Need help fixing Father's computer

amh03

Tippi Hedren
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 27, 2003
6,638
My 85 year old father isn't sure what happened, but his computer isn't working any longer.  I am guessing he fell onto some site, or received some e-mail that has infected his computer with something, but damn if I can figure it out.  There's always the option to bring it to someone like Geek Squad, but I'd really like to save him the possible $200 bill for that...I'd be very grateful if some of you wise folks might be able to offer some recommendations that might fix things for us.
 
Some facts -
 
Lenovo B575 64-bit laptop
Windows 7 Home Premium w/Service Pack 1
 
 
Symptoms - Regular boot up results in a desktop without icons on the desktop.  The bottom tool bar is there and shows some icons and the Start button, but when I move the mouse down to that bar all I get is a circle rotating.   I'm an unable to ctrl-alt-delete nor can I ctrl-shift-esc.  The only way to shut the laptop down is to hold down the power button.
 
I can reboot the laptop in Safe Mode after that.  And, in trying to fix things, I've run the following, all in Safe Mode:
 
- Tried to run a System Restore - no earlier versions found
- Malwarebytes - full scan found nothing
- Ran tdsskiller - no threats found
- Ran McAfee's Stinger's 64 bit anti virus tool - found no infected files
- Have tried to run Avast antivirus, but get an error when trying to launch the setup - "The installer is unable to initialize early avast! self-defense with error 0x0000043c! Aborting!"
 
I'm not sure what to try and run next...it's got me so confused.  Despite finding no infected files, when I go to re-boot, I'm back at the icon-less desktop and the scrolling round icon...
 
Any thoughts?
 
 
 
 

Harry Hooper

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 4, 2002
34,402
Perhaps the user profile became corrupted. Boot into safe mode and add another user. Reboot normally and then select the new user account. See how that goes.
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 27, 2003
6,638
I'll give it a try, Harry...and DrewDawg, I tried to restore it, but it reports back that there are no previous versions available.
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 27, 2003
6,638
Ok...so, I created the new user, and went to reboot, selected the new user and it's spent the last 10 minutes spinning the "Preparing your desktop".  I'm guessing that's not working...am considering powering down again...
 

McDrew

Set Adrift on Memory Bliss
SoSH Member
Apr 11, 2006
4,060
Portland, OR
Is there a restore disk that came with the laptop?  You'll end up losing everything, but as a last ditch effort, you can restore to a new installation of windows that way. 
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 27, 2003
6,638
AMcGhie said:
Is there a restore disk that came with the laptop?  You'll end up losing everything, but as a last ditch effort, you can restore to a new installation of windows that way. 
There is (I think)...when my sister purchased this laptop for my Dad, she had Geek Squad load some things on it and so I have 2 cds labelled "Lenovo Restore #1 & #2".  I'm guessing that's what those are, though I was hoping to avoid having to wipe everything off...
 
I guess I'll need to try and find anything important that he had on there.  Despite my showing him how to back things up, I don't see any evidence that he did so with any regularity.  Most of the stuff on there would have been invoices for his freelance work and reviews that he'd written for a blog to which he contributes (side mention - the guy is pretty cool for an 85 year old...he's busier than any of us kids!).
 
I thought that there might be a recommendation I hadn't thought of...I mean it really acts as if there's some virus or worm or malware running on it, but the fact that I ran things and detected nothing has me so confused...
 

Harry Hooper

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 4, 2002
34,402
It could be malware damage, but more likely the hard drive is in the early stages of failing. Time for an SSD upgrade.
 

mt8thsw9th

anti-SoSHal
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
17,120
Brooklyn
AMcGhie said:
Is there a restore disk that came with the laptop?  You'll end up losing everything, but as a last ditch effort, you can restore to a new installation of windows that way. 
 
You won't lose everything if you pull out the drive and pull off documents that are needed via SATA. I had a very similar issue with an HP a few years back and that ended up being the "solution". 
 
Either way, it sounds like something which may cost $$ to fix if you cannot do that yourself, and I don't think it's ever worth it on older, cheaper computers such as this one (I think this was in the $300-$400 range new). Either way, it's likely a new hard drive will be needed at the minimum.
 
After years of things like this happening to my parents' computers, I finally convinced them to get a Mac and the panicked calls stopped, but it really comes down to whether it would be worth it or not. Either way, unless someone is missing something obvious, your choices are likely A: get the hard drive replaced and pull data from old drive, or B: get a new computer and pull data from old drive. Parts and labor with the latter will probably be close to $200 (new drive $50, $50 charge from BBY, and $99 for them to transfer data from the old drive), so unless you're technically gifted, it's going to cost a bit.
 

Jim Burton

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
The computer boots up before the problems start, so I'd try booting into a live Ubuntu session (from CD/DVD or USB), then use the file manager to copy important files to a USB stick, if you can see them.

After that....those restore disks would be handy.
 

Harry Hooper

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 4, 2002
34,402
Jim Burton said:
The computer boots up before the problems start, so I'd try booting into a live Ubuntu session (from CD/DVD or USB), then use the file manager to copy important files to a USB stick, if you can see them.

After that....those restore disks would be handy.
 
True, either via Safe Mode or booting off Linux disc, you'll want to port over to USB stick or external USB drive whatever documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, photos, music, and so forth he has on the laptop now. Don't forget to backup his list of favorite websites stored in his browser of choice. Once that's done, you {or he} could do the hard drive upgrade yourselves. It's not as crazy as it sounds.
 
If you watch this video, for example, you'll see it's a matter of removing a few screws and about 30 seconds to get the hard drive (HDD) out of the lenovo. Also, you can look at page 36 of the service manual available here. Reversing the process and physically installing a new hard drive is similarly a quick job. Use the restore discs to install OS onto newly installed drive. Lastly, copy data back over from USB stick or drive. Depending on how much data he has, a new solid state hard drive (SSD) could cost about $75 for a 120GB one, about $120 for a 240Gb one, and so on up in size. Here's one example at Amazon. Yes, you could devote that money to a new laptop instead, but then you still have to pay someone to do the custom config and data transfer.
 
 
Also, I believe the B575 came with a 1-year warranty. If it was purchased with a credit card that doubles the warranty, then maybe it is still under warranty right now?
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 27, 2003
6,638
Wow...great advice here, folks, thank you!

We gave it to him for Xmas 2 years ago, so I doubt any warranty survives, but I'm going to try the restore option.

I can't locate any of his word documents...that's pretty much all he had - invoices to his few clients and reviews of the plays he's done. He has printed copies of all the invoices and any attachments are saved in his yahoo email. So he's saying it's ok to go with a wipe and clean.

I didn't have any more time to work on it this week, so that's my assignment for Sunday. I'll check out that video, Harry & those links. And I'll search a little more for some of his stuff, but then it'll be a full restore I think. Certainly $75 for 120 gig would be fine for what he's doing.

Thank you, all!