Be Excellent To Each Other

Whelp, I've just had to format my PC and destroy everything due to an insiduous and particularily bastard virus on my hard drive. Everytime I switched on the computer it was making alarm clock noises and then constantly resetting. On the rare occassions it got to Windows on safe mode it would go as far as a little bit into virus checker and then crash. System restore solved nothing. So here I am, having had to reinstall everything due to a virus for the first time in ages. Lost some photos too, though fortunately none of the American ones.

Anyway, reinstalled and all that. Only one thing. Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't seem to want to update. The button greys out when I click on it and nothing happens. Any thoughts? Maybe it's because it downloaded the latest one when I reinstalled. But it does say 'Real Time Protection' OFF and 'Virus & Spyware Definitions' OUT OF DATE. Any thoughts?

*Sigh* Really not looking forward to having to reinstall and patch all those games, not to mention the music and what not.

Oh, wait. It's decided to update now for some reason. Never mind.

I would worry, virus checkers refusing to update is a sign that a virus is "in before the checker"

Malc

Removing a virus usually can not be performed under a windows enviroment. It's usually a good idea to install something like Avast ! and set a reboot boot time scan.

System restore won't work because the virus will simply infect all of the restore points. This is why I turn it off and use Acronis.

If the virus infected the bootsector and you didn't rebuild that when you formated you could still be infected.

Like JC says, a "CLEAN" bootdisk with a boot time scan is the only way to be sure.

I use AVAST and it's by far the best I've seen.

get a clean PC and make a boot time disk, and then use that on your pc.

It's the only way to be sure!

Malc

Well it has finally updated security and stopped making insane belmey noises on startup. However, despite me ticking 'fresh everything please' boxes the system has reinstalled windows and wanged everything old into a 'Windows Old' folder. (Photos are safe after all, hurray!)

So, questions:

Quick scan reveals safeness, but obviously I can't really trust that. Would you...

1: Format EVERYTHING.

2: Format EVERYTHING excepting photos saved onto USB.

3: Format EVERYTHING excepting photos and Battlefield Bad Company 2 which is a bitch to patch onto USB.

4: Don't format everything, assume windows has done its job and just run spy-check from Avast and others repeatedly.

If I do format everything, what's the best way? A command prompt thing or through windows itself? Explain steps to my enfeebled brain of best way of making windows 7 safe. Thang yew!

pictures can't have virusesus on them, so no need to lose them, (although there was some nonsense about 10 years ago, but I'm sure it was just that, nonsense) like I said get a boot time virus checker on some "clean" and "read only" removable media (floppy, cd, usb key) and boot from it, let it check your computer, if that says it's clean (and the definitions are up to date) then keep it, else format and start again, making sure you clean the mbr too.

Malc

hmmm
it seems avast's BART costs £90 I thought it was free.

AVIRA has something for free, I've used that before too

http://www.avira.com/en/support-downloa ... cue-system

fairly simple to use, burn to cd, boot from it.

Malc

I would advice anyone to always have an Ubuntu live CD around, so that if all else fails you can at least salvage your files without having to boot Windows.

The AVG boot cd is free. Hang on...

http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

Err, what's 'MBR'?

Ta for the AVG boot CD link, will try that I reckon. So can I just drag the old folders I want from the old windows folder into the corresponding new C:\ folders? Still slightly worried virus stuff may piggyback in, though I guess that AVG boot cd thing will take care of that.

It's reassuring that I can get at my pictures and that they're safe from infection at least. This way if I'm still suspicious I can do a big format and start again. With Bad Company 2 also plucked from danger. As it is awesome.

So, how does the boot disk work? Anything I need to know? The PeeCee seems to be working now but I guess I should use it as an extra powerful virus-checker?

Thanks again all!

Do you upload the full sized images to Flickr too, Pete?!

I'm glad I bought a 500gb ext hd for backups. And a MacBook Pro.

Well, you need to create the Boot CD on someone else's clean PC, then you stick it in your CD drive on your PC as soon as you power it on and let the machine boot from it. You may need to change the boot priority in the BIOS on your PC, as many PC's come with the hard drive higher up the boot priority by default.

The MBR stands for Master Boot Record and it's part of the Windows file system gubbins. I'd be more specific, but I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

Looks like it's going to have to be an entirely clean format/install for me. Booted it up late last night after the partial install and it went straight back to being insane. See if I can fight my way back into save mode, retrieve the photos and wipe everything clean again.

Eurgh. Really don't want to have to go through the PC game patching nightmare again. Reckon I'll install as and when I actually really, really want to play, and not do it all from the start like last time.

My Freespace 2 mod files! My precious mods!

Sorry mate, you may have to explain for a bear of little brain...

Are you basically talking about just creating a temporary virus free environment for rescuing files onto flash drive, CD etc.? Or does it do something magically more than that? Again, apologies. Just a bit worried if I try saving more than pictures I might carry the virus onto a new fresh install.

