I'm not entirely sure what happened, but as the title suggests, I believe I may have gotten a virus that lead to the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). I will describe what happened as best as i can so I apologize in advance for the wall of text to follow, but please bare with me and any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated.
I'll begin with some misc info:
- I have 3 hard drives in my pc; 1 TB WD blue drive, a Samsung SSD 120g which had the OS on it, and a replica SSD that was connected but never formatted or used.
- I have no antivirus software of any kind. I've had the computer for 2 years and never had any. I know this is bad in itself and probably one of the main reasons.
- I am running Windows 8.1
I believe I got the virus by searching unsafe websites while looking for an episode of a show that I had missed. Not long after, I began noticing odd behavior in my computer. I was attempting to manage my playback devices in order to switch the sound from my headset to my tv, however, it was being unresponsive. I decided to restart my computer where it got hung up on the "restarting" screen. After waiting a while, it seemed apparent that it would not continue, so I proceeded to power it down unsafely by holding the power button. It booted back up fine, but my Razer Synapse app did not begin running like it normally would. I did not have a shortcut, so I used the "search" feature to find the application. When clicking search, it did not open up and I was unable to bring up the menu by keeping the mouse on the right side of the screen. Furthermore, I was unable to access the windows home app screen and the "windows explorer" feature seemed to be acting odd as well. When opened, it would say that there were no files found and it would not display any of my hard drives.
I decided to reboot once more in hopes of all of this being fixed, but I was soon disappointed. After displaying the motherboard company logo, instead of booting to the login screen, I was prompted that the computer was "Preparing for Automatic Repair". I'm not sure if this was the exact wording used, but it was something along those lines. It then proceeded to say "Diagnosing your PC" where it stayed endlessly. I eventually put my Windows 8.1 64-bit disc in, and attempted the "Repair" option where I was yet again disappointed. I believe this is the point where I was met with the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" error (also known as the Blue Screen of Death). After trying it a few more times and getting the same results, I disconnected my HDD and the SSD that had the OS on it, but left the one that was unused. I then tried to install windows onto the unused hard drive and ended up with the same error. I put all the hard drives back in and gave up hope. After a day, I finally decided to just wipe the entire computer and erase all the files then re-install windows. However, after selecting the option to do so, I was yet again met with the same fate; the BSOD.
I do not know much about viruses, so I am completely helpless in this situation. Again, any help is much appreciated.
I'll begin with some misc info:
- I have 3 hard drives in my pc; 1 TB WD blue drive, a Samsung SSD 120g which had the OS on it, and a replica SSD that was connected but never formatted or used.
- I have no antivirus software of any kind. I've had the computer for 2 years and never had any. I know this is bad in itself and probably one of the main reasons.
- I am running Windows 8.1
I believe I got the virus by searching unsafe websites while looking for an episode of a show that I had missed. Not long after, I began noticing odd behavior in my computer. I was attempting to manage my playback devices in order to switch the sound from my headset to my tv, however, it was being unresponsive. I decided to restart my computer where it got hung up on the "restarting" screen. After waiting a while, it seemed apparent that it would not continue, so I proceeded to power it down unsafely by holding the power button. It booted back up fine, but my Razer Synapse app did not begin running like it normally would. I did not have a shortcut, so I used the "search" feature to find the application. When clicking search, it did not open up and I was unable to bring up the menu by keeping the mouse on the right side of the screen. Furthermore, I was unable to access the windows home app screen and the "windows explorer" feature seemed to be acting odd as well. When opened, it would say that there were no files found and it would not display any of my hard drives.
I decided to reboot once more in hopes of all of this being fixed, but I was soon disappointed. After displaying the motherboard company logo, instead of booting to the login screen, I was prompted that the computer was "Preparing for Automatic Repair". I'm not sure if this was the exact wording used, but it was something along those lines. It then proceeded to say "Diagnosing your PC" where it stayed endlessly. I eventually put my Windows 8.1 64-bit disc in, and attempted the "Repair" option where I was yet again disappointed. I believe this is the point where I was met with the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" error (also known as the Blue Screen of Death). After trying it a few more times and getting the same results, I disconnected my HDD and the SSD that had the OS on it, but left the one that was unused. I then tried to install windows onto the unused hard drive and ended up with the same error. I put all the hard drives back in and gave up hope. After a day, I finally decided to just wipe the entire computer and erase all the files then re-install windows. However, after selecting the option to do so, I was yet again met with the same fate; the BSOD.
I do not know much about viruses, so I am completely helpless in this situation. Again, any help is much appreciated.
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