I opened an email supposedly from my sister... even though that account had not been active in over a year.

The email had no subject.

The virus scan on my laptop warned me, said it wouldn't open the email, so I deleted it.

Shortly thereafter, my computer started to automatically sign off.

Now, it won't even sign on, let alone get any power whatsoever.

Now what?

Luckily I still have my desktop... but still

Okay folks... what do I do?

Anyone?

Hello?

sorry June not sure of what to do, myself, otherwise I'd be happy to help out

Your computer needs a patch, take it in to be fixed.

luv4u said:

That's not what I wanted to hear... last time that happened, it cost me $30 bucks!!

Natisse said:

Awww... thanks.

I hear the remedy is to drop a brick on it.

Man, the computer nerds have all but dissappeared 'round here....

my computer did that when it had worms

try panda active scan to find out which virus it is

then panda quick remover

http://www.pandasoftware.com/
[This message was edited Fri Jul 23 3:56:31 2004 by Raine]

OK, I'm not a fully-fledged nerd, but I'll try to help.

You say you're getting no power - any lights come on, anything on the screen, does the hard drive spin (in other words any signs of electrical activity) when you attempt to power up ?

If not, it could be a physical problem with the machine itself, you'll need to have a professional look at it. Or it could be either a dodgy battery or dodgy power supply - try all the possiblities :
1. power up on battery power
2. power up on mains power
3. remove the battery and power up on mains power
4. If you have (or know anyone who has) an identical power supply that you know works try powering up using that (both with and without the battery attached).

If you are getting power what do you see on screen when you boot up ? Are you getting any of the normal BIOS messages (keyboard detected, hard drive detected etc) ?

If not refer to above answer, machine needs to be looked at.

If so, at what point does the machine hang ? Assuming you're using a version of Windoze do you get to see any windoze splash screen ?

If so try booting up in safe mode and run virus checking software.

If not try stopping the BIOS on boot up (how you stop the bios depends on the machine - on mine I press the tab key, but one of the bios messages that appears on screen should tell you what key to press to stop it) and make sure the bios can detect your hard drive. If it hasn't check that your hard drive is connected properly (although with laptops there are no wires to come loose so generally your hard drive is either connected properly or there's a big hole in the bottom of your laptop where a hard drive should be). The hard drives used in laptops are generally not as sturdy as the manufacturers would like you to believe. One thump or knock can kill them, which could explain your BIOS not finding it. If this is the case, again, you'll need to have it looked at.

If none of the above, dig out your emergency recovery disk (assuming you've made one) and insert in drive A:


Just throwing some ideas out here, if you give me more detailed information on what exactly happens when you try to boot up we'll be able to eliminate some possible causes anyway.