heya people,

am having some seriously bad problems with my computer! it all started while messing around with a usb dongle (probably has nothing to do with that)

but basically what appears to have happened is that something somewhere has failed... but going over the logs and error reports, it now looks like it's a software thing...

when starting up, i am able to get to the windows xp logon screen. i log in as normal, then it hangs and doesnt load up windows. I can still use crt alt del to bring up processes running and there's about 16 of em. the more i entice the use of the processer, it seems more and more load up, ending up with the desktop and at this point the computer is now running. I have access to the files, tools, programs etc... at this point though, i get a lot of error messages including debug ones. as well as all this, i get the message saying register windows. I now beleive its just asking what you have suggested, using the previous serial number, which after a frantic search ive found it (it wasnt on my PC!)however i have no acess to the internet as the services that controlls both wireless and lan are not running. other services not running include windows sound, windows firewall, and several of the mcaffee protection services (worrying). however i am still able to run full virus scans and they are showing nothing.

but when i run msconfig, virtually all of the services in the background are not running... and when i try to start them, the call is blocked. these services include interent and wireless, ive selected the 'boot with all services and startup items' but this doesnt make any difference to them. so without the interent, i cant register windows. even if i did, i still have a broken OP system.

i tried using the recovery boot option but it was 'unable to detect any hard drives'. i have two and are both in raid mode but it cant seem to find them, even though it's able to boot from them so there clearly there and working!

i thought about re-installing windows, so i tried it. it wouldnt accept the old serial number. i guess it figures!

anyways, sorry to bore you and thanks for reading if you got this far 

any suggestions would be most helpful.

my specs are

amd 3700+ 64 bit
asus K8V deluxe motherboard
gigabyte nVidia 6800gt 256 mb
2 gig kingston ram
1x 80gig 10,000rpm hdd
1x 80 gig 7,000rpm hdd
plus optical drives and usb stuff etc...

windows XP pro SP3 fully updated.

anyways, thanks in advance A)for reading this lot and B) for any help you may offer me!

Cheers,

Deano

OK its a bad thing.
Did you install anything before that started to happen?
Can you start in safe mode? (press f8 on boot)
I had something similar with the HD's, are they sata?IF yes what worked with me was to go to bios and load the safe defaults (dont ask why..but it worked).
Windows not accepting serial..HMMMMMMMMMMM......STRANGE.
If you want to reset the cmos dont forget to pull the electric cord on the back, some MB are very temperamental about it.
Try to format your HD with something like "Kill disk" IT WILL FORMAT IT.
INTERNET sir, you need to control your deslexia
I hope it helped, keep us posted
Cheers

Definetly sounds like Spyware or Malware. With these two types of what I call viruses, you can't do a thing unless you have a disk with a virus scan or spyware. If this doesnt work call a friend or computer tech to diagnose the problem it might cost some money but it would be worth it.

Well when you boot on safe mode many services will be down.
But the main thing is to see if you can see and uninstall something that might have caused the problem.

Now you say you try to do the cd autostart, so i presume that now
your HD are detected right?If yes thats less one problem.

Now windows, getting the blue screen, do you remember what cames in that blue screen?
Are you sure your cd is running ok, is the windows good, no scraches on the cd?

Did you use "Kill Disk" i say this because if it is some kind of virus or bug it will be erased.

I can tell you another thing that happen to me, with a virus (i guess that what it was).I dont know how it got there, but one day i turn the pc on and after booting to windows it asked me a password to get inside, well i NEVER use passwords. Not even in safe mode i could get that. So i thought install everthing back again, what a surprise, it could not find the HD, and the boot order was altered, so i need to change on the bios..... guess what? the bios was asking for a password too  . I NEVER USE PASSWORDS.

After i reset the cmos (power cord out and all the process), and arranged the boot order, i had the blue screen saying, that the HD was unformated, and windows could not format the HD.So i used Kill Disk.
It takes about 30 min to do it, BUT IT DID IT.

I hope this might give you some other ideas to solve your problem.
Keep us posted pls
Cheers

Get the latest mobo drivers from the mfgr and update or reinstall.

Off the cuff it sounds like a mobo HDD controller issue - I'd check that out first. If it won't recognize the drives in safe mode you have some low level issues happening.