intermitent,unexpected shutdown

[Guest_imported]

A friend has 3 year old Packard Bell running win98. She admits her Antiviral software has not been kept up to date. The machine runs well except that it will, without any warning, shut down. If power is turned off at the power strip, the computer will "come back" on noticeably sooner than if the strip is left on and the machine is just allowed to "rest" and then turned on. I have run AV software and have discovered 3 instances of the Hybris@m virus. However, when I try to clean the infection or try to update the AV software, the machine also shuts down. Can anyone suggest what might be the problem and offer a solution? Does this sound like a known virus working on this machine? I have not yet been able to get the machine to scan the entire C drive without shutting down first. Would it help to simply reinstall windows and repair the infected window files with new,original copies. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[yizhar]

HI.

There are several methods to deal with infected computers, here are some:

* Go to any anti virus vendor web site, and search for a cleaner for your specific virus. Download the cleaner on a clean computer and copy it to a floppy disk then write protect it.
Try here:

http://www.sarc.com

* Go to any anti virus vendor web site, and search for manual removal instructions for the specific virus.
It is highly recommended to read about the virus even if you do not use manual removal.

* Use anti virus software on a clean computer to generate rescue floppy disks, then use them to clean the infected computer.

* Try to clean or delete infected files from DOS prompt - COMMAND PROMPT ONLY

* Phisicaly disconnect the hard disk and put it as slave on a clean computer, then scan for virusses.

In any case, after removing the virus you might need to restore infected files or reinstall OS or applications.
This depends on the type of the virus and how many files were infected. If the virus only add files but not modify existing files, then no problem. If the virus infected system files you can use
START - RUN - SFC
to restore them.

Bye
Yizhar Hurwitz

http://come.to/yizhar

http://teachers.sivan.co.il/yizhar