What went wrong?

[spizzard]

Hello, today, I was using my desktop and downloading a file. Well, virus scan detected a virus so I immediately deleted the file. However, shortly after this, I received the irql_not_equal_less_than BSOD and I just shrugged it off at first and restarted. But then it did it again a few minutes into boot, and just continued doing this. I tested my memory sticks one at a time and the error continues.

Now, multiple random things happen:

Computer freezes up right after posting...it shows the processor speed and that is it, does not run memory test.

Computer loads to windows and multiple things go wrong...(last time this happened I had a page_fault error BSOD after a shutdown in 40 seconds message)

Windows starts to load but says it cannot find (ntsokernel(sp) or win32k.sys) and I have to restart.

I've tried reinstalling windows, but it freezes shortly after loading the kernel or during it.
I've even gotten as far as deleting the partition and reinstalling, but I got an ntfs file error (i've gotten it twice at this point and before it)

I"ve unhooked my primary hd, the one with windows on it and tried to install to another hd, but I windows setup freezes.

Did my processor or motherboard go bad? Is my hd corrupted which then corrupted my whole system?

Any help would be appreciated, this is really frustrating because it was running fine recently. I'm thinking it could be any number of problems but i've leaning towards the virus. And since so many random things are happening, i'm not sure if something might be trashed.

System specs are:
amd XP-M 2500+
Asus a7n8x-x
2x 512 pc3200 DDR
Geforce 4 ti 4200
Windows XP - Pro w/ sp1
1 Maxtor 60gb, 1 maxtor 80gb

 

[Fern]

Seems odd.

You have Maxtors drives, so. Try just having the one main drive in, then use Maxblast 3 to do a LL format (first try the "quick version" it'll take only a few seconds, blows out the MBR). The long version takes hours.

Then try to reinstall.