Compaq Presario V2565US Notebook PC just shuts down at any give time. I can't even flash the bios to solve because the hard drive was fried because of a virus and now I'm trying to run linux from a thumb drive. the moment i down load wine to run the bios flash the pc just shuts off.

open f10 go to diagnostics 10008 bios code means the hard drive is fried new one for cq 60 160gb hard drive 90 dollars but might as well upgrade 500gb only 115 i would think the cq 56 should be about the same price

sounds like overheating , probably due to the cpu or gpu fan/heatsing loosing contact, even a little knock could have caused this

The problem is that XP installation CD does not have a SATA driver, unless you have a Compaq SATA drive on a disk etc and can install it when XP asks for a hard drive driver, then XP cannot detect the hard disk and therefore won't install XP.
The Fix.
Go into the BIOS and disable the SATA drive, this will make XP think it is a IDE/PATA hard disk. Then install XP normally, and all the device drivers (including the SATA driver), then shut down and boot up and got into the BIOS and enable the SATA drive.

so you need to reset cmos as memory modules must be out. is a virus instaled on mainboard so only way to recover control is these steps:
1st take the hd out.
2nd reset cmos
3rd take memory out
then put windows install cd and install as 1st time on computer, dont attemph to loading windows, or else you need to repeat-it again. then install laptop drivers, then test.

Reinstall OS and all drivers, if not working, then try with a different OS or search for updated drivers.

Your motherboard is now fried-- good job you will have to replace.

Sounds like bad ram chip,

http://www.edgetechcorp.com/memory/upgrade.asp?cid=31892

try to use other hard disk. if it works on your machine then your OS is corrupted. You might need to reformat your hard disk.

Before reformatting your hard drive safe all the files first because everything will be deleted.

BIOS checksum errors occurs when either the BIOS chjp is faulty or most likely the BIOS battery is nearly flat and the stored info changes and doesn't match the checksum info.
Replace the battery with a new one, leave the battery out for 1/2 hour before inserting the new battery. The BIOS will be reset to the default settings, you need to configure it again eg, datr and time etc.

Update/flash your ROM and check this page : http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=97150&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=96321&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=181
if there are updated drivers available for you, this will most likely solve your problem.