i have a dell cpu with xp home which turned into a black screen after a suspect download. after that no way to boot up without getting an error message that the cpu has detected a problem and is shutting down to avoid damage. i managed to get my cpu to boot to the dospromt using my dell os install disc and did a chkdsk -r. the next suggestion was to do a virus scan. my question is how do i do a virus scan on a cpu with only a dosprompt access. (hd is 160gb)thanks1 person needs an answerI do too

You are in the Recovery Console, not DOS. There is no DOS in XP. You can't scan for viruses from the Recovery Console. You would need to either boot with one of the rescue CDs offered by some of the antivirus companies or use a Bart's PE with plugins. Another method is to pull the hard drive from the infected machine and attach it to a working XP box and scan from there. I don't recommend doing that because there is a chance of infecting the host machine. http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html - Avira AntiVir Rescue System (download the .iso) http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/security-lab/tools-and-services/rescue-cd/ http://www.bitdefender.com/KB627-en--How-to-create-a-BitDefender-Rescue-CD.html (has download link) http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE BuilderMS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!