Date: 02/28/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: virus

My girlfriend has an HP Laptop with a 2.8 GHZ Celeron (yeah yeah..) and 512MB Ram, Sorta. She has one of those deals where the "Video Ram" is simply regular RAM that is dedicated to just doing video RAM stuff, so it reports as 448 all the time (took us a while to figure that one out.) Anyways her computer is running like crap, especially as far as sound is concerned. It is not uncommon for audio to "lag," even under the easiest conditions. For example if you're using WMP to hear a CD and you launch Word, you'll hear audio stuttering. This is very annoying, especially for certain programs that I installed for her on the machine. As one way to combat this problem I'm going to install 256 more RAM into her computer (Take 1 256 out, add a 512 in its place, she only has 2 slots... huh huh... 2 slots...) But I'm wondering if this problem sounds familar to anyone else or if they have experience with it. I haven't had these issues since I tried playing MP3's at full quality on my Pentium 200mhz years ago. I know she doesn't have a great processor, but I have to figure a 2.8 Celeron doesn't normally have these problems. Her computer appears to be virus free ( although she keeps finding 1 particular virus or something) and her Ad-Aware cleaned up a bunch of stuff recently. Also I don't think defragging is the issue either, since she hasn't done much to her computer since I last gave her computer a big defrag (3rd party, not XP.) Thanks

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/886068.html

Date: 03/01/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: virus

I'm running out of options here, so I figured I'd try LJ. My computer just recently stopped letting me access any form of email service, and also my MSN messenger. When I try to sign in with my password and such, it just tells me "page cannot be found" and a connection error on Firefox.

There's also supposedly virus going around that basically IM's you from someone's account asking "is this you?---->" and then putting a link with your email in it. Well, I clicked on it, and I'm assuming I now have that virus. All of my virus protection is out of date and doesn't really work (no money to get new stuff. :() So it may be as simple as that. I remember an older computer of mine having this same problem, but I can't for the life of me remember what I did to fix it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is there anything I can do to fix it before I get new virus protection? Thanks for any suggestions!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/594163.html

Date: 03/01/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: virus, antivirus, spyware

I am having problems with spyware or a virus. It started a couple weeks ago where I would start my computer and it would work fine, but after a few minutes I couldn't execute new files. It would say file could not be found.

I ran spybot and norton antivirus in normal mode. It got rid of some spyware and it didn't fine any virii. I still had the same problem. I rebooted in safe mode and did a full system scan. It didn't find any virii, but it found the same two spyware. I've run spybot several times in safe mode and normal mode and the same two things come up.

It's listed as this...
Wild Tangent (wish I could copy and paste the message from spybot)and it's listed as a registry value

and

AntiVirusDisable Notify and it's listed as a registry change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/593678.html

Date: 03/01/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: virus, web, spyware, microsoft

Putting this out to a number of folks, in the hopes that someone can provide some insight:



Getting the following message, inconsistently:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000006,0x00000000,0x00000000)
The ACPI BIOS in this system is not fully compliant with the ACPI specification. Please red the README.TXT for possible workarounds. You can also contact your system's manufacturer for an updated BIOS, or visit http://hardware-update.com to see if a new BIOS is available.

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor or visit http://www.hardware-update.com for an updated BIOS. If you are unable to obtain an update BIOS or the latest BIOS supplied by your vendor is not ACPI compliant, you can turn off ACPI during text mode setup. To do this, simply press the F7 key when you are prompted to install storage drivers. The system will not notify you that the F7 key was pressed -- it will silently disable ACPI and allow you to continue your installation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now..

The platform is a Dell Latitude C610, about five years old, with 1024M RAM in two parallel chipsets (512M each) -- this is the max. cap. for the stock system; HDD is an 80G (nom.) Hitachi. System is set up with triple boot: 1) Ubuntu (Breezy) -- default, 2) Knoppix (also 2nd-to-last stable build), and Win2K/Pro (heavily patched with Dell and MS). I mostly use the Win, because it supports my wifi card, as well as most multimedia. I usually do a complete purge and reinstall each year; this is about two months overdue right now, so there's some evidence of Windows artifacts I'm having. (I'm not including any of those here, since I don't believe they have anything to do with this issue, and because I don't see how Windows artifacts could affect the BIOS or system startup.) The multiboot is available through a selection interface provided under grub, which was installed under Ubuntu; grub replaced lilo, which was installed under Knoppix, as Ubuntu was installed last. Grub was installed in the MBR.

