Sorry for asking computer questions here, but you guys seem to know so much more than gears and rocks ...
I got a computer for free that I'm sure had virual enhancements affecting its operation.
It is running WinXP Pro with an AMD K6 processor running at 475 Mhz. I reformatted the HD by installing it as a Slave (moved a jumper) in another machine. Now, I'm trying to put it back into the original machine as the Master (reset the applicable jumper), but the original machine now hangs on Boot with a message that says VERIFYING DMI POOL DATA.
I can get into the BIOS, and I've set the Boot Sequence to CD>A>C but the bootable CD never starts because the Pool Data is not being read. I'm lost here, what should I be doing?
Can I turn the HD into a Slave again, and put anything into it and then reinstall it as a Master into the original machine? If so, what do I put on it?
THE REASON I THINK THE MACHINE WAS VIRUALLY ENHANCED The Task Manager reported in the Performance tab that the processor was running at 100% all of the time. I went into the various settings in Task Manager to set the priorities for runing processes to the minimal settings and smallest possible time slices, but nothing would let the processor take a rest. The result of the processor running at 100% was that any new command (mouse click) would take a considerable delay before it would be processed -- the new command would have to wait for the next available time slice to appear, but this could take several seconds, and it was possible to have several mouse clicks stored in a queue and have them process in a batch.