linux "sticks" every couple of seconds
 

two weeks ago, i started having an issue with the laptop. Its a compaq 2105us, amd athlon xp 1800, 512mb ram, 40gig hd...i had it set up to dual boot in winxp and FC2. I was running partition magic, deleting the linux drive because i was going to reinstall another distro, when i got that virus that claims you have 60 seconds to finish your work before the computer shuts down, and it did, when partition magic wasnt finished, i think this damaged something. That ruined the bootloader, so i couldnt boot into either OS. so what i did next was try to use the restore cd, but i got an error some way into it! you shouldnt get an error on the restore cd unless theres damage to the drive i would guess. But when i just put in the windows xp cd, i could boot and install windows. then i installed linux over, and thought it was fine. however, whenver im in windows, sometimes when im typing random keystrokes will not register and ill have a sentence missing a couple of letters. in LINUX, it never left out keystrokes, but when i move the mouse around, every 4 or 5 seconds it would freeze for about a half a second, sort of like it would get stuck for an instant then jump over to where it should be. now its not the mouse, as im typing this now the characters will not register for a half second then the couple i typed while it was frozen appear.

i cant use partition magic now, when it restarts to attempt to make empty space and a new partition, it says "can't get lock on drive..." and it doesnt work. is something permanently wrong with the HD? that should be covered by the warranty right? i just got my laptop back, and they didnt fix this hd problem, but they included a sheet saying it passed all diagnostic tests. sure it did. anyway, this really sucks and i dont know what to do.

i figured it was HW related, since it happens (sort of) on windows also...i miss my FC2 :-(

i also tried this program that securely deleted the HD, but that didnt fix the problem. Is there a way to absolutely completely utterly remove EVERYTHING from the hd and start over?

any ideas? thanks alot

I don't know everything about viruses, especially Windows based ones, but this feels hardware related, as you suggest. My initial suggestion would be to learn more about the virus you think you got, and work from there. Unless it flashed a chip or something, there shouldn't be a hardware problem, so part of me wants to beleive it's a hardware problem that was aggravated by your reloading both OS's. (The OS's didn't have anything to do with it, but some setting might have been changed, causing problems further down the line, items that installs might not notice.) For future reference, you probably don't have to reload Linux if Windows gets a virus, you'll simply have to pop in the "rescue" disk or the first disk to boot, then rerun lilo or grub.

If Partition Magic has a problem, chances are it doesn't like your Linux partition. Assuming you have backups, and aren't too bothered by the task, you might want to boot Linux (by cd or through your install), remove the Linux partitions, then try PM. Sad as it is, PM's tied to MS software, so it sometimes chokes on Linux partitions, despite itself. If your bios geometry was changed by the virus, then you can expect all sorts of problems.

Like I said, though, I don't really know, but my feeling is maybe a bios setting was changed. One thing to keep in mind, if a virus says "do this", chances are good that doing that is probably the wrong move. (Social engineering, which is what made the "love bug" virus so dangerous, is now the best propagator of viral problems.) Personally, I would have probably suspended it, or yanked the battery (hard crashes are bad, but considering the possibilities), and searched the drive with a knoppix disk or windows/antivirus rescue disk before rebooting. Anything but let it finish that 60 seconds of whatever it wanted to do, then restarting, like it expects most users to do.

Sorry. Like I said, I don't know. I run windows on a separate machine, keeping my important info on the Linux ones. The MS machine is mostly a gui item for people scared to approach "free" software.

update
 

Hello, ive also realized that when i insert a linux installation cd and start the installation, as soon as it gets to the graphical installation screen, it does the same freezing every couple of seconds...sooooo

When you load a linux installation, is it loaded into RAM?? If so, does this means its either a BIOS or RAM problem?

my BIOS is Phoenix Technologies Ltd. KA.M1.34 which i found an updater for, but it was an .IMG for a floppy disk, and i dont have a floppy drive, and i dont know how to burn that onto a cd and have it be bootable...so theres another question if anyone knows.

Anyway, plenty of posts and their posters have helped me work through things in the past, just wanna give a big thanks to everyone out there who posts suggestions and answers, youre much appreciated :p

Thanks again