Calling computer guru's

1fastredsc · 10-08-2003, 11:40 AM

Ok, just as i was saying not to long ago that i never had a problem with windows xp, then it happend. I think i got a virus. One day out of nowhere my computer took eternity to idle after system startup, meaning i had to wait before i opened any programs. Then the next day it got worse when it started to lock up on me. That's when i updated norton anti virus definitions, then scanned the computer. It found one infected file and deleted it, so i thought i was in the clear. But it was still occassionally locking up. Then it happend, i started my computer yesterday after getting home from work and it went into a never ending restart cycle everytime windows tried to load. Here's the kicker, i formatted the hard drive (luckily i anticipated something like this and backed up my 3 GB of dowloads on cd's), then resetup windows xp. And it started locking up again before i had the chance to install stuff again. Could it be that the virus infected the bios and if so how do i fix that?

RickM · RickM's Garage

Usually the manufacturer has a site to download BIOS upgrades and /or patches. You may want to check out that option. Be careful though, you must make sure that you use the exact BIOS version for your setup.

Did you run a virus scan from a diskette or CD?

1fastredsc · 10-08-2003, 03:21 PM

From the hard drive, i installed Norton on the drive, then updated the definitions, then scanned. I'll see if i can get on my dad's comp to get the bios on floppy then flash it.

jrdavid68 · 10-08-2003, 05:03 PM

Defective memory chips can cause spontaneous reboots and lock-ups too. Mismatched memory can do that too.

dglenn · 10-08-2003, 07:57 PM

I would bet against a BIOS infection. Virus writer's these days are too lazy to do that.

If you connected your computer to the internet prior to installing Service Pack 1 and all the latest critical updates (especially the DCOM fix), then it is feasible that you could have gotten re-infected with something.

Overheating can also cause lots of problems. You may want to open up your case and make sure all of the fans are functioning appropriately.

Good luck.

1fastredsc · 10-09-2003, 06:09 AM

I doubt i'm overheating, the case has 6 fans. And the internal thermostat has never read higher than 87 degrees. I know my memory is properly matched, so i don't think that it's. I'm going to fiddle with the bios first and if that doesn't do it then i'll see if the memory has something to do with it.

1fastredsc · 10-09-2003, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by dglenn
Virus writer's these days are too lazy to do that.

I thought virus were mistakes that were spontaneously created without any blame. Are you saying there are actual people who just sit around with nothing else to do with their time and just decide to make a virus?

island911 · 10:02 AM

A "security bug" is what your thinking of . . .a virus is intentional.

My advice is to have a POS cmptr for internet access; and a higher end system for all else. . . ..think of it this way; would you rather take your 911 to a bad neigborhood, or a POS pick-up truck?

Then there's some saying about eggs & a basket. . . hmmm?

.. . .oh, and they apparently are not lazy. We just had a report here in the NW of a software company that had some hacker intercept (thru email) the companys source code for a game to be released. It's expected that the game would have shipped with a nasty virus.

1fastredsc · 10-11-2003, 09:43 AM

The reason i have six fans is that previously my amd 1600 was occasionally overheating once i put my new motherboard and radeon graphics card in. So when i bought a new case and chip, they threw in 6 fans at a deal price so i bought them. I sorted out the virus, on the second time i reloaded windows that is. I had the maxtor cd formatt the hard drive, then i cleared the cmos on the motherboard with a jumper, then i reinstalled windows and had xp formatt it again, then everything was peachy. Oh, and here's a run down of my computer.
Leadtec motherboard with the Nforce 2 chipset
512mb of ddr2 memory
Radeon 9500 pro
Hercules game theater xp sound card
Maxtor 80gb hard drive, ultra ata133 7200rpm
DVD 16x, CDR 52x32x48
AMD athalon 2400+
Custom case with lexan side window, internal thermostat, and yes six fans
It is kind of neat to have the fans, never gets even close to overheating. Computer's internal temp is usually 78-87 degrees, and the chip hasn't gotten over 125degrees and it's temp warning is 151 degrees. I can burn a cd, download stuff, and play a game all at the same time, it rules!

masraum · 10-11-2003, 10:30 PM

You can never have enough fans. When they throw stuff out where I work I grab the fans out of the hardware. I have gotten some very serious fans out of some high end server boxes. My old overclocked PC liked it nice and cool.

bell · bell's Garage

my xp did the same thing a few months ago........but it was AFTER we installed some of microsofts xp service pacs.......go figure

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-12-2003, 09:15 AM

My Win2k box did the same thing after a couple "autoupdates". As soon as I logged in it would reboot.

