My other half has got a HP pavilion ze4800 and the thing has so many virus and shit on it thats unreal.

I can't open up IE, I can't do a virus update, in fact I can't do much with it as it says certain files are missing, etc, etc. Its not really been updated much in the past in the way of anything so wiping it out isn't a problem although I'd like to save some pictures on it?

How do I wipe the lot out and start again? I don't have a back up disc or anything like that. If I do wipe the lot and start again I won't lose Windows XP will I?

 

All i can find... http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...ct=430081#N425

mark

 

oh dear! Which version of xp is it? Is it the home or the professional? Without the disc it'll be very hard to wipe it all back to a clean slate. You could try a system restore?

 

Cheers Mark

Rich, Its home edition with service pack 2.

I'm just going to try doing a disk clean up. I can't get it to work on the net for some reason. When I click on IE it asks if I want to send an error report. The disk clean ups been running for about 15 minutes so far and has only got 2 green bars showing on it ...

 

what you can do is go to start > programs > accessories > system tools, run the disc cleanup wizard, make sure all the boxes are ticked to get rid of all the unnecessary crap. Then run the disc defragmenter. Be warned tho, depending on how full up with shite the hard drive is, these processes could take a couple of hours! Make sure its plugged into the mains, and its not set to go into standby after half an hour or anything.

Then get rid of any virus programs you have, and download the free home edition from avast.com.

That should get you well on the way!

 

As you turn the machine on, straight after the POST screen, press f8, f10 or f11 and see if it brings up the recovery options, which are usually stored on a hidden partition on the hard drive. From there you should be able to recover the computer back to factory settings

where and when was the laptop purchased?

 

you beat me to it! Just let it run, it sounds pretty clogged up with shite!! Sounds like your mrs has been surfing for too much porn

 

not sure if a cleanup/defrag is gonna make much difference to be honest, sometimes speeds up the computer but won't help the problems with internet explorer etc

Depending on what make it is, some laptops you can reinstall/reformat without the disc, as the data needed is already hidden on the harddrive, as doctor stavros said you'd need to press one of the f buttons to bring up the menu. First of all you should make sure you've made a back up though.

If you go to Start > Accessories > System Tools > Backup
that should be a simple way of backing stuff up, otherwise you could just burn the docs/photos etc you want to a cd/dvd

if you let us know what laptop/opersting system it may help!

 

Thanks

I'm going to give it a shot at trying to clean it up and if all else fails then restore it, or at least try to.

 

Done all that with the defrag, etc, etc and no good.

I've gone into start, acces, system tools and system restore wont work. It shows the SR box but theres nothing in it and won't respond. I've hit F2 on start up and looked at security settings and its not password protected.

A box in the bottom flashes up that the computer is infected. It won't say what it is.

When ever I try to open up IE or any other programme it states theres an error and do I want to send report. If i press send report it does, or seems to, if I click on don't send it just closes the window.

The error box says:

C:\DOCUME~1\ALEXJE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\7cc9_appcompt.t xt

I've no idea on who or whats been done to it. Theres just some pictures on there that I need to save (any idea best way?) and then it could do with wiping and starting again.

Its on XP home edition service pack 2

 

I'm pretty sure you are going to need the disc mate. I had the problem on my computer where I managed to scratch the disc making it unuseable. I used the disc from my dad's computer, and as long as you enter the serial number for the laptop you will be fine. Just make sure you use an XP home disc!

Put the disc in, restart the computer. It will say press a key to boot from cd. Do that, go through a few menus, select install new version of windows on drive C, it will then say there is already a version of windows on there, do you want to continue. Say yes, then on the next screen, it will ask you to format. Do the NTFS full format. When windows is all up and running again, make sure the updates are switched on, and download the free avast virus scanner.

Rich

 

Rich, theres no disc with it

 

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