I have a problem with my computer when I startup the screen looks destorted and it keeps rebooting. It even looks destorted when the BIOS loads, I am running XP SP2 with an AMD 1700 processor would a virus cause this and what can I do?

When does the Distortion Appear? Is it After the POST (Power on Selft Test) or During the POST? In other Words. Can you see the Screen Coming on and can you enter The CMOS? Or is it as soon as Windows starts Booting?

If you see the distortion before you can see anything else on the screen you probably have a Hardware Failrue somewhere. Try Re-Seating your Display adapter/RAM/CPU and IDE Devices and make sure all these Devices get detected during the POST. If that does not Work you might have a CMOS Virus or the CMOS or Mainboard got damaged in some other way: maybe lightning. Maybe try another Monitor aswell??. The best is to have the PC Returned to the Hardware Vendor from whom you bought the PC from so they Can Check all your Hardware or Re-Flash your CMOS, Wichever turnes out to be the Problem.

If the Distortion Displays as soon as Windows Boots Try Booting into safe mode (Windows XP gives you the Option to press F8 for FailSafe Options just before the XP Boot-Up screen appears) and ensure All Devices are Setup properly. You should also do all your Virus scanning and Removal from Safemode to ensure al Viruses get Removed Properly. If you cannot go into safe mode you probably will have to reload Windws. (Yippee for MS)

Hope this Helps

hello,

I have a problem on my windows server 2003:

When I boot the system and log in, the screen is suddenly filled with many pop-up folders like outlook express, my documents folders, other folders, manage your server, and so on. Anyone knows why this is happening and a way to prevent these pop-up's ?

1) close the windows before you properly shut down next time
2) Check your startup start menu folder
3) check your Run and RunOnce registry keys
4) run your favourite anti-spy/malware apps.

thanks for your reply karma.

I always close all windows before shut down.
I couldn't find these files on my system, would you mind beeing more specific?
Which files are they, and where are they?

this is the message I get when i run it :

The Startup folder in the Start menu is located in the Start menu. It can be reached by clicking on 'Start' in the lower left-hand corner of the screen or through various and entirely irrelevant filesystem paths that vary from version to version. The Run and RunOnce registry keys are not files, they are registry keys. You can view and alter their objects and their objects' values by running 'regedit' from the 'run prompt' (which is typically found in the start menu). The easiest way to find them is to search for them; hit [ctrl]+[f] when in regedit and search for 'runonce'.

Oh. Gee. Well that's good >.< I suggest installing & updating AVG Free edition ( http://free.grisoft.com ) then rebooting in Safe Mode and running a full system scan. If that doesn't help any, there's always Trend Micro's House Call which, while still as shitty as PC-Cillin, works well in Safe Mode w/ Networking as a last resort.

Good luck.