The message comes up most often on startup (or reboot), but sometimes without warning during use. The system halts completely, puts the message up, and that's it. It always requires a hard boot to get past it.

The issue may repeat a number of times in a row, and downtime does not seem to make any difference. Letting the system rest overnight may or may not work, and restarting it without rest over and over eventually results in a stable session. Just by example, this current session came after multiple restarts (most of them automatic, but quite a few also called, using the hardware switch), and this cycle of errors occured after many hours of downtime.

Following the instructions, I went to Dell's website, which provides excellent support. Dell confirms that my BIOS is fully up to date, and I would be awfully surprised if anyone other than Dell had a more current version.

Possibly related, I sometimes get this error, which only occurs at startup (or reboot):

"Memory write/read failure at [ADDRESS], read [VAL1] expecting [VAL2].
Memory address line failure at [same ADDRESS], read [VAL2] expecting [some other Value]."

The ADDRESS and VALs are different from one occurrance to another. I don't know if this indicates failure in a number of registers, or if it's just hitting an error by chance as it comes through some random register. If, as I suspect, a line spike is responsible, then there may be quite a number of damaged RAM registers. However, the inconsistency of the error, together with the fact that I can't imagine why it would seek different addresses at different startups (especially with no sessions in between), seems to argue against this. It would, however, be awfully convenient if the problem could be solved just by swapping out some RAM.

Now, these problems started right after the big blizzard we had. I suspect that a power spike might have frizzled some logic or memory hardware, or possibly corrupted some firmware. (It would be possibly useful, as a troubleshooting measure, to force a BIOS rewrite, but the interface in Dell's update patch detects the current BIOS ver. and won't allow a force overwrite. Don't know if a diff. ver. exists that would allow a forced overwrite, so unable to verify that BIOS is uncorrupted.)

The problem is not Windows-related; Ubuntu also fails on some startups, before the OS can launch, and sometimes after. (I haven't tried to see if Knoppix also suffers, but I have to assume that it would.) The errors occur most often at BIOS startup, before any OS is selected and launched.

Having said that, while the memory error (which is infrequent) always hits right at the very start of startup (before Setup is available), the ACPI message may occur at seemingly any time during system startup, OS startup, or normal use, so while it may involve a BIOS corruption, it's apparently unrelated to the startup sequence itself.

Malicious ware is not indicated: The system has repeatedly passed checks for viruses, spyware, adware, and rootkits.

It may or may not be related, in part or in whole, to some file corruption: I do regular cleaning and defrag, but for reasons unclear to me, there is substantial data that cannot be defragged. Thanks to some genius at Microsoft, more recent versions of Windows no longer provide a standalone DOS, and some DOS processes (e.g., chkdsk /f) cannot be run while Windows is running. I will try to do this from outside the OS, but I don't know how much luck I'll have. It's possible to instruct it to run these processes on next startup, but this is not working for me; I suspect this may be related to the grub multiboot process, which perhaps defeats automated pre-Win startup instructions. I will also try to investigate this, and any pointers are greatly appreciated. A nice chkdsk /f never hurts.

The problem is inconsistent; sometimes -- as now, for example -- the system behaves properly, sometimes for hours, sometimes all day and night, sometimes only for a few minutes. This leads me to some other theories, such as a possible physical circuit fault inside the box (perhaps triggered by some external event, such as atmospheric changes or some kind of vibration of cabinet motion); I can't help but wonder if the battery is involved in this.

I will try some other things to see if I can run this problem down, before I get to swapping out RAM or buying a costly new battery, but in the meantime I want to put this out to see if anyone can offer any insights that might save me a lot of time and effort (and possibly money).

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/886615.html

Date: 02/28/06 (Microsoft Windows)    Keywords: virus

Both my roomy and another friend have the WinFixer virus on their computer.

Anyone know of successful methods of removing it?