I had to blast the hard drive and re-install everything.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

my G4 cube doesn't have any fans (yes, I still have one around running as a development server).

And this laptop has been running every day, always on the network, for over 2 years without incident. No need for a "crappy second machine" to sacrifice to the whims of an MS swiss cheeze OS. ymmv

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-12-2003, 03:22 PM

Just to deflate nostatic a little (

) I'll elaborate on my setup a bit:

Prior to the reboot-loop, my Win2k box also had WinME (ack!), Linux (Mandrake 8.something), and BeOS (really!) installed on it at the time. I had up to 6 USB devices running on it at any time, as well as my iPod (IEEE1394). I use it to burn DVDs regularly and have >10GB of anime that my wife likes to watch, all encoded with multiple different codecs. It has "crashed" (blue-screened) exactly once in the time that I've owned it (my fault, *****ing around with different--and very alpha--shells) while running Win2k. It came with a 17" LCD, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM, a GeForce2, is faster than I need it to be, and cost me less than $1400.

Kraut Wagon · 10-12-2003, 09:17 PM

Check your computers power supply. A defective one has been known to cause wierd lockups.

1fastredsc · 10-14-2003, 06:39 AM

Ok, although it's working now, i'm having other wierd issues. All of a sudden when xp boots up it takes a good 5 minutes for it to respond and for me to open another program. I'm thinking maybe i didn't get rid of that virus, if there was one, after all. If i bring up the proccesses screen it seems that nothing gets defined by a user for the five minutes. When it finally allows me to do something, it's the same time that the proccesses get defined by users. Usually the system idle proccess is the only one defined, the rest just sit there for awhile. I assume the problem is related to that. Any ideas?

dglenn · 10-14-2003, 06:45 PM

The first thing you should do after installing a fresh operating system and before connecting to the internet is install the most recent service pack (SP1 for XP), a decent firewall (such as ZoneAlarm or McAfee Firewall), and a good anti-virus program with updated definitions. Once you have done this, then connect to the internet and proceed directly to windowsupdate.com to download all of the critical updates.

If you haven't done something like this, then you could possibly have contracted a worm/virus after you re-installed your OS.

Something else to check into is a bad driver for some of your hardware. I would recommend visiting the website for each of companies that have hardware inside your machine (video, network, modem, etc). I think you already mentioned you updated your BIOS to the latest version, if not, make sure to do this.

Also, you may want to see what all programs are automatically starting when your computer starts up. Check the "Startup" folder under your start menu. Also, do you have a ton of things showing up down by the clock in the system tray?

Not sure I've helped any, but maybe I got lucky somewhere in there.

Good luck with your problems. I recently upgraded to a newer version of McAfee anti-virus on my work computer and now my Outlook freezes up all the time. Ya gotta love these damn things.

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-14-2003, 07:15 PM

"Outlook not good"

That magic 8-ball knows everything!

dglenn · 10-15-2003, 12:50 PM

No choice on Outlook. It is mandated by the company due to the fact that we have Exchange servers.

I went back to the old version of McAfee anti-virus and it works beautifully again.

1fastredsc · 10-16-2003, 02:20 PM

Ok, I used an option on the maxtor hard drive cd that i hadn't seen before. It's called zero fill. And with the minor description it gave, i'm under the impression that it writes every single thing on the hard drive to zero hence the name. But beware, it took 6.5 hours to do on an 80 GB hard drive. Now if this doesn't work, i'm going to put my oxy/ace torch to good use.