It appears my friend got a virus, his PC shuts down repeatedly, not allowing time for any virus checks etc. He also can't enter SAFE mode before it shuts down. He's on his way over to get my Norton disc - if he loads the CD directly before turning on the computer and boots up straight into the software, will this let him bypass whatever is shutting down his machine long enough to scan or is he SOL? Anyone know what the most common virus is called that turns off PCs? I know there are tons, but I've had this one before myself about 6 months ago I think. Thanks a lot...

From memory you can boot off of the Norton disc and do a scan before Windows loads. The virus definitions will not be updated but it's better than nothing. You may be able to run F-PROT in DOS but I'm not sure if it works with XP. F-prot is free for use in DOS and so you can give it a try (download to your PC, unzip & burn to CD-R). I read of a virus that adds a command 'shut down' to the start menu. I'm out of my depth here but someone may be able to give you the DOS commands to read text within a file. There are other reasons why a PC can shut off.... over heating CPU (check fan spins and not clogged with dust). Bad memory (try one stick in PC at a time). Boot into DOS and if it still shuts down this would suggest it's not a Windows virus..... Anyone with better ideas????

Hi all If you have a second pc running norton you can take the infected HD out and connect it to the clean computer. On the clean computer take the cdrom ide cable off and connect it to the infected HD and it will become your drive D: or what ever. If it is set to master you cant infect the clean computer. Run norton on drive D: and it will kill the virus.