics
1gb DDR 2700 ram

[dakuff]

Any help is much appreciated...

;D

[Statica]

> Originally posted by dakuff
> Please can anyone help me???

Something is seriously wrong with my computer. i think got virus from being on the internet without an up to date virus checker and firewall. I reformatted my computer and reinstalled XP.

Unless you have been stricken by a more serious kind of virus, proceed with the assurance that if you reformatted your entire hard drive (and not just the windows partition, if you have one); you have gotten rid of the virus.

However, I would strongly suggest that as soon as you finish booting up your PC with a new installation of XP, go ahead and install a reliable version of antivirus software, update it and then scan your system. If not proceed to housecall.antivirus.com and do an online scan.

It went kindof OK. Except now when i try to extract rars or install software it tells me the Rar's/CD's are corrupt. But i know they are not as i bought them and they used to work fine until this happened. This must have been going on for a while..

This part is kinda shaky for the purposes of this board, since I do not know of any software that comes legally in RAR format. Please make sure that we are talking about the inability to run legal software here (run through the FAQ of this board). However, let's proceed on the assumption that all your s/w is legit .. then it is to be noted that XP in its native format does not support RAR files and does not know what to do with them. You need software specifically dealing with RARs; WinRAR is the best, however most other s/w compression programs support the common compressed file formats (like winzip, winace etc).

I got a copy of Norton2003 and used liveupdate and all that.. Things ran fine for a bit but i noticed on ZoneAlarm some wierd buch of characters and letters [acting as a program] trying to get onto the net. When i tried to get its details it said 'wrong address / file size' or something and could not locate its properites. Then Norton Antivirus crashed and said that something was trying to disable it and to reinstall the package. I did that, it did nothing, the same thing happened again!

the virus scan should eliminate any questions of whether it is a virus issue; however again, if you are using downloaded software (other than from the mfger), I would urge you to not eliminate the possibility that there is a virus/trojan in that as well. Try running your computer with a minimum complement of software to see if its stable.

Anyway my computer totally died and i reinstalled it all again but it is the same, if not worse. Does anyone have any idea of what this could be or what i can do? This is my system: Windows XP AMD Athlon 2200+XP 120gb Seagate Barracuda V HD [master] 60Gb Maxtor Diamond 9+ Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard CReative Audigy Soundcard Herecules geforce MX 2 graphics 1gb DDR 2700 ram

If you are doing a complete reformat of your drive, would also suggest that you repartition the drive again as well (even if your partition schema is the same); just delete existing partitions and recheck them.

if I were in your shoes, what I would do is the following
repartition
reformat
reinstall
run updated virus check
run all security updates for the OS
install firewall program to see there is no trojan etc.
install legal software from original media as much as possible.

Hopefully we can isolate whats going on.

Again, it isnt an insinuation that you are using illegal software, but one tends to be wary of certain situations.

[dakuff]

The Rar files were doc's, wav's and general junk etc, that i accumulated. They all used to work
All the games / software is original cd state, well 95%

Do you think that it could be a hardware fault??


Thanks for the advice so far, I'm Stumpped

[Statica]

Was your machine stable before the recent virus attack and the consequent reinstallation?

[doubledragon5]

http://www.whitecanyon.com/index.php

Try running this software, I have used it to do a complete wipe of the drive and it is worth the money. It completly eliminates any thing that is currently on the drive.