Computer won't boot windows

[Mglafas]

My brother?s laptop running windows XP suffered a virus attack some time ago, and so we decided to format the harddrive and install an original copy of Vista. Having booted from the disk, I selected the option of ?format then upgrade? and off it went. To complete installation the computer attempts a reboot but gets stuck in a weird loop. It will display the Asus start screen, go black and then try again. This happens over and over again. If I set it to boot from the optical drive it will display the ?click any button to boot from CD? message, and after having hit a button, just reboot itself again ? another loop. This of course renders the computer useless and is endlessly frustrating. I have thought about flashing the BIOS, but don?t know how as it?s a laptop. Does anyone have any idea of how to remedy this? Might it be possible to boot from an external DVD drive through connected via USB?

Any suggestions welcome. Many thanks!

 

[Denithor]

First thing I would try on a laptop is reset the BIOS. Either "load defaults" if that's an option or read up in the manual (online if no paper copy) for how to do that (either a jumper or pull all the batteries & unplug). Then try again.

 

[Intexity]

I would recommend doing a dariks boot and nuke cd to the drive and completely wipe it clean. Probably want to do some kind of hardware test on the drive also.