Malware or not? sudden change in boot up..

[dana k]

My boot menu appears to have been altered.The # 1 boot priority says simply IDEO:
Sometimes it will show IDEO: HITACHI ,or something similar.but # 1 is the hitachi harddrive.
I can power off ,hit f2 and go to boot menu, save changes and exit, and it goes to normal start up( even though i make no changes).
I can also hit ctrl/alt/del from the black screen and it will go to normal start up,but every time i power on, it goes to the black screen.
Computer seems to hang up constantly.
Also start up time is very slow waiting for desktop to load.
Not sure if this is a virus, malware,or an equipment issue.

I would surely appreciate any advice i could get. Thanks.

 

[kuttus]

Hi Dana...
Welcome back...

So right now are you able to boot the computer in Normal mode?

 

[dana k]

Hi Dana...
Welcome back...

So right now are you able to boot the computer in Normal mode?

Hi there Kuttus! Thanks for your reply.Yes i can boot in normal mode.Everything seems to work as normal except when i power on.It doesn't go to the blue windows splash screen.I get a little white dash blinking in top left corner,then a black screen with media test failure and no bootable device message,etc.from this screen the only way to escape is to power off then power on and hit f2, go to boot menu,then exit saving changes(even though i change nothing in boot priority order) and it goes to normal start up screen.My #1 boot priorit only shows IDEO: Doesn't say hitachi hdd,etc. as it used to say. However, i noticed ,from the black screen with media test failure message,i can hit ctrl/alt/del, and it will go to the blue splash start up screen as normal. seems like my boot menu has been altered.

 

[dana k]

I have also noticed that when i get to start up page it takes a very long time for the desktop to load.
Also, when shutting down firefox, as soon as desktop starts to appear,images pop up from any web page that i have opened during that session.I have made sure that all windows and pages are closed. These images pop up for just a second then close.Seems like my browser is being tracked.I feel like a virus has infected the start up boot menu.I have found nothing with my scans. This has me afraid to do any online purchasing.