I found THIS but didn't want to follow this process if it didn't actually work.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/60614.html

Date: 03/01/06 (Security)    Keywords: security, virus

"Crossover" is the first virus found that can jump to a mobile device after infecting a PC, security researchers say.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044457.html

Date: 03/06/06 (Security)    Keywords: virus, antivirus

Virus code isn't shared between some researchers and antivirus companies, amid allegations of "bullying."

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6046361.html

Date: 03/08/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: virus, linux

I really dislike asking for help, but I'm at a complete loss at what to do. My computer is a home-made variety, Intel motherboard+chip, Samsung hardrives. OS is Windows XP, altough I don't think that matters with what's going on. I have an anti-virus - Norton - but again, I don't think that's made much of a difference in the past week and a half.

First off, yes, I know about cable placement and setting jumpers.

So. I had two hardrives, an 80 gig and a 40 gig. The 40 was the master with the OS and the 80 was the slave. About a week ago I decided I didn't like this setup and wanted to put the newer hardrive as the master and the older as a slaved backup. Soooo, I move files around, remove all the partitions from my 80, repartition, format, install, and move all my files back over to my 80. Get the 40 ready for being formatted, reboot, and BAM - there's a black screen reading "Disk Read Error."

I tried everything I knew. Put the 40 in charge again and tried to read the 80 from Windows XP. If I clicked on it I got either "F: or whatever path it was is an invalid parameter", "F: is not formatted" and "Cyclic redundancy error." Checking the properties of the 80 gig showed that it was reading the drive as having 0 space used, 0 space free, with a file structure of RAW. Since this was above me, I took it to a friend's house who is more computer-savvy.

We tried it on a Linux box. It could find the drive but could not read. Put it in their Windows box. Found the drive, could not read. Ran chkdsk on it (multiple times) and it just came up with a bunch of bad sectors and failed after the first step. Right now the busted 80 is still at their house, my friend is still trying to get any data off it. I've lost hope - we believe the physical disk was scratched.

Now, this wouldn't bother me too badly (this stuff happens after all..) except I bought a new hardrive yesterday. 80 gig. Stuffed it in as master. Installed Windows. This morning, went to access my 40 gig - the good drive that has lasted me for a long time - and BAM. Not formatted/other error messages. RAW file structure. Boot it up as master - Disk Read Error. Swapped out the ribbon cable for a new one - nothing changed.

Right now I have the 40 unplugged and am just sitting here sweating, waiting for my black hole inside my box to devourer my brand-new 80. I've had this computer for about a year and a half now, some parts longer than that (the 40 I've had for nearly three years and the old 80 for about a year) and I've never had a problem like this. I don't care about recovering my hardrives anymore. I just want to figure out what is wrong with this thing, why it's destroying hardrives, and what needs to be replaced/done to keep my system from completely melting down. Cause I'm really scared right now.

And I'm a college student putting myself through school. I can't afford these sorts of problems right now.

crossposted to some places cause I'm desperate and scared

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/597464.html

Date: 03/11/06 (Security)    Keywords: virus, antivirus, microsoft

Company fixes mistake which, for a brief period, caused its antivirus tools to remove or quarantine Microsoft's Excel, and applications.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6048709.html

Date: 03/14/06 (Security)    Keywords: virus, antivirus

Antivirus company announces two promotions to replace Gene Hodges, who left the company in January.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6049230.html

Date: 03/16/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: virus

One of the world's most powerful supercomputers has simulated a moment in the life of a real virus. The simulation is the first to capture a whole biological organism in such intricate molecular detail. "Computational Biology has finally reached the level of sophistication and utility of the 1970’s video game Pong. But it sounds like we should [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/supercomputer-builds-a-virus-simulation/

Date: 03/16/06 (Microsoft Windows)    Keywords: virus

My computer was infected by virus, and after I removed it, I found that Display Properties\Desktop\Background item is disabled (gray) and I cannot setup wallpaper for my account. On other account in same XP all ok. How can I fix it?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/61682.html

Date: 03/24/06 (Security)    Keywords: virus, microsoft

Microsoft, experts worried about e-mail virus or other attack that could put PCs and data at risk.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6053456.html

Date: 04/01/06 (Software)    Keywords: software, virus, spyware

I'm selling a bunch of used windows machines, and want to put a decent software load on them, at a minimum so that I am not helping to increase the number of zombies out there. The machines will have XP Pro on them.

