Computer crashes

[miblo63]

Hi,
I've been through other post which looked like mine, but not quite the same.
My girlfriend was having trouble with her computer, AVG wouldn't scan nor update. So I installed Avast to allow her to have protection.
During installation, Avast asked me to scan my computer on my next reboot, which sounded a good idea. On reboot, the computer froze during the scan. We had no choice but to shut it down. But once we did, we started to get blue screen on the login window, every single time...

You can imagine that my girlfriend wasn't happy about this. You can also imagine what kind of comments I get since then.

The computer uses Windows XP, I tried to boot in safe-mode, it freezes on login window...

So, I just want to get to the desktop to get her files back before running a complete clean up (which should have been done a long time ago, she just clicks on anything to get her True Blood episodes and get all kind of crap...).

Can anyone help me?

[SHARKY7SHARKY]

Have you tried safe mode the menu that comes up Last known good configuration?

[SHARKY7SHARKY]

Your keyboard is working, but sometimes the mouse if connected to an usb port needs to be placed in another port hence you can not move it in windows safe mode.

[ady4um]

Using an XP CD that should have the same exact version of your XP currently installed (same language, same SP, same edition) use the command SFC / SCANNOW to check and rebuild the system files.

Then you should be able to boot into safe mode.

Or, you could use some Live CD / USB to backup (effectively skipping XP's system files).

[miblo63]

Turned out that the keyboard and mouse got deactivated (it's a labtop). We managed to plug a keyboard and a mouse and after some tries, we got to make it into safe mode!

We then copied all the important files. Uninstall of Avast wasn't too successful...  We never got to make the labtop keyboard and mouse work, I tried via the configuration pannel, the computer tells me that everything is fine.

I will try the last good know configuration if it ever get closed (we are too scared to close it...). We don't have the XP cd.. just a cd from toshiba to format and put it back to its original state, which will be done once we get a hold of the microsoft office suite.

Thanks a lot for your responses!

[ady4um]

What about BIOS settings for the mouse and keyboard?

About uninstalling Avast under Safe Mode, you could download the specific removal tool for Avast and copy it (using USB or whatever) to the laptop. Run it under Safe Mode.

The same should be done for other AV tools that you *think* you already uninstalled.

Avast removal utility:http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility.

Many other removal utilities for security software (to be ran under Windows Safe Mode too):http://thewebatom.net/uninstallers/security-software/.

[miblo63]

Do you think that uninstalling the program will "un-quarantine" the data and get it back to its previous state?

[DavidR]

When you uninstall, anything in quarantine (the avast chest) is removed (deleted) not unlocked/released.

[Lisandro]

This is a thing that other antivirus (at least AVG had this feature) ask while uninstalling: to keep or remove the logs and quarantined files.