Hi all,

Sorry but NEED to rant!!
And I hope you’ve all got plenty patience because I can see myself posting a few posts on this latest topic / disaster more like…

Here we go!!!

My PC was all clean,running great,up to date, XP Home.
Spybot,Ccleaner,Ewido,Ad-aware, AVG Free, Cwshredder tools/cleaners.
The wife let her friend put a broken ( dog chewed..)USB stick in and this friend also had hundreds of viruses/Trojans etc on 3 computers ( porn,from her kids..)which I cleaned for her last month. Separate from my PC so as not to infect myself.
Ok, so that was that.
Later, an info bubble pops up saying the USB jobby’s not being recognized/malfunctioning…
Then the mouse freezes.Hmm,ok, re started PC and…….Nowt!! Black screen.Eh, WTF??? Can’t even press Del/F8 to get into BIOS to run fresh XP (keeping my files) from CD drive.?? Ok,relax, and put in my XP start up floppy, which then fires up all corrupt ( was a perfect copy,never seen an infection etc)..AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH,SHE’S FREAKIN VIRUS’D ME,GRRR.

Oh well, that’s that then..
Time for damage limitation and see if I can salvage owt from my hdd ( 40gb,no backup disks..)

Right, last week I built a spare test pc in the shed/workshop, (20gb,fresh XP PRO). Piggybacked my 40gb into 20gb machine and both hdd’s are seen.Cool,maybe I can copy my files onto the 20gb or clean the virus on my 40gb and put it back in the house pc,where it,(the 40gb) belongs..So I take my 40gb out the shed and back into the house pc..
..Nowt.Dead.Powers up,black screen,NO BEEPS??? Strange. MO BO goosed??
Kay..had a 5gb hdd with win 98 on so put a fresh copy of my original xp HOME on in the shed, ( as my 40gb house pc was xp home and shed 20gb was xp pro..).
I installed Ccleaner,Spybot and - spy ware doctor - (which was useless I found out,finds bugs and then u need full version..)
Put this 5gb in the house pc,..dead.Same thing.Monitor on standby/black screen,no beeps at all on startup, power light on but no hdd light on, just the psu and fans running,as usual.As before, motherboard? I’ve no idea, I’ve never killed a mo bo before!
Can’t even access the bios, so my pc is chucked in the corner before I smash it to pieces with frustration.Right,calm down and try to resurrect (sp!) my 40gb hdd in the spare shed pc, which is now in the house looking uglier than a cobbled together deformed cyborg behemouth thing,but works.If I could just get my files/pics it’ll do me.Also if I could get back on the ‘net I could get on DAL and maybe even fix my original pc, with you guys help : )
Right, now this new(old shed lol) pc has an AMD Duron 900mhz processor,416mb Ram,with this 5gb in.
So I piggyback my 40gb and both hdd’s are seen,yay!Can I clean my 40gb using the 5gb I’m thinking..Scan C:\ 5gb - clean…..Scan F:\ 40gb - Infected.Trojans etc. Yay!! Sounds daft I know,but at least I know that it IS an infection now,time to kill all bugs stone dead..
Ok, aforementioned spy ware doc finds em,but won’t clean em till u buy or register..can’t do either, no internet..Spybot finds loads, then crashes every time.
Try again.Put 20gb in,with my 40gb and copy 15gb of stuff over.Great. Now, even if I kill my 40gb hdd I’ve got all my files on the 20gb : )

…Okay, so now I’ve just got the 40gb (original hdd) in this old shed pc,in the house…!
Set Bios to run from CD and run my original XP Home over it,hoping it will keep all my files etc,as it’s become a pain in the buttt now,had to swap monitors,mouse died,infections blah blah.
And………..hmm, good job I backed up that 20 gigger !!!
Looks like a fresh install,never asked if I wanted to save files etc…
Jeez..anyway,for some reason I can’t remember now, I ran XP Pro over the 40gb.Ran some cleaners and zapped more bugs, but keep seeing some…(changed name slightly,or taken dots out,so won’t link etc) - wormbobiccx - Alex related - 2ndthoughtdotcom and a real pesky one, I think,would love to kill it but not sure if it’s needed..BAIEUEdotEXE…

Right,getting somewhere, just reeeely slowly!
Try get on the ‘net. All installed programs are blank, nowt there. So no modem driver.
Wifey saves the day and uses her mates pc/internet and d/loads modem driver on floppy,cool : )

Now on 40gb XP Pro - can’t install updates ( ‘nother post )
NO FIREWALL or protection.
OK, talked to some geezer in New Delhi or Timbuktoo whatever and we’re back on the net, Yay, with no protection, Boo!

Erm,finally, got ZoneAlarm Full Security and firewall on ( 15 day trial,then it’s just the firewall..),AVG Free edition,AVG Spyware,spybot,ewido,ad aware etc, so here I am, running on two cylinders, on a steam powered old shed pc,
…and the wife says great, and buys some shoes off the ‘net!

Hahaha,women…

Cheers guys, more posts to follow, but realistically I think the mo-bo’s brown bread.

