One talks of "formatting", but one needs to remove all of the partitions as well, so that the disk is clean. Then it would be a good idea to wipe the disk if you have such a utility -- boot from floppy or CD, plugged into a USB port. Make sure the disk is really "like-new". If the manufacturer was a good guy, then there should be an installation disc from which a clean install can be made, and it's an OS installer that installs only the OS, and not any junkware that is usually in a manufacturer's "as-shipped" OS installation. It's quite possible that the installed OS and even the restore partition are infected. They even come that way occasionally.
I don't know about the newer Windows OS's, but with the older ones, it's a good idea to do the entire installation disconnected from the Internet, and then first install the Zone Alarm Free firewall (downloaded on another machine and the installer put on a thumb drive), and set it to "Ask" on everything. as the machine is being set up. Fred Holmes At 12:37 PM 12/23/2009, Tony B wrote: >There's no need to send it back; it's not a hardware problem. Now I >forget - has he tried formatting the disk and reinstalling the OS? >What disks, if any, did he get with the machine (or make himself)? ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