Here is what I have so far:

Mozilla suite (Firefox, Thunderbird)
winamp
irfanview

what for anti virus, spyware, etc?

Open Office

Anything else?

Games?

Machines are pokey (266mhz PII), 10+GB disk, but have plenty of ram - 384MB.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/software/62889.html

Date: 04/03/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: virus

We surely do live in interesting times. World famous ecologist Dr. Eric Pianka proposes to eliminate 90% of human population with airborne ebola virus. You may be interested to know that ebola victims die a slow and torturous death as the virus initiates a cascade of biological calamities inside the victim that eventually liquefy [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/scientist-proposes-to-eliminate-90-human-population-receives-a-plaque-and-standing-ovation-meet-dr-doom/

Date: 04/04/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: browser, virus, web, spyware

I'm pretty sure my computer has a virus of some sort. Every 5-10 minutes or so, my mouse goes out of control and moves haphazardly all over the screen, that "error" sound beeps continuously (it makes kind of a ripping noise), and my browser closes. Sometimes whatever program it is that's being executed opens up Calculator, or starts creating WinRar archives. It also resizes my windows and if I'm using Word, will put up that "Do you want to save before quitting?" exit prompt. It used to do this very occasionally, but now as soon as I reboot, I have this trouble.

My Symantec anti-virus keeps telling me that it detects Spyware.Apropos.C, so I followed the instructions to get rid of that on the Symantec website (search for the file in my registry and clean it out..I found it and I did) but my computer STILL has this trouble and I have no idea what it is.

Any suggestions that you have are very much appreciated, because this is making me insane.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/609437.html

Date: 04/05/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: security, virus, google

Ok guys, me again for another question

I've just cancelled my yearly subscription to McAfee Anti-Virus and Security Suite. I'm currently using Zone-Alarm for a free firewall solution, but I'm haven't found a free AV solution yet.

Are there any sites or products that you guys can recommend to me? I've heard a lot of Avast and AntiVir Personnal, but are there any other reputable and reliable ones? Is there any online studies and comparison between the various detection rules and whatnot?

I'd like to google for it... but I found more questionable content and products than anything...

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/907395.html

Date: 04/08/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: virus, antivirus

I'm using a PC running Windows XP x64. I've been having trouble with the Live Update on my antivirus (Symantec AntiVirus 64), so I decided to do an uninstall and reinstall to try to fix it... only when I try to reinstall, I keep getting an error that says the installation was interrupted. I had uninstalled everything Symantec from the computer and restarted, so I'm not sure why it would be doing that (I even tried starting up in diagnostic mode, but the install wizard is apparently unavailable when you do that). In addition to that, since the uninstall Windows has been requesting reactivation. Every time the computer starts up I get a message saying that the computer's hardware has been changed drastically since installation and that because of it Windows has to be reactivated within three days. Not that reactivation is a huge deal, but there has been no hardware change since my last reformat, which was about a month ago when I upgraded to XP x64. I reformat at least a few times a year, and I know after so many times you have to start calling in the activations... I guess I just want to delay having to do it that way. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/611106.html

Date: 04/08/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: virus, antivirus, web

There's something going around - I assume a worm - that is sending IM's to a user's buddies:

can I add this pic of us to my profile on facebook or myspace? http://tinyurl.com/phag8


The URL given leads to the file pict32.scr, and once opened it auto-terminates itself. I hear that Norton Antivirus isn't detecting it, and I know that Avast! Antivirus isn't either. Does anyone know of a program that is detecting this or able to remove it?

BTW - hyperlink on that URL has been changed so that no one accidentally clicks it. I've already contacted Avast!, as well as Tinyurl.com. Is anyone able to tell where url is being forwarded to? Perhaps someone could contact the folks of that webservice.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/909010.html

Date: 04/17/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: virus, web, yahoo

I found a super-simple way to block access to external email providers like GMail or HotMail or Yahoo Mail in firewall. The process while trivial to configure has a caveat. Why: External web emails are a potential source of virus and malware which can infiltrate the corporate network. How To: Block all URL's containing the word mail. In my [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-easily-censor-external-web-email-sites-in-firewall/