Read your rant, Loved it. Check the thread in Hardware issues about a member having problems with his motherboard. Jephree mentions about pulling Ram sticks and powering up tower and it should beep like H_LL if board is still working. Supposedly all the guy did is move his computer from one room to the other and somehow trashed it and its a pretty new homebuild. Today I did a full Panda antivirus scan after downloading Bootzilla and burning the iso boot cd.Pand came up with 5 virus hits on a antivirus software program called Combofixexe Which is just a competing antivirus software program that is included in the Bootzilla package. I had everything for Bootzilla in my admin My Documents folder under a file named Bootzilla that I made and since I had already burned the Bootable Iso that I wanted I deleted the Bootzilla file not needing it anymore. Did another scan doing the online indepth scan and ended up with a low level cookie and 1 suspecious file that they wanted me to send them which I did. I still think that the viruses detected in the 1st scan were false positives. Like I said, loved your rant aka story, down here in West Texas we call that a good yarn, and you sound like a pro. Good luck with 40 gig and at least you got a backup to fall back on.

Cheers buddy,

" Jephree mentions about pulling Ram sticks and powering up tower and it should beep like H_LL if board is still working."

yeah i've tried that, nowt, any other ideas or shall i just dig a hole for it in the garden

Cheers, Dave

Curious - did the flash chew-toy work fine in her own computer? Or did it fry hers so she came over to see if it would do the same to yours?

First - put in a new battery - they are only a couple quid at your local battery counter - whether it helps or not, it is easy to do, the investment is little, and you remove it from the equation. You also end up resetting the BIOS in the process - with all the drive swapping, a good idea anyway. Do not touch the battery with bare fingers; skin oils attract dust and promote corrosion - I put a clean sock over my hand. Take your current battery with you - many battery counters recycle the old batteries, keeping them out of landfills.

Check out my sticky, Cleaning Out Malware - in particular, the on-line scanner section to see if they can't get rid of the remaining infestation - or there may be another tool you may want to try.

And obviously you MUST do 2 things to prevent, or at least minimize damage in the future:

1. Develop and use a good backup routine
2. Get your wife her own computer.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Curious - did the flash chew-toy work fine in her own computer? Or did it fry hers so she came over to see if it would do the same to yours?

First - put in a new battery - they are only a couple quid at your local battery counter - whether it helps or not, it is easy to do, the investment is little, and you remove it from the equation. You also end up resetting the BIOS in the process - with all the drive swapping, a good idea anyway. Do not touch the battery with bare fingers; skin oils attract dust and promote corrosion - I put a clean sock over my hand. Take your current battery with you - many battery counters recycle the old batteries, keeping them out of landfills.

Check out my sticky, Cleaning Out Malware - in particular, the on-line scanner section to see if they can't get rid of the remaining infestation - or there may be another tool you may want to try.

And obviously you MUST do 2 things to prevent, or at least minimize damage in the future:

1. Develop and use a good backup routine
2. Get your wife her own computer.

Digerati, i loved that 2nd point!

Dij
"Curious - did the flash chew-toy work fine in her own computer? Or did it fry hers so she came over to see if it would do the same to yours?"

She didn't want to try it in hers...cowbag!

Tried removing battery for 2 days, same result.

and yes,wifey has her own pc but it's miles away,like .........upstairs, so just used mine!!!

Tried removing battery for 2 days, same result.

Well, 30-60 seconds would have been enough - but if you re-inserted the old again, you still have not eliminated it from the equation. If you did try a new battery, then it sounds like the motherboard took a hit when the USB power was shorted by the damaged stick. I am sure it can be repaired - but it is probably not economically worth it. An hour or 2 of labor can buy a new board.

and yes,wifey has her own pc but it's miles away,like .........upstairs, so just used mine!!!

Well, I doubt she will do that again, but still, there are passwords - though I don't recommend keeping them secret from her - if you value peace and harmony.

Fuh. I salute you man. What you managed was impressive and yeah I agree Roky, good rant dude.

Hey guys, just had an un educated thought, well i am all self taught!

Maybe i've 2 options, 1 = shorted mo bo cos of bad stick
2 = Real bad virus........
I can't see any damage to the board.

When it happened, all weird stuff ocurred,lost drivers,programs etc, but i copied most before all my installed programs went blank.
My modem driver also disapeared sp! - so does my motherboard need a driver to work?
...like the modem, printer etc, that all vanished???? hmmm

or should it beep anyway, even if the board was virused/wiped/driverless????

My board is here:http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2303

so does my motherboard need a driver to work?

Ummm, you might look at that link you posted - you will see a link to the driver for your motherboard. But in fact, motherboards need many drivers to work. Motherboards are actually a central place to mount many components; hard drive controllers, floppy controller, network connector, USB, etc.

The latest copy of your manual is there too.

As for beeps - if any, we would have to know the pattern of the beeps; 3 shorts and a long, 1 short, siren, etc.

Motherboard (BIOS) viruses are rare these days, and not normally something a BIOS reset won't fix. It is likely something on that board is fried - assuming a new battery has been tried and didn't help.