Page 1 of cant do a thing with it

my mate has just had his computer infected by a virus.
when he turns on his computer the only message that appears is virus data file v4179.
he runs on windows 98.i havn`t seen his computer myself but has anyone got any ideas as to what he can do.i have checked both the symantec data base and the microsoft one to but cannot find a clue as to what that this is.even if some one can tell how to do a full system recovery ie celete everything from his computer so he can start again i`m sure that he would be most grateful by the way his keyboard does not seem to be responding. thanks

he could try starting up with his startup disk in the floppy drive, and from then he can format the drive and re-install windows, thats the best way i would think to do it.