Re: My DELL won't BOOT UP.... :-(

On 12 Nov 2005 06:40:02 -0800, David_nj_7@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>Ok... scanreg /restore was ineffective, producing dates newer than my
>program happened. BTW.... I checked the BOOT SEQUENCE in SET-UP and
>it is set to read the "A" drive (FLOPPY-removeable devices) but......
>when I have the BOOT DISK in, eveidently my computer don't see it
>because the first reference I see is the "C" drive.
>
>Is there anyway to FORCE the PC to read my floppy? Again, according to
>set-up it does read the floppy before the hard drive. BTW, yes the
>floppy is formatted and I followed all instructions when I made it from
>BOOTDISK.COM
>
>Any ideas as to why my PC is not reading the floopy even though the
>sequence is set to do so?
>thanks
................................................
I'm sorry, but I have NOT been following this thread so I do not know
whether the floppy drive works once the computer is booted. So my
suggestions might be out of place.
1- drive is defective (includes cables etc) -test with new drive
2- a friend needed to reset the ESCD on his Dell after floppy appeared
dead in BIOS, DOS, and Windows - fine now!
3- have a look here, see if this applies to your situation, remember
virus details are know to change:
http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Uglyfamily.htm

( it seems a quick test to remove all hard drives from system & see if
computer can boot to floppy after power off )

....The viruses use a complex algorithm allowing the virus to stay
memory resident after cold reboot and loading from a clean DOS
floppy disk. On installation the virus stores the CMOS memory that
keeps the information about floppy drives and sets that info to zero
(i.e. the virus emulates situation when no floppy drives are
installed). On accessing to disks the virus temporary restores the
CMOS and then erases these fields again. On any (cold or warm)
reboot the system checks the CMOS, does not detect the floppy
disks and passes the control to the MBR of hard drive. As a result
the virus in the MBR receives the control, installs itself into the
memory and then passes the control to the floppy disk loader. As a
result the virus stays memory resident after loading from a clean
write-protected disk.

.

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