A live CD allows you to boot Ubuntu directly from the disc without involving your hard disk. You can then mount the Windows hard drive from the Ubuntu desktop (simply by opening the folder for the computer and double clicking on the hard disk) and move files to an external hard disk or memory stick.

It also lets you go on the internet and other useful stuff.

Awlright!

Problem fixed, it seems. Grabbed photos and wanged 'em onto a mate's external HD. Formatted and reinstalled. Windows! Beautiful Windows! You're back! Running a virus check now all the same.

Also, my mate's external HD is packed full of ("Legally bought DVD's," - ed.) of TV shows and films wot I also like. Including Scott Pilgrim. (Which I will be buying regardless 'cos they deserve our monies. But it's nice to see it again before the farcical post-Christmas release date.)

It's probably also full of... erm.. "adult art"

Try viewing the hidden files.

Look in any folder marked 'System Files', 'Work Stuff', 'XYZ' or 'Porn'

Just search it for *.avi

I gave up hiding my porn a long while ago (which made for an interesting moment when the in-laws were looking at the new tv and scrolling through the "all videos" bit of the media list).

I gave up downloading porn a while back. Incognito mode in Chrome and ('disney' - Ed).com have left my pcs smut free

Heh, forgot to check for hidden files. System folder got a gander though.

Anyway - ARGH. After a happy hour with everything seemingly peachy post-install last night, I woke up this morning and booted up. Cue abrassive alarm bell noises from computer again. It goes into Windows pretty quickly, but soon as I run a Virus scan to be sure it freezes itself with a dramatic bitty 12 x mosaic of whatever window I'm looking at screen freeze.

So it's survived somehow. I copied over my photo files and my Bad Company 2 folder, my Tropico 3 folder and my game configs and save files. About 43 gigs. Everything else had been purged with a completely fresh install. Could this be a boot sector virus? I guess I'll have to run virus checker off Ubuntu Live then, or something?

If it wasn't specifically crashing only when I tried to run Virus checker I'd begin to suspect a hardware fault.

If it wasn't snowing really hard in a purdy way in Cardiff at the moment I'd be all depressed at the human nature that makes people do twattish things like create viruses.

Are the alarm bell noises coming from inside the computer? I'm wondering if it might be some sort of hardware problem rather than a virus. Like an intermittent fan problem causing a component to overheat or something like that.

Yeah, I tried to count 'em, there were around six to eight, I think. You could be right. The reason why I first leapt on 'Virus!' is that when it started acting weird I found my Firewall down, which I certainly didn't switch off. Then the crashing during virus scan. Though I guess a faulty HD drive could do that too when checking every bit?

Windows reinstalled smoothly though. Hrrm. And last night I was on the computer for an hour with no problems at all, with a beep free reboot.

BAFFLEMENT.

I'd definitely be leaning towards it being a hardware fault if the beeping is coming from the little piezo sounder on the motherboard. I don't know if they still do but some motherboards that I've had in the past have had a little two digit LED display inside them that would show a fault code alongside the beeping. But I'm sure JC or someone will be able to give some more clues about what to check to rule that sort of stuff out.

6 short could be Keyboard controller
8 short could be video card fault

But it depends on the motherboard. And you really should count them

I will, but the middle few are always drowned out by loud swearing on my part. Plus, sometimes when it boots it doesn't beep at all.

Hmm, intermittent fault. Sounds like a heat thing.

Try running it with the case open and a nice big desk fan pointed inside. See if any of the internal fans (if there are any) need cleaning or replacing.

Check for gremlins in the flange conductor.

Oh right, I thought the noises were coming from your PC speakers. If it's the internal speaker that's almost definitely a hardware fault of some kind.
Shame we didn't figure it out before - could have saved a lot of bother.

Like DP says, check the fans to make sure they're not clogged up with dust.

Wilco. Hope you're right. Can a computer really overheat so quickly sometimes and not others though? Anyway, I'll trawl for every symptom I can find tonight and report back. Will check fans. Did some heavy dusting and damp removal in the general area of the computer the night before the event, maybe the stuff floated into the fan or something?

It's looking likely.

Fans can be intermittent is clogged. Does your graphics card have a fan?

Coffey, probably, for about 2 weeks.

895 Bananas

Last night my (win7) PC started doing multiple bosd, the same kind that made me replace my ram, some times it was showing memory errors on memtest some times not - same as before. It decided to stop doing that and I ran memtest all night no errors were found.

Do I got a virus in my registry somewhere and is it worth reformatting and re-installing everything? There is a slim chance that it's triggered by usbs but could also be random.

I use externals for storage so it's just annoying

It's a rare virus where the first thing you notice is BSODs. I'd be looking at hardware problems first. Hit the event viewer and look at what's happening right before the BSODs hit.

Um, what's a BSOD? Any relation to TripleSOD?

How do you bring up Event viewer?

Blue Screen Of Death.

When it spazzes out there are about 5 different stop error screens.

Last night's gave me a metric ton of kernal power errors, however for the last time this happened.

