I have a laptop that a few months back would not boot. all i did to fix it
was run fdisk /mbr to repair the master boot record, and it worked. now
it's doing the same thing again. It's got very up to date AV on it, and is
not used for risky stuff, so I think it is unlikely a virus. What would
cause the MBR to repeatedly get corrupted?

That physical area of that hard drive may be losing its storing abilities.
Not detectable by any XP tools.

--
Jonny
"Joe" <junk@junk.com> wrote in message
news:u2Jc%23gfEGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>
> I have a laptop that a few months back would not boot. all i did to fix
it
> was run fdisk /mbr to repair the master boot record, and it worked. now
> it's doing the same thing again. It's got very up to date AV on it, and
is
> not used for risky stuff, so I think it is unlikely a virus. What would
> cause the MBR to repeatedly get corrupted?
>
>

Most likely a failing hard drive. Run chkdsk /r and also the drive
manufacturers test utility. Dont delay!
--

"Joe" <junk@junk.com> wrote in message
news:u2Jc%23gfEGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>
> I have a laptop that a few months back would not boot. all i did to fix
> it was run fdisk /mbr to repair the master boot record, and it worked.
> now it's doing the same thing again. It's got very up to date AV on it,
> and is not used for risky stuff, so I think it is unlikely a virus. What
> would cause the MBR to repeatedly get corrupted?
>
>