I have a new (12 days) install of old Windows XP Pro. It run fairly well on the previous hardware, but now it went into full screen MSDOS mode when starting the computer and wiped out parts of commercial (licensed and paid) programs. There should be no malware, AVG 7.5 and other AVGs are installed, running and updated overnights. The actions look like deleting Trojans, etc. and it is possible to by-pass the process by hitting a key exactly at the right time. It is not a BIOS process, not AVG security, but something in the Windows boot-up chain.
At least parts of NCH audio / telephony software was damaged and whole Compro VideoMate T-220 software ceased to work. Both has been running properly more than a week, survived several restarts. Both are Windows certified. Most of the deletions were DLLs. Somehow it looked like Windows scanning the computer before stopping, writing home and then deleting these software modules. There may be other damages I haven't seen, because the computer runs over 100 programs.
It is a Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3 MB plus AMD Athlon 64 3800+ with SATA disk and Compro VideoMate T-220 DVB-T card and 450 W (about twice the power needed) PSU. Hardware is burnt-in, tested and stable, maybe not best available, but suitable for this purpose and good value for money.
The big question - how to by-pass or disable permanently that cleaning process ? Another thing - is there a way to refuse all updated if I one day get it running properly. I look after a few friends' computers as a hobby and unwanted automatic updates (by accidentally hitting the load and install icon) are the main source of mess.
Do not recommend Linux. I have last versions of Novell SuSE and Ubuntu, trying to move as much work over Linux as possible. Hope one day to be able to throw away all over ten 98SE, XP and unused Vista boxes.
To update the story, restore to the restore point before fault generates similar MSDOS screen complaining about some file structure errors. As usual, restore does not fix the problem. Sound is totally missing, except the internal speaker and video is not working. Driver lists (Accessories > System Tools > System Info) do not indicated anything relating to the "challenge". System and Application logs (Administrative Tools > Event Viewer > System OR Application) have clusters of red errors, about ten, not relating to the fault at hand.
The blue background MSDOS error screen with fairly large characters is something I have not seen since MSDOS. Does anyone know, which startup step generates it ?
