friend's computer is messed up...help

[hdeck]

ok so yesterday my friend gets a pm on IRC that says something along the lines of "can you connect to any CS servers?" from someone named h4ck3r. after that he tries to connect, but can't connect to any servers. i test it out and i can connect fine from my computer. so i tell him to reinstall half-life. during the reinstall, it says that he has a corrupt install file. i suggest he buy a new copy of the game (he hasn't done so yet). he then decides to try to play other games. he loads up wc3 and tries to play, but it says it is missing a .dll file. then he tries to play c&c generals, but the game crashing while it is loading the map.

so i tell him to just completely format and reintsall windows. after doing this, he tries reinstalling his games but gets errors installing for half-life and wc3. he can install generals but the game still crashes.

any ideas on what could be wrong? is it possible all 3 games crapped on out him on the same day?

specs:
AMD XP 2200+
512 DDR RAM 2100
Seagate 80 GB HDD
geforce4 ti4600
windows xp pro

 

[Markfw]

Is it overclocked ? What are the memory timings set to ? What else has he changed lately ? Have you run memtest ? Have you run an HD utility to check the disk for errors ?

 

[hdeck]

he left everything stock. he doesnt know anything about overclocking or adjusting timings and voltages. its out of the box alienware.

 

[Malladine]

is it possible all 3 games crapped on out him on the same day?

More likely the reason his comp is messed up is that a small group comprised of nymphs and satyrs have moved in and begun fornicating inside his power supply.

I'd have said contact alienware...it still under warranty? If it isn't, make sure he deleted the old partition before reinstalling. He may have just reinstalled the winnt folder etc. Running a HDD diagnostic utililty wouldn't hurt either.

 

[hdeck]

what's a good hdd utility he could run? i don't know much about faulty hdds. i'll ask if he did a full format on his drive.

 

[Malladine]

Free? Could try SiSoft's Sandra. I don't have any personal experience using hdd diagnostic utils. but I know Sandra is an awesome overall diagnostic/benchmarking tool.

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=&location=sware_dl&langx=en&a=

 

[Electric Amish]

Sounds like he was hacked and maybe infected with a virus.

I'd run a virus scan first. Then uninstally the games and reinstall them and see if that works.

What kind of internet connection and does he have a firewall?

amish

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Sounds like he was hacked and maybe infected with a virus.

I'd run a virus scan first. Then uninstally the games and reinstall them and see if that works.

What kind of internet connection and does he have a firewall?

amish

he ran a virus scan before he formatted and it didn't find anything. no, he doesn't have a firewall. he asked what that was when i asked him....ugh...after he runs sandra i'm going to have him completely format his drive again.

 

[hdeck]

he INSISTS he did a full format twice yesterday before reinstalling windows xp. he ran sandra, but i don't know what to look for that could have been bad??? i'm running out of ideas quickly.

 

[hdeck]

bump