One of the things that is unavoidable when using computer is the case of virus infection. I received a call from a friend who have her Dell OptiPlex 745 shutting down every after 3 minutes. I advised her to bring the machine for checking. During the weekend she came and brought only the CPU. Anyway, I have an LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, power cables available at home. Later on when I checked the Dell OptiPlex 745 it doesn’t have any PS2 port for keyboard and mouse. I was forced to visit the nearby IT shop to buy a PS2 to USB adaptor. It was a time also to scout for some virus scanner software on sale that I could use for detecting the virus.

From the shop, I tried the keyboard and the mouse, but both device was not detected by the computer. There seems to be an obvious compatibility issue with new technologies. When I turned on the PC it just goes to Windows XP login page and freezes there as the input device could not be detected. I was stucked on this part and could not proceed. Before hand, I suspect the cause of the shutting down was due to virus, but could not confirm it yet.

I might be having some wrong diagnosis as the computer did not shutdown after some time. It still remained on the login page of Windows XP. There’s no other choice, but to bring it back to my friend’s place and test the computer there. I did not encounter any trouble after assembling all the devices and other peripheral to the computer and turning it on. The computer did not shutdown as described by my friend.

This sounds weird, but to make her feel better I advised her to install a McAfee Total Protection with Site Advisor Plus for protection in lieu of the free virus scanner installed on her Dell OptiPlex 745. Running the online virus scanner did not detect any serious virus, but we hoped that the problem is solved for good.