Laptop freezes, and will not boot from DVD.

[Henry Landivar]

I noticed that 3 days ago my Samsung RF711-S02 Notebook win 7 Laptop rebooted and when I went to start firefox, it froze. When I restarted it got very sluggish and froze when I put firefox on it again. In safe mode I went to Selective start up nothing and it got worse. avast was either corrputed or deactivated. Malewarebytes got the same thing. I did a virus can and cleaned anything there that was fishy.I tried again and still freezing.I tried the recovery CD and it would not read it. I went to Samsung and they suggested I do I a basic recovery... nothing... then a complete recovery, i did and I had a back up image from Nov which it DID load up to. I then restarted it so i can update the laptop, and it froze again on shut down. I tried to get the recovery disk to work but even tho the int dvd was 1st boot it would not work. I then attached my external Dvd and tried on that one, when I went to Bios it would not let me change boot order. I did find a boot override and choose that ext dvd, and still it booted from HD. Samsung now says it is a hardware issue. I am at a wits end... does any one there have an idea what the hell is going on?

 

[Chicano]

1. If you haven't reset the BIOS to default settings that's the next thing to do.
2. You may need to enable USB boot to make the external optical drive boot
If the problem persists,
3. try removing the internal optical drive to see if it makes a difference.
Damaged hardware can cause such problems so what the Samsusng guy said, is a clear possibility.

 

[Henry Landivar]

1. If you haven't reset the BIOS to default settings that's the next thing to do.
2. You may need to enable USB boot to make the external optical drive boot
If the problem persists,
3. try removing the internal optical drive to see if it makes a difference.
Damaged hardware can cause such problems so what the Samsusng guy said, is a clear possibility.

I did reset bios, and it did not let me enable the ext dvd drive to boot, but there was a boot override option that I did select it did try to go to the recovery disk it instead the HD took over. If it is hardware what might it be?

 

[Chicano]

1. If you haven't reset the BIOS to default settings that's the next thing to do.
2. You may need to enable USB boot to make the external optical drive boot
If the problem persists,
3. try removing the internal optical drive to see if it makes a difference.
Damaged hardware can cause such problems so what the Samsusng guy said, is a clear possibility.

I did reset bios, and it did not let me enable the ext dvd drive to boot, but there was a boot override option that I did select it did try to go to the recovery disk it instead the HD took over. If it is hardware what might it be?

A) The internal CD/DVD drive might be the problem. On laptops you can easily slide it out.. see if that helps boot the OS or even make the external drive boot.

B) On the BIOS reset; do it again... if A) fails.
1. by resetting it to defaults,
2. restart and again go into the BIOS, and change the boot order,
3. restart and again go to the BIOS and check if the boot order changed.
4. If nothing works, it may be necessary to reset the BIOS with the jumper or removing the battery, the only problem is on laptops that's not easy done but consider that option if the problem persists.. this because the BIOS can get infected and/or corrupted and clearing the user added settings is the way to clean it... updating it can also do the job even if the only available update is the same version as the one installed.

 

[Henry Landivar]

1. If you haven't reset the BIOS to default settings that's the next thing to do.
2. You may need to enable USB boot to make the external optical drive boot
If the problem persists,
3. try removing the internal optical drive to see if it makes a difference.
Damaged hardware can cause such problems so what the Samsusng guy said, is a clear possibility.

I did reset bios, and it did not let me enable the ext dvd drive to boot, but there was a boot override option that I did select it did try to go to the recovery disk it instead the HD took over. If it is hardware what might it be?

A) The internal CD/DVD drive might be the problem. On laptops you can easily slide it out.. see if that helps boot the OS or even make the external drive boot.

B) On the BIOS reset; do it again... if A) fails.
1. by resetting it to defaults,
2. restart and again go into the BIOS, and change the boot order,
3. restart and again go to the BIOS and check if the boot order changed.
4. If nothing works, it may be necessary to reset the BIOS with the jumper or removing the battery, the only problem is on laptops that's not easy done but consider that option if the problem persists.. this because the BIOS can get infected and/or corrupted and clearing the user added settings is the way to clean it... updating it can also do the job even if the only available update is the same version as the one installed.

Guess I am going to have to remove the battery since the other tips didn't work.... BTW was this a virus??? I ask just incase I need to give my cousin any bills since I found him using it right before this happned.

 

[Chicano]

That depends on what type of websites your cousin visited... some are notorious for attacking system through the web browser.. and the only way to know is if a good antivirus reacts to them and even blocks them. The Avast Web Rep toolbar turns from green to orange and red according to the notoriety of the website... but if the antivirus is deactivated or not configured correctly, it can't do it's job.

