help please: XP immediately shuts down after start up

[Dorothy]

help please, I don't know if my computer has been infected
by a virus or if this is some hardware problem.

here's the situation:
- weird characters started showing up at some of my keys
(eg. when I try to type "." something like "/.]" will show
up, when I try to type "h" it'll behave like I just
pressed the windows menu key)

- I restarted the computer

- as soon as it restarts, dozens of windows pop up
saying "blahblahblah failed to initialize because Windows
is shutting down"

- then a program termination thing pops up (the kind you
get when you try to shut down a "not responding" program
with ctrl+alt+delete ) the program varies from ccApp to
explorer.exe, etc

- computer automatically shuts down.

I tried holding the "ctrl" key while starting up, but it
won't let me start up in safe mode. I think it might have
to do with the keyboard inserting extra characters when I
type.

Also tried going to system restore, but it shuts down
before I managed to go anywhere.

McAfee is one of those program that "fail to initialize
because Windows is shutting down". Needless to say, shut
down beats me to Trend Micro housecall too.

Does anyone know what's wrong with my computer, and how
can I fix it?

thanks!

[Malke]

Dorothy wrote:

> help please, I don't know if my computer has been infected
> by a virus or if this is some hardware problem.
>
> here's the situation:
> - weird characters started showing up at some of my keys
> (eg. when I try to type "." something like "/.]" will show
> up, when I try to type "h" it'll behave like I just
> pressed the windows menu key)
>
> - I restarted the computer
>
> - as soon as it restarts, dozens of windows pop up
> saying "blahblahblah failed to initialize because Windows
> is shutting down"
>
> - then a program termination thing pops up (the kind you
> get when you try to shut down a "not responding" program
> with ctrl+alt+delete ) the program varies from ccApp to
> explorer.exe, etc
>
> - computer automatically shuts down.
>
> I tried holding the "ctrl" key while starting up, but it
> won't let me start up in safe mode. I think it might have
> to do with the keyboard inserting extra characters when I
> type.
>
> Also tried going to system restore, but it shuts down
> before I managed to go anywhere.
>
> McAfee is one of those program that "fail to initialize
> because Windows is shutting down". Needless to say, shut
> down beats me to Trend Micro housecall too.

Your post is a bit confused so it's hard to say for sure, but it sounds
like you have the Msblaster virus. However, ccApp is a Norton Antivirus
file and you also say you have McAfee. Running two antivirus programs
can certainly cause problems. Here's a link to information about the
Msblaster worm:

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

Post back if you need more help. Please include some clarifying details
about your system and the antivirus programs you are running.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"