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PC will not boot.


Guest Hornet117

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Guest Hornet117

So here is a play-by-play on what has happened to my PC.

 

1: I just finished my Spanish Final Exam online. (secure website, I doubt it gave me a virus)

 

2: I load up YouTube and watch half a video and my PC suddenly bogs down and begins to run really slow. At the same time I hear the fan start blowing really hard.

 

3: I look at my computer status-bar and it shows my processor running at a flat 100% capacity. I pull up the task manager and it shows my Avast Anti-Virus is pulling 97-95% of my processor's capacity. Everything else looks good, other than the fact that its all running at a crawl.

 

4: Seeing that my Avast looks to be the issue I attempt to shut it down temporarily. It asked me "are you sure you want to be unprotected" to which I hit "Yes."

Nothing happens.

 

5: Slightly frustrated with Avast I decide to force-uninstall it with my "Iobit deep uninstaller" software which I randomly have on my PC. After doing so it asked me if I wanted to delete all residual files that were left behind by the regular un-install. It displayed like 5 pages of avast directories and such so I highlighted them all and hit delete.

 

6: They all deleted in a few seconds and the uninstaller informed me that my changes would take effect once I restarted. (At this point my PC is still blowing hard and running slow)

 

7: I hit the restart button and that was the last time my PC showed the Desktop.

 

Now if I try and boot up it enters a diagnostic loading screen then fails to fix the problem. At this point it gives me several options including:

Start in safe mode

Go to boot menu

Start Command prompt

System Restore

Wipe system to factory default

and a few others i forget.

 

I have tried them all aside from the wipe to factory default...I would like to save some of my files if I could.

 

The system restore option displays that I have no system restore points saved (which I know for a fact I have done so a couple times)

 

I'll have to manual check my full system specs as I don't have them off the top of my head. I'll add them below when I get them.

 

Also I don't have a boot disk to repair with :( I downloaded this windows software for free from my collage.

 

My tentative plan moving forward: I have been planning on buying a new SSD and a copy of Windows 7. (8.1 is too flashy and doesn't really give me anything I like) At this point I think that I will go ahead and do so. I will try to install windows 7 on the SSD and then drag all my necessary files over to it. Once I've done this I'll go ahead and format the old Hard Drive and use it for storage.

 

I will be working all day Thursday and Friday so I won't be able to do any of this until Saturday.

 

Any thoughts in the meantime from those of you who are tech savvy?

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Guest MAJ.Spartan-S63=US=
Without a boot disk it's really tough to diagnose the issue. If you can wait until Saturday to deal with it, doing the SSD boot drive is definitely the best solution.
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Guest Ret.Maj.Xander=US=

If you just want the files then download some linux distro like Ubuntu and burn the iso to a disc or mount it to a flash drive.

 

You can then boot into that and get your windows files from your main hard drive. After that you can format the drive and reinstall windows.

 

I would also look into Windows 10 when it comes out in the summer, although if you can get Windows 8.1 through your school for free, you should.

 

I've been running Windows 10 for a few months on my work PC and it's wonderful.

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Guest RET.Maj.ShadowOp=US=

GySgt,

My money is on that IObit uninstaller blew away some boot config files, or system files. Since AV software usually ties into your system restore points as well (in a feeble attempt to prevent some rootkit attacks, and spreading of viruses), iobit may have blown all those away as well.

 

Force uninstaller are good at find all reference and associated files and blasting them, and since AV software gets as deeply or more rooted than most viruses it probably mistook some pretty important stuff and blew it away.

 

As stated above, linux is going to be your simplest option on a CD or usb stick, but you will need an additional drive or large jump drive to move the files over too.

 

After that wiping and starting fresh is your best option.

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Guest PFC.Hawkeye366=US=

Gunny,

 

Last time i have seen avast run that high and was not scanning it was due to the program having bad definitions.

I would recommend the Ret.Major's suggestion using a Linux live cd or Hiren's Boot.

these will allow you to view and copy the data from the drive.

Try this if you have not. it is an old troubleshooting step. Unplug power cable from pc,press and hold power button for 20sec. Insert power cable reboot.

This probably will not work since you already tried to run sys restore and boot to safe mode.

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Guest Ret.Maj.Xander=US=

I would also suggest against Avast. If you are hell bent against Windows 8.1 (however being 'too flashy' isn't the best reason to skip an OS upgrade), you should use Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

If you upgrade to Windows 8 then you don't need any outside Anti-Virus as Windows Defender is built in.

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Guest RET.Maj.ShadowOp=US=
I would also suggest against Avast. If you are hell bent against Windows 8.1 (however being 'too flashy' isn't the best reason to skip an OS upgrade), you should use Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

If you upgrade to Windows 8 then you don't need any outside Anti-Virus as Windows Defender is built in.

 

Did they massively update windows defender RET.Maj. Last time I looked it up (Early 2015) it was scraping rock bottom nearly for malware detection and active registry protection etc. in almost all of the independent tests.

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Guest Ret.Maj.Xander=US=
TBH I'm not sure, but personally I haven't used any other A/V software since Win7 and Windows Security Essentials came out. I still use Malwarebytes and SpyBot, but Windows Defender Definitions are updated multiple times per day.
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Guest Hornet117
I appreciate the input from everyone: I'll definitely look into Ubuntu first just to be absolutely sure that my problem isn't hardware related before I set myself up with a new SSD and OS. I'll look into windows 10 as well sir: I really do enjoy exploring new software...windows 8 compared to windows 7 just felt like COD MW2 compared to MW3. Same engine, same options same game-types, same guns, same rules....and a little excess flash and an annoying start menu. That's a exaggerated description of course and I know windows 8 is good in its own right, just feels like that for the things I use windows for.
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