Firefox freezing up may have been due to infection. You said the virus scan "cleaned anything that was fishy"? possibly the cause of the problem.... but it may have not completely got rid of it. In some cases it's necessary to disable System Restore before deleting viruses and malware because they can save copies of themselves in the SR folder, and later restore themselves back on the system after you have cleaned it.

You said Avast was either corrupted or deactivated? that's another possible result of virus infection.. or maybe your cousin deactivated (it?)... that's for you to ask or conclude after doing a full and correct virus scan, also checking the web browser history and cookies for website names. Firefox stores cookies in a file called cookies.sqlite inside your profile folder. For details of how to find the profile folder see https/support.mozilla.com/kb/Profiles

 

[Henry Landivar]

That depends on what type of websites your cousin visited... some are notorious for attacking system through the web browser.. and the only way to know is if a good antivirus reacts to them and even blocks them. The Avast Web Rep toolbar turns from green to orange and red according to the notoriety of the website... but if the antivirus is deactivated or not configured correctly, it can't do it's job.

Firefox freezing up may have been due to infection. You said the virus scan "cleaned anything that was fishy"? possibly the cause of the problem.... but it may have not completely got rid of it. In some cases it's necessary to disable System Restore before deleting viruses and malware because they can save copies of themselves in the SR folder, and later restore themselves back on the system after you have cleaned it.

You said Avast was either corrupted or deactivated? that's another possible result of virus infection.. or maybe your cousin deactivated (it?)... that's for you to ask or conclude after doing a full and correct virus scan, also checking the web browser history and cookies for website names. Firefox stores cookies in a file called cookies.sqlite inside your profile folder. For details of how to find the profile folder see https/support.mozilla.com/kb/Profiles

Yeah that's what I figured... Especially since when I restored my firefox profile it froze right after I rebooted. I have one last question for you... the laptop no longer even reads the HD now I went to bios it it still reads it tho. I did take the HD to another PC and hooked it up as an ext HD, and it worked fine. I do have my HD's image backed up from a few months ago (when it was fine and saved on another HD), and since I been thinking about getting a new 1.5 TB HD could I just get a new HD reinstalled windows 7 on it, or is the virus in Bios also since it refused to let me change the boot order? Muchas Gracias para tu ayuda Chicano.

 

[Chicano]

If both optic and hard drives are having trouble, a new hard drive wouldn't make much difference... but it would help get closer to pinpointing the problem, possibly on the BIOS or motherboard... and if you already planned to buy a new HD, then go ahead and get it, and if it doesn't help, the next thing would be to reset the BIOS. Also while the laptop is open, check the CPU ventilation is not obstructed, that the CPU fan works, overheating can cause different types of issues so that's another possibility to consider. Also and before anything else, check the RAM modules are correctly seated. If after all these checks are done the problem still persists, the cause might be motherboard damage.

Espero que te sirva esta ayuda Henry.

 

[Henry Landivar]

If both optic and hard drives are having trouble, a new hard drive wouldn't make much difference... but it would help get closer to pinpointing the problem, possibly on the BIOS or motherboard... and if you already planned to buy a new HD, then go ahead and get it, and if it doesn't help, the next thing would be to reset the BIOS. Also while the laptop is open, check the CPU ventilation is not obstructed, that the CPU fan works, overheating can cause different types of issues so that's another possibility to consider. Also and before anything else, check the RAM modules are correctly seated. If after all these checks are done the problem still persists, the cause might be motherboard damage.

Espero que te sirva esta ayuda Henry.

I did some more research and it looks like I got a MBR virus... it is one of those that can hide in the Bios. Bios refuses to go to default or allow for Boot Order change, even with the Bios Boot Override System. I did actually was able to get the recovery disk up but it refused to go to start up repair, or recovery repair. I spoke to Samsung about just doing a factory reinstall and they told me to change some options in bios... Only to find out that those options are not even there any more. it looks like I may have to flash bios, to get it working again, which its what I would want to do since it is only 1 year old, and rather expensive.
Gracias Otra vez.
henry

 

[Chicano]

Yeah.. forgot about MBR corruption (or infection, which results in the same issues)... A BIOS Update/Flash is what I suggested in the second answer, so I did have the right idea. And if the BIOS is missing options, the virus must have deleted them so you do have to flash it and in my opinion you have to do it as soon as possible because who knows if the virus keeps deleting more of the BIOS and you may wind up with a useless motherboard. Flashing should delete the virus since the BIOS is deleted is deleted in the process and that should delete whatever infection or corruption that's causing the problem.. and if the MBR is also infected, formatting the hard drive should remove it... also scanning the HD from another computer may remove the MBR virus.
Saludos.