Ok, I've been having a bit of trouble with my computer lately. It had a huge infection of spyware and viruses, so we wiped the harddrive. It looked like everything was all fine and dandy, except when I tried to increase the color depth, the screen went black and I am now unable to do anything.

Does anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Ack. That happened to me too. My computer did not like the higher color, it couldn't handle it. So it sounds like you need to change it back.

Restart the computer in safe mode. This should restart in low color, low res. Then you can adjust the color back to what is “reasonable” to your computer. Restart in regular mode and you should get the correct results.

How to restart your computer in safe mode

• 1. Either restart or power up the PC and press F8 many times until the selection menu appears
  2. select Safe Mode
  
  
  Hope that works for ya. :wink:
  
  .: SpANG! :.

And if that doesn't work, buy a new computer.

~IJ

Well, it didn't work. A blue screen comes up with text that says your system has failed and that it needs to shut down.

Ian Jay
And if that doesn't work, buy a new computer.

~IJ

I might just have to do that.

Man, there goes my summer paychecks.

Man, don't give up like that! Worst case scenario, you're reinstalling windows.

Now, it could be that you don't have the proper drivers for either your video card or your monitor. You may want to check those out.

I have reinstalled Windows, and it doesn't seem to have done any good.

Even if I do have the incorrect drivers, I'm not sure what the video card is or even what to do about it if they're “wrong.”

I don't even know what Color Depth is. Can't you do something about that on your monitor?

Safe Mode SHOULD work. I'd say keep trying to do that. But computers are evil things.

Also, I know this doesn't help, but you could have used Ad-Aware SE to get rid of the Spyware, negating the need to wipe the hard-drive.

ccs1989
Also, I know this doesn't help, but you could have used Ad-Aware SE to get rid of the Spyware, negating the need to wipe the hard-drive.

I was at the point where my computer was completely frozen. I think there must have been some viruses stuck in with the spyware. (the computer detected over 1000 infections. And I thought I had updated all the anti-spyware and virus scan thingies too.)

have you re-formatted?

Is that what you are saying when you “wipe the hard drive” or do you mean you just deleted files on your C:drive?

Re-installing windows is different than re-formatting. This would be a total tear-down and rebuild.

Re-formatting would take all your files away, including any spyware and viruses. If you are still having problems after that, there is something wrong with the computer itself.

Meant to ask, what Windows do you have?

.: SpANG! :.

I have a Windows XP Professional.

Now I'm not sure what I did. I think I might have just re-installed windows, but I did delete all of my files until there was absolutely nothing left.

Oy vey, computers are confusing.

If windows did not ask for the product reg. key, then you haven't re-formatted..

try this:
http://www.cyberwalker.com/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/reformat-FAT32-XP.html

(A whole re-format will take a little over an hour)

.: SpANG! :.

It makes me sad and angry every time a hard drive is wiped or Windows is reinstalled thanks to spyware. It should never have to come to that.

For future reference to everybody, Spybot is free.

I would reccomend more than one spyware killer program.

The 2 I have are Ad aware and Spysweeper. Plus I have the Norton suite.

.: SpANG! :.

It's always best to have 2 or more anti-spyware and virus protection programs, because one program can miss something critical.

No antispyware programs or antivirus programs can help completely. A few weeks ago I clicked on a kegen crack for a DVD program (yeah, I know it's bad…), and got blasted with viruses, Spyware, AND Malware. They installed themselves and downloaded a few more all in the blink of an eye.

That's despite the fact that I'd scanned it with Norton before I clicked on it (fully up to date). Only AFTER I was infected did Norton pick up any viruses, usually the same ones that were being downloaded.

Anyway, I ran about 4 different anti Spyware programs and 3 antivirus programs and not ONE picked up the real core evil DLL file that was at the root of it all. I found that myself through a simple search for files according to when they were created/modified. But the fucking thing was tied to Windows Logon AND Windows explorer so was IMPOSSIBLE top delete, even if I went to safe mode or used a prog that deletes files before or after logon (I tried 3 of those). Even in the Dos prompt!

So I took out the hard drive, put it in another computer and then deleted the files when it started up (that comp used it's OWN Windows sys32 folder so it didn't load the infected files).

The Antivirus/antispyware was useless really, I even had to clean the registry myself. This was a common, low-threat virus that had been out a whole year and was well known, and yet no program helped me.
Ah-well, at least I didn't lose any work and my computer runs better than ever now thanks to all my registry editing.

When it comes to the crunch, what you really need is someone who knows what they're doing. No amount of guard programs can help as well as a human.

———-
Your graphics problem sounds like something involving your video card. Maybe that's a mode that it can't display? Maybe it's a IRQ conflict? Maybe the video card is just fried?
Anyway, you don't always need a whole new computer. You could just try a different video card, or even just removing it and then putting it in again (if it's not integrated that is…).
If worse comes to worse with viruses you could even just replace your hard drive.
Never wipe and reformat a hard drive if it means you'll lose work. There are always ways of removing work from infected drives safely.

ozoneocean
Never wipe and reformat a hard drive if it means you'll lose work. There are always ways of removing work from infected drives safely.

True enough. But she said she already deleted all files. I'm still thinking a re-format is the better option. Wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

.: SpANG! :.

Well yeah. If everything is already deleted, then reformatting is fine.
It still sounds like a problem with the video card, but a full reformat and reinstall of Windows might help if it's just a conflict, because Windows will be all default again.

Blargh. I can see why people get Macs… The trouble is Macs are like laptops: disposable because upgrades are a pain and they're too expensive to fix.