Did it over heat or was it a virus??

[Simian]

I just had the weirdest problem with my main rig... (AMD64-3.4Ghz, 512Mb DDR, XP Home SP2, Avast, Spybot, Adaware2007).

I was happily browsing the web (Firefox 2.0.0.11) and listening to music (winamp v5.51) when suddenly Firefox took 160Mb of RAM and 100% of the CPU... I Ended the Process and 'explorer.exe; did the same and just hung!!!...

I rebooted my Machine and after the Memtest etc.. screen I got "Error loading Operating System" on screen .

I re-booted, and got the same!.. ..

Weird thing is I've got a Dual-Boot with Ubuntu (Linux) 7.10 and it didn't even get to the Grub/Boot options..

So I turned it off and stormed off in a huff!! .

I came back later resigned to the fact I might need to re-install Windows, turned it on... et-voila it booted fine into windows!!..

Thinking I might have a problem I came on here and found http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17827636&highlight=virus considering I might have contracted this or similar.. I fixed my MBR and it all seems to be hunky dory!!.. (Lost my Linux install/Grub.. but thats no biggie).

I've run every concevable test (with the software I have to hand) AV/Spy/Trojan and found nowt!!..

So this leads me to believe... the system is either over heating, I had a virus or My Hard Drive(s)/IDE Channel (mobo) are failing.

Does anyone have any suggestions on further tests I can perform???..

Cheers
Sim.

 

[this_is_gav]

Or maybe the hard drive is dying? Or some other semi-terminal hardware problem?

Why would it suddenly overheat? I assume you've checked fans are still turning and such?

Why would a virus repair your system after supposedly stopping it booting at all?

 

[Simian]

Or maybe the hard drive is dying? Or some other semi-terminal hardware problem?

Why would it suddenly overheat? I assume you've checked fans are still turning and such?

Why would a virus repair your system after supposedly stopping it booting at all?

Thats what I'm asking!?!?!....

Are there any diagnostic programs out there I could try (or any freebees) that anyone could recommend!..

If it is the Hard drive (200Gb Maxtor), can I just copy disk to disk if I get e new one or would I have to re-install windows (etc) again from scratch!?!..

Cheers
Sim.

 

[BigBoy]

goto the maxow webbie and download maxiblast it will do a low level test of the drive and the drives PCB.