Richard Brooks wrote:
> meow2222@care2.com said the following on 20/11/06 08:11:

> > Hi
> >
> >
> > Reparing a PC after an attack by viri, sploit & trojan. Have wiped the
> > hdd good and proper, and now it appears to boot into dos (from floppy)
> > ok until the last bit, when it does all it should, but then adds ^@ or
> > sometimes ^@^@ on the command line, as if it had been user typed. There
> > is no keyboard response at all, have tried swapping kbds.
> >
> > Any clues welcome!
> >
> >
> > thanks,
> > NT

> IIRC, the ^@ is zero which is a marker for file terminator so it's just
> displaying to screen what is not normally shown but happens anyway.
>
> See table;
> http://www.csgnetwork.com/asciiset.html
>
> Normally, your floppy rescue disk should temporarily install a small
> translation file so that everything looks as it should.
>
> The [COMMON] section at the end of my config.sys file on the floppy has
> the following;
>
> [COMMON]
> files=10
> buffers=10
> dos=high,umb
> stacks=9,256
> devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048
> lastdrive=z
> device=display.sys con=(ega,,1)
> country=044,850,country.sys
> install=mode.com con cp prepare=((850) ega.cpi)
> install=mode.com con cp select=850
> install=keyb.com uk,,keyboard.sys
>
>
> Notice the last few lines!
>
> mode.com and keyb.com should be files on the floppy.
>
> From the Microsoft site.
>
> >Mode.com Lets you change display parameters such as number columns.
>
>
>
>
> Richard.


Thanks Richard. I've checked whats on the flop, and its exactly as you
said, with all the files and entries you mention.

It runs fine in the only type of linux I've got that will work on that
machine (the others all wont work with its i810 chipset), but its a
dedicated purpose linux with no console access, and my linux knowledge
is patchy anyway.

If I fail to find a solution I may end up getting win up on another
machine and putting the hdd back in this one.

One thing I've not tried yet is freedos.


ta, NT