my system recently crashed, i got a warning red message that poped up on my screen saying that my system was infected(i forgot the actual message), it was from windows and not a pop-up(i know this for sure), when i tried to run my spyware software, the computer shut-down and tried to restart and all i would get is the "windows xp" start up screen and then the computer would shut down and restart itelf all over again, and it was just in a continous cycle, so now i have to break down and get a virus protector,so anyhow last thing that i remember doing is downloading some music files and a good majority of them were blank files, so i was really wondering if there are any viruses that can be attached with downloading music???

LOL!! If you were downloading from a p2p program such as kazaa or limewire you probably have downloaded at least one maybe a bunch of viruses. Try booting in the safe mode, turn off system restore, then go to trendmicro.com and run housecall. If you have a antivirus program update it and run it also.

"it was from windows and not a pop-up(i know this for sure)" You know this how exactly? Which native Windows feature is it that flashes "infected" messages? Anyway..follow Per's advice. It will get you started anyway. Jimi_l

Before you come back and tell us that you can't connect to the net from "safe mode" go HERE to learn how it's done. Lessons learnt the hard way are not easily forgotten.

jimi let me rephraze this :""it was from windows and not a pop-up(i know this for sure)" You know this how exactly? Which native Windows feature is it that flashes "infected" messages?: it was a typo, sorry i wrote kind of quick, your right, it wasnt windows, it was one of my spyware programs, and i think iam just going to reformat the whole harddrive and just start from scratch i dont really need to worry about the programs that i had in my system bc i partioned my HD just in case this did happend to me, i had theory this might end up happening to me if i didnt get a virus checker

Windows Security alert display tht you may not have active virus protection on your computer, but it will not flat out tell you you're infected with a certain virus. There are con programs that tell you "warning your system is infected -- click here to clean windows" etc. that are obviously threats to your computer. But yes, try safe mode with networking support like said, and write back.