Can't Boot - Boot confounded by virus after XP Home REPAIR session

[Orfeo]

I'm repairing a portable that has been badly virused and is loaded with
Spy-ware.

Using AV software I seemed to get rid of seven viruses successfully and
obtain a report that the system was virus-free. Similarly all Spy-ware was
reported as cleaned by appropriate software.

However, the keyboard still seemed to be hijacked. The keyboard's numeric
keys including u,i,o,j,k,l,m perist in rendering only 4,5,6,1,2,3,0.

In a weak-minded moment I decided the best way to fix this was via the
'recovery' option of the XP Home Edition CD.

I inserted the CD, made the appropriate 'recovery of an existing XP
installation' type responses and all seemed to go as expected (no problems)
to a normal conclusion.

On completion, I booted normally ut found that the system insisted that I
had to 'activate' the installed OS. Fine, the first two letters of the first
code group being 'GK...' I hit the 'G' key, up came 'G' then the 'K' key.
did I get a 'K' - no, as you've probably guessed, I got a '2'. The
originally offending virus/spy-ware routine was still very much with me...

So, now I find I can't get in to normal mode AND I'm not allowed access to
safe mode until I activate the installed XP Home Edition. However, I cant
activate it because my keyboard is stuffed by the infection outlined above.

If any of you out there can help me, i'll be most grateful.

I'm off to bed for the next six hours. Maybe it'll give you thinking types
time to reflect on my 'catch 22' situation.

My thanks to all who decide to contribute.

Cheers.

Orfeo.

The

[Ross Durie]

More likely a faulty keyboard BUT you aren't going to remove viruses/spyware
unless you at least destroy the registry and at best reformat.

--
Ross
"Orfeo" > wrote in message
...
> I'm repairing a portable that has been badly virused and is loaded with
> Spy-ware.
>
> Using AV software I seemed to get rid of seven viruses successfully and
> obtain a report that the system was virus-free. Similarly all Spy-ware
was
> reported as cleaned by appropriate software.
>
> However, the keyboard still seemed to be hijacked. The keyboard's numeric
> keys including u,i,o,j,k,l,m perist in rendering only 4,5,6,1,2,3,0.
>
> In a weak-minded moment I decided the best way to fix this was via the
> 'recovery' option of the XP Home Edition CD.
>
> I inserted the CD, made the appropriate 'recovery of an existing XP
> installation' type responses and all seemed to go as expected (no
problems)
> to a normal conclusion.
>
> On completion, I booted normally ut found that the system insisted that I
> had to 'activate' the installed OS. Fine, the first two letters of the
first
> code group being 'GK...' I hit the 'G' key, up came 'G' then the 'K' key.
> did I get a 'K' - no, as you've probably guessed, I got a '2'. The
> originally offending virus/spy-ware routine was still very much with me...
>
> So, now I find I can't get in to normal mode AND I'm not allowed access to
> safe mode until I activate the installed XP Home Edition. However, I cant
> activate it because my keyboard is stuffed by the infection outlined
above.
>
> If any of you out there can help me, i'll be most grateful.
>
> I'm off to bed for the next six hours. Maybe it'll give you thinking
types
> time to reflect on my 'catch 22' situation.
>
> My thanks to all who decide to contribute.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Orfeo.
>
> The

[Orfeo]

Thanks for the response, Ross. :-)

Well, it's all done and dusted now.

I plugged in an 'external' keyboard which was unaffected by the spy-ware
component that had screwed the keyboard.

Using the external keyboard, I completed OS activation. I loaded up [yet
another...] AV product and excised the troublesome spy-ware component
[keyboard scrambler...] from the portable.

Having cleaned-up the device, I was able to squirt a hard drive image up to
a server, replace the failing HDD and, subsequently, effect a bare-metal
restore of the HDD image to the new disk. Voila! All sorted.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Cheers.

Orfeo.

"Ross Durie" wrote:

> More likely a faulty keyboard BUT you aren't going to remove viruses/spyware
> unless you at least destroy the registry and at best reformat.
>
> --
> Ross
> "Orfeo" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I'm repairing a portable that has been badly virused and is loaded with
> > Spy-ware.
> >
> > Using AV software I seemed to get rid of seven viruses successfully and
> > obtain a report that the system was virus-free. Similarly all Spy-ware
> was
> > reported as cleaned by appropriate software.
> >
> > However, the keyboard still seemed to be hijacked. The keyboard's numeric
> > keys including u,i,o,j,k,l,m perist in rendering only 4,5,6,1,2,3,0.
> >
> > In a weak-minded moment I decided the best way to fix this was via the
> > 'recovery' option of the XP Home Edition CD.
> >
> > I inserted the CD, made the appropriate 'recovery of an existing XP
> > installation' type responses and all seemed to go as expected (no
> problems)
> > to a normal conclusion.
> >
> > On completion, I booted normally ut found that the system insisted that I
> > had to 'activate' the installed OS. Fine, the first two letters of the
> first
> > code group being 'GK...' I hit the 'G' key, up came 'G' then the 'K' key.
> > did I get a 'K' - no, as you've probably guessed, I got a '2'. The
> > originally offending virus/spy-ware routine was still very much with me...
> >
> > So, now I find I can't get in to normal mode AND I'm not allowed access to
> > safe mode until I activate the installed XP Home Edition. However, I cant
> > activate it because my keyboard is stuffed by the infection outlined
> above.
> >
> > If any of you out there can help me, i'll be most grateful.
> >
> > I'm off to bed for the next six hours. Maybe it'll give you thinking
> types
> > time to reflect on my 'catch 22' situation.
> >
> > My thanks to all who decide to contribute.
> >
> > Cheers.
> >
> > Orfeo.
> >
> > The
>
>
>