Is this a virus?

[GhostWolf]

On a recently-restored HP Pavilion; the CD tray continuously opens and closes.

The PC's previous owner had that problem, among others. After being told he had a "coffee cup" virus, he gave it to an acquaintance to clean. During cleaning, the C-drive was wiped and the system restored from HP's restore drive, (D:; no disks).

About an hour after the PC was turned on for the first time after repair, the CD drive began its game again.

It has not been connected to the internet since being repaired.
.

Does this sound like a valid virus? (What's its real name?!!) Are there viruses that infect the restore drive on PCs that have them?

 

[erikhertzel]

No, it's probably a hardware issue with the CD-ROM.

There are no viruses that would infect a restore CD that I am aware of.

Hope that helps,

Erik

 

[GhostWolf]

Pardon me for not being clear. HP doesn't ship restore CDs, they use a separate hard-drive partition - and that's what was used to restore the PC. I've not heard of a virus that infects a restore-drive, but...

Right now, I wish we had the CD set because it can't be overwritten.
.

 

[sggaunt]

Most likley a faulty micro switch in the CD drive tray mechanisum. I have had a simular problem. A new drive should cure it.





Steve: Delphi a feersum engin indeed.

 

[diogenes10]

I am having problems with random tray ejection on a cd writer which I didn't think should be bad.

I tried a number on online av scans and other software checks.

I finally came into another used cd drive and put it into the system. At the same time this drive is in the system, I still had the old drive in the system too, with only the power cable hooked up. It has power but no ide cable. The tray still ejects randomly and the other drive works just fine so I have been forced to conclude it is a hardware problem with the drive. Yours is probably the same, as suggested above.

sgguant
Is that a repairable problem?

-------------------------------------
It's 10 O'Clock ( somewhere! ).
Are your registry and data backed up?

 

[greyted]

GhostWolf:

Came across this same problem a few months ago. Tried another CD drive and that functioned with no problems.

Once you do get the CD drive functioning correctly, you should have the option to copy the restore function to CD. You will require from four to six CD's, depends on your model number.
Once copied to CD, the restore function is not available on the HDD restore partition so will free up some space for you.



Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Sir Winston Churchill

 

[sggaunt]

Is that a repairable problem?

My bad drive was a simple CD reader, these are so inexpensive these days I diddn't see much point in opening it up.
However the problem could have been somthing as simple as a loose screw or bent bracket holding the switch. worth a look on an expensive drive.
I did wonder if I had caused the problem myself by pushing the tray to start it retracting, as some people do.
I always use the eject/feed switch on the replacement.




Steve: Delphi a feersum engin indeed.

 

[GhostWolf]

Should have posted earlier: this one was a hardware issue also. (Makes me wonder about that "coffee cup virus"!)

When I started taking things apart, I noticed there was no gap between the outside button and the drive's button. Loosened the retaining screws, slid the drive back a couple millimeters, put everything back together - and no problems since.

Thanks for all the responses.