Computer Help

[dennis20014]

Hey all,

I have a few computers in my house, and recently one started going real slow. I figured I had been virused lol if that's a word, but it had been a few months or so since I reinstalled windows so I did a reinstall, and got itu p and runnin but then when I restarted a few days later I got this message

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your puter. If this screen appears again, follow these steps.

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI complian. please contact your vendor or go to this site. www.hard-ware-update.com for an updated bios. If you are unable to obatain an updated bios or the latest bios suplied by ur vendor you can turn off acpi mode during text mode setup. To do this, simply press f7 when u are prompted to install stoarage drivers. The system will not notify u that the f7 was pressed, it will silent disable acpi and allow u to continue ur installation"

This all sort of makes sense to me. I'm not completly stupid but not a big wiz on computer stuff. What I don't get is how this could of happened just now. I haven't put in a new mobo, just a new gfx card and that didn't cause problems when I installed it, and I've had it for a year or so now. Why would this just now occur, when I've already previously reinstalled windows and never gotten this message?

A friend tells me my bios is fried, but that just dont make sense. Anyone want to tell me if I should go ahead and do this? I dont want to screw up my computer for something dumb I do lol

 

[iignotus]

Being that hard-ware-update.com, hardware-update.com, nor hardwareupdate.com really exist, I would say it's a bit of a hoax. I'ven't been on Windows for a while, nor did I ever allow my computer to become susceptible to virii and the like, but the message doesn't sound familiar to me at all.

When do you get the message? Is it a BIOS/POST message, text-level Windows message, or graphical Windows message?

 

[dennis20014]

Uh I'm not sure which one. It comes up on a blue background with white text.

I dont know how it can be a hoax, I have a clean hard drive due to windows being reinstalled, unless somehow something stayed on

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Uh I'm not sure which one. It comes up on a blue background with white text.

I dont know how it can be a hoax, I have a clean hard drive due to windows being reinstalled, unless somehow something stayed on

1st off, your BIOS is okay, if your BIOS had become corrupted, then you would not be able to boot into windows correctly. The BIOS is simply a collection of programs that interface the PC with the hardware, such as Keyboard, hard drives, chipset etc. If it's corrupted, then your PC would fail drastically, so I would really steer clear of updating your BIOS.

It kind of sounds like a spyware attack. After you installed Windows, I am guessing you connected it to the Internet to download updates etc. Did you at that point have any firewall enabled? If not then just the act of connecting to the net risks virus infection, you don't even need to visit any websites for this to happen..

Just for information, some viruses these days are actually a download agent for spyware.
If you don't have a 3rd party firewall software such as Zone alarm, then for gods sake make sure the Windows firewall is turned on. And I would definitely suggest you keep your windows up to date, you really need a minimum of SP2.
Also download Windows Defender and Ad-Aware SE, these are free and I recommend both to sweep your system for spyware as they seem to detect different attacks. Also install a virus checker such as McAfee, Norton's or the very least AVG. You really need Antispyware and Antivirus protection these days. Even more so if you are not using a hardware router with NAT enabled.

This error could also be caused by wrong or corrupted drivers, so I would get the latest drivers for your system.
Don't forget to install the motherboards chipset drivers, these are quite often missed out by people who don't realise how important they are.

I'm not sure I have been of any help here, and I hope you get your system sorted out soon.

Clare.

 

[dennis20014]

There's gotta be something that I did wrong I'm thinking, cause windows never got to finish setting up properly. I never even got to a desktop, or else I'd know that it was some sort of attack.

I use ad-aware, spybot s&d and norton (an legit copy) and only these, but then again
I could still get some sort of attack from a virus etc. etc.

I put my windows disk back in to try to just do it again, but no matter what I do it takes me to that screen. I even made my cd drive the 1st boot priority and it still gave me that. And the directions don't even make sense, since I can't get into any mode of that sort. I'm gonna check into it more though, I might have my tech friend come over or something, but knowin him he'll charge me lol

Later

 

[Javacat]

It probably wont make a difference, but you could open the computer up and resit all of the components. Something might have become loose and be causing a short.

 

[Aninhumer]

As much as I try to avoid sounding like a fanboy, you might want to try a live disk of some sort.
If that boots okay, it's most likely an issue with windows.