Is this a virus? Taskbar has gone!

[Guest T]

My computer running XP Professional suffered a sudden slow down and the

Taskbar shrank is size. After a reboot the Taskbar disappeared. It is not

hidden as the start menu does not respond to the Windows Flag key.

 

I reformatted the drive only to have the same problem reoccur a day later.

I reloaded using the original media which I have successfully used before.

I did however use fresh copies of Avast Anti Virus and Zonealarm downloaded

with another PC and scanned with Avast which indicated that they are both

clean.

 

The only explanation I can think of is a boot sector virus. Is this

possible after the disc was reformatted and is their a way I can know for

sure? Is there a way to wipe the boot sector completely. Avast insists

that the PC is clean.

 

Thanks.

[Guest Bruno]

Re: Is this a virus? Taskbar has gone!

 

"T" wrote:

> My computer running XP Professional suffered a sudden slow down

> and the Taskbar shrank is size. After a reboot the Taskbar

> disappeared. It is not hidden as the start menu does not respond

> to the Windows Flag key.

> I reformatted the drive only to have the same problem reoccur a

> day later. I reloaded using the original media which I have

> successfully used before.

 

Did you *boot* from the original *CD*? Did you password protect the

Administrator account after installing Windows?

> I did however use fresh copies of Avast Anti Virus and Zonealarm

> downloaded with another PC and scanned with Avast which indicated

> that they are both clean.

> The only explanation I can think of is a boot sector virus.

> Is this possible after the disc was reformatted and is their a way

> I can know for sure?

> Is there a way to wipe the boot sector completely.

 

FixBoot (Recovery Console) overwrites the boot sector, and FixMBR overwrites

the first 460 bytes of the Master Boot Record.

> Avast insists that the PC is clean.

 

It might not be a virus.