{Registry Hive Recovered} Registry hive (file): '\??\C:\Windows\System32\config\COMPONENTS' was corrupted and it has been recovered.
and severak different times:
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE' was corrupted and it has been recovered

Both times I'm also seeing a lot of:
Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services and an error was detected during a paging operation on \Device\Harddisk1\ect

ah this can't be good
The Windows Modules Installer service terminated with the following error:
The configuration registry database is corrupt.

edited the above.

I'm now 99% sure it's that my 450w power supply isn't powerfull enough. Having done some :maths: it's clear I'm running at the absolute limit which is why I had the "is it the usbs" thought. I suspect the old ram is still norked though because one of the sticks showed errors on it's own and 't other was clearly screaming in pain after a day alone. The new ones are fine separate and fine once reseated, not going to buy new ram, going to upgrade shitty shitty psu to 750.

Ran a full on virus check, found nothing. Also opened up the case and gave it a bit of a de-dusting. Need a proper air-blower though. Fortunately a friend is lending me one, the same one who lent me his hard drive. What a guy! Anyway, computer seems to be behaving now - touch wood, scratch the staysail, turn three times, may the Lords and Saints preserve us, and all that.

Decca, I remember with my old computer that my PSU wasn't quite enough. It heroically supported more than it was apparently supposed to - but no, graphics cards became too much for my humble old Shuttle PC with AGP slots. Good luck with the fixing and the upgrade, mate! By the way, name any relation to awesome record label famed for their sterling classical recordings, Decca? Or are you a woman who looks uncannily like Dec from TV's Ant & Dec?

Either way, it's catchy like a US 70's maverick Detective TV show title Columbo style. 'This week on Decca'.

Everything seems to be fine now, touch MDF. But there's one weird thing that's pissing me off - Google Chrome keeps on deleting itself. Sometimes it disappears on a reboot, but now it's disappeared after an hour of playing jolly old Bad Company 2. Since I dislike using Internet Explorer it's a little bit annoying.

Decca

I know what I did to ruin my PSU, I had a very very powerful graphics card but the current PSU is so shitty that it only had two 4 pin power connectors spare when the card needed 4, I plugged it in anyway. I did some more research and the multiple errors are being thrown by the ram and USB wireless card not getting enough power, I suspect it's happening at random because the bios is assigning power on auto (setting it manually sends me into a bsod loop) and sometimes it gets it wrong. If I were on vista or XP the PC would cope but win 7 is "much more unforgiving" and will shit its pants at the slightest provocation. In some ways this is very very annoying but at least I know there is a problem and I suspect the alternative in this case would be *bang flash* "oh fuck"

There are few people with the exact same symptoms, and temp fix with the re-seating ram, all on win 7 and there are a staggering number of people having the same problem with any faulty hardware, MS really really need to update the BSOD, it's how many years old now and although most of windows can be fixed by normal people reading from the offical help pages you need a nerd to go understand BSOD and what the minidump is. How many people have had the "it went all blue what's a pool thingie?" freak out call from their mothers. So much easier if it said "Bad pool error caused by X driver", or had proper error box come up after a re-start that gives you offending line from the mini-dump it's not like they can't do it if they wanted to.

/rant.

That is weird. Is it definitely gone i.e. are the actual files not there or is just shortcuts that are going missing?

Chrome's a bit sniffy about where it installs itself and which users can and can't see it.

If you install it through http://pack.google.com it defaults to all users.

HTH HAND

Bit late now, but if you're installing stuff, Ninite is fucking awesome.

Hmm. Computer started doing the long beeps again. Booted up fine on third attempt. All the same, bloody annoying. It seemed okay for two weeks there, too!

Probably is the RAM. Bah. But everything's been running perfectly recently. I just don't understand.

Nargles. They start to flock this time of year

Bah. Computer been playing up again recently. Definitely a hardware problem. At least I have a backup hard drive for all my photos now.

Question: I just get one standard of beeps when I get a BSOD or the computer fails to boot. Each beep lasts about three seconds, and there's at least nine of the beggers. Is that a short beep or a long beep? I have no idea. How short is a short beep? Also, do the beep strings re-run? As in - if you've got a three beep code will it go: BEEP BEEP BEEP *long pause* BEEP BEEP BEEP or just BEEP-BEEP-BEEP?

Mostly my computer works, two thirds of evenings it runs for hours without a beef. Occasionally, it will fail to boot but will again later - possibly because I've pulled the RAM out and reinserted it, though I suspect that's just a placebo. The most frequent problem is either shortly after entering windows, either on the password screen or between 1-20 minutes after (far more often sooner rather than later) the screen will corrupt in a vomitous way and then I'll get the BSOD.

I've no idea what's causing it, but from Decca's excellent rant I wonder if it's insufficient power (Corsair 400w) too. My motherboard (gigabyte) says that continous long ones are a graphics card not inserted properly, short ones are a power error. Help me BETEO!