OK heres the problem.the first thing that happened was no matter what i could not turn on norton auto-protecting ( where it runs in the background) which was no big deal now when I open certain explorer folders it causes explorer to crash. Now my bios cant read my cdroms (2) but when it gets to windows it finds new hardware and says new cdrom found then about 5 seconds later it pops up with new hardware found but its a jiberish and when I try to play mp3's it says wrong format and also alot of my programs wont start when I try. Ok so heres what I have done i ran Norton anti-virus about 4 times being updated to the newest. I have downloaded AVG anti-virus free from the website ran it and it said 4 new viruses have been found and fixed (not deleted) after i did that windows was really unstable it would even lock up in safemode so I uninstalled it and ran ad-ware 6.0 it found files and fixed it but I still have the problem. my only guess is it is a virus but both anti virus cant find it. I wont shut off my comp because I dont think it will boot back up with all the problems. anyway any help would be great because I'm running out of ideas to try. thanks alot. Jerry Response Number 1 Name: XAero Date: January 15, 2004 at 14:19:47 Pacific Subject: Its a virus right Reply: Hi Jerry what virus info does avg mention in its vault? (programs/vault or results /test results box)should give you some info even if it cant heal the virus properly. some viruses are aimed at damaging norton but that to shouldve give some indication what they were. repost your findings maybe ppl can help further. Response Number 2 Name: Bigjerry1979 Date: January 15, 2004 at 14:44:44 Pacific Subject: Its a virus right Reply: well from what I remember it was four (4) dysfuntional viruses it said and I clicked on them and it said it didnt have anymore info on them after that i uninstalled AVG because the system kept locking up and wouldnt let me open up anything. heres something I left out the first time. I found my friends old HDD and hooked it up as a slave to my pc and copyed all his personal files to mine so I could burn it for him thats when most of the bad stuff started happening ( bios couldnt read cdroms (2) and windows found new hardware) ( see up top for more) and now that I remember the 4 virues I found was in the new files I copied to my deaktop from his HDD. But what i dont understand is the HDD hasnt been used in about 3 years so why couldnt norton find atleast a 3 year old virus from the files i copied?? If you have anymore questions just ask I need the help thanks alot Jerry

F-prot free version anti-virus runs in DOS. You install the files to a folder on your desk top, then open the F-PROT.exe file. It has found potentially suspect files on my PC that were not picked up by Norton. One such suspect file was a text file that had charactors as you would see if you opened a 'non-text' file with notepad. This may find something.

Hello BigJerry, To resume the situation, you are runing together two anti-virus ? Norton and AVG... so it's totally normal you get a problem, one program is mistaken by the other. Norton using the auto-protect procedure which is a sort of permanent control into your memory ram is considerated by AVG as a unknown problem...as for example a virus acting into your computer.... If you wants to get a big crash of your computer, just continue this way....

Bigjerry1979 After you hooked up your friends hard drive to your computer and transferred the files...If and when you unhooked his hard drive...are all the cables in the tower nice and snug? (dont force them...you dont want to crack the motherboard) hooked up correctly? If you had to unhook your cd burner and cdrom to get at the cable for the hard drive is it possible you hooked the data cable up different when you took out his hard drive? (make sure the data cables (the flat ones) are hooked up so the (usually red) mark down the side of data cable is on pin1 on the motherboard and the cdroms...there is usually marks showing pin1) Also while you are in there...check to see if any of the pins are bent or missing. I have seen it happen windows seeing new hardware that way. If you can get to the device manager...check if there are any conflicts in there. To get there... Right click my computer Click properties Click hardware tab Click device manager button If there is conflicts...you would see a ? or ! If you go into your bios...make sure it sees: Primary master....hard drive Primary slave....none (if you removed other hard drive) Secondary master...one of the cdrom's Secondary slave...the other cdrom