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Hardware: Dell Laptop Latitude D520
Software: Trend Micro Antivirus 2006, and WinAntiSpyware
Operating System: Windows XP Home Sp2

One customer brought me a laptop saying the wifi wouldn’t work and that it had some type of virus. So, I booted up and I saw signs of sure enough adware and infections. So, I tried to boot into safe mode where I do a lot of my removal programs.

When safe mode comes up you usually have the message box that comes up asking

Welcome to safe mode, do you want to run a system restore YES OR NO” Yes for safe mode and no for system restore”

If you hit yes or no, some how safe mode keeps restarting or becoming unstable. Its like something is killing the host and it prompts again. You can keep hitting yes or no and finally your desktop is gone and you need to reboot the pc.

More than likely you can access normal windows mode.
If so then run this tool, you can fix the safe mode problem later on when pc is rid of vundo infection.

1. Please download VundoFix.exe to your desktop.
http://www.atribune.org/ccount/click.php?id=4
* Double-click VundoFix.exe to run it.
* Click the “Scan for Vundo” button.
* Once it’s done scanning, click the “Remove Vundo” button.
* You will receive a prompt asking if you want to remove the files, click YES
* Once you click yes, your desktop will go blank as it starts removing Vundo.
* When completed, it will prompt that it will reboot your computer, click OK.

Note: It is possible that VundoFix encounters a file it could not remove.
In this case, VundoFix will run on reboot, simply follow the above
instructions starting from “Click the Scan for Vundo button.” when
VundoFix appears at reboot.

sources: http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Windows/XP/Q_22759438.html?eeSearch=true

Over on www.claydawg.com he suspects that vundo actually is contained in the WinAntiSpyware program. I do believe he is right.

My buddy brought over a laptop that had vista pre installed from the gateway. He needed to put XP on it.

For some reason Gateway drivers always seem to stand out to me the most, because of the trouble we have trying to get things installed. We found a website that has all the xp drivers you need.

If you need the drivers they are located here

My friend brought me her laptop, which was FUBAR. I did a clean install on the hard drive. I used the OEM version of Microsoft Home XP to install the operating system. Little did I know that Gateway doesn’t like this.

The install went great, I booted it up and brought up the desktop. I had already downloaded the drivers from Gateway’s website for the make and model of this laptop.

First I will give you a list of the drivers that did work:

1. Chipset Drivers (Intel)
2. Ethernet Drivers(Network Interface Card)
3. Video Drivers (Intel)

Now I will give you the list for the drivers that DID NOT work:

1. Wireless Card (Gateway listed Broadcom drivers)
2. Audio Drivers
3. Modem Drivers

Okay, so I start my journey to hell with the wireless drivers. I cannot get the drivers to install with the .exe or updating the drivers through device manager.

So, I plug in the ethernet cable hook up to Mircosoft’s updates and “BAM!” there is a driver for my Intel PROset Wireless. Thats why the drivers wouldn’t take, its different hardware. So, now I’m think maybe the old card died or something. Maybe, it had to be replaced. So, I took the laptop apart, and guess what I found. The wireless card is covered in gateway serial stickers from their factories. I just download the driver from Microsoft’s updates. It works! Gateway is now on my shit list.

Now I take a turn at the corner of Audio and Modem street. The audio drivers will not take either, nor will the modem drivers take.

I tried to download a utility from Gateway that suppose to check your hardware and download and install you correct drivers. It sees the correct drivers, but just keeps downloading another copy on top of another copy. It asked me to restart everytime it downloaded the new copy. But everytime I cranked up the utility it told me to download them again and reinstall them. So, I’m tired at this point.

I crank up the wireless and enter a chat with Gateway’s technical support. Basically he tells me that the drivers listed are the correct ones, and I don’t know what I’m talkng about. On top of his helpfulness’s, he cuts me off.

I did some googling and a lot of people have this problem. The cause? Gateway writes the drivers to only install on Operating Systems that they distribute. If you try to install a clean OEM version of XP on certian Gateway laptops it will refuse to install a large part of the hardware drivers because the OS is not branded by Gateway.

Summery: The majority of drivers that don’t install because of the branding are Audio and Modem drivers.

Update: August 18th, 2007

I called gateway told them my hard drive died and that restore cds were scratched to hell. For 20 bucks they will ship you a brand new set of restore cds. Within minutes the laptop was up and running. Save yourself time and just order the cds. 

“If the backlight on your computer suddenly stopped working but you still can see a faint image, then most likely the problem is caused by a failed FL inverter board.”

FL inverter board. This board is responsible for converting low voltage DC power (point 3) to high voltage AC (point 4), necessary to light up the backlight bulb. If the FL inverter board is bad, the LCD screen (backlight bulb) will not light up when you turn on the laptop, but you still should be able to see a very dim image on the screen.

Last week I had a guy bring in his laptop claiming he could still see the image on his laptop screen, but it wasn’t bright at all. When the laptop arrived it powered up and I saw a good working Laptop screen full of color.

After about 10 seconds the screen seemed to go black or turn off. At first I thought it was the blacklight going bad, but the guy was right about the screen being “dim”.

I could actually still see the desktop and all the workings of the computer, but it was so dim you could hardly make it out.

After looking at Google for about 5 minutes, I declared the FL inverter board was bad.

The replacement cost about $100.00 and then of course my company had to charge for labor. After the new board was popped in everything went back to work.

So, if you have a screen that is dim, faint, or barely visible….you might have a bad FL inverter board.

Got Questions ask them on the forums. Click Here for Help

My resources:

• http://www.laptoprepairguy.com
• http://www.asklaptopfreak.com
• http://www.irisvista.com