wildepuzzles
Thread Starter
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Messages
- 5
Spent a few days putting together a new computer, got it up and running two days ago, and after finally resolving some connection problems I got on the internet yesterday afternoon. As per a new system I automatically started going to a few favoured sites like Tucows and Cnet to download many of the standard freebies I use. Halfway through the process I began having a few little hiccups - IE crashing a couple of times, restarting, and wanting to send out error reports - and then something odd happened, where it seemed something piggybacked in during a download and opened itself, issueing a prompt about whether I wanted to restart the computer. I knew it wasn't me because I was saving all the downloads in a folder for opening later in the session. At the time I just figured I might just have been hit with some spyware and continued on.
Finally towards the end of the downloads - irononically enough as I was downloading a favored firewall - the compute suddenly turned off completely, the first time it had done it since I'd powered up the previous day. I had kept a very close eye on temperatures since I booted up the system and everything was running fine, no heat concerns at all. I turned th system back on, it lasted for about an hour and then switched off again. It progessively got worse to a point where now I can hardly turn the machine on before it switches off again within a few seconds.
Initially my feeling was that the Power supply was to blame, but then I remembered the little glitch I'd had during the downloads and wondered if somethig nasty had downloaded onto my system and created the situation. I hunted around on the net with my laptop and dug up data on the blaster virus, which would seem to fit the bill. Problem is that even though I've downloaded the solution from Symantec I can't power the system up long enough to try and sort the problem out. If blaster is the problem what can I do from here? I thought I might be able to attach the HD to my other computer as a secondary drive and reformat it, as I assume the worm has loaded itself on there - only concern is can I reformat it on the other computer without contaminating it at the same time?
Other thing that has me wondering if it is in fact a worm is that I removed the HD from the computer and tried powering it up without the HD to see how it would go - nothing! Switched on or about a second and turned back off. I plugged in a an old HD I have sitting around to see if that would work, but that did nothing either. If the worm is on the HD and instructing the computer to shut down, shouldn't the HD's removal get rid of the problem, or does Blaster change settings in BIOS? If that's the case I think I'm screwed!
Other thing to note is that I began to wonder if my initital assumption that the power unit was to blame may have been right after all, aside from one point - if the PSU is deffective, would the LED on my Mobo still be coming on when I plug the power cord in at back?
I would certainly appreciate any feedback or help with this problem. I'm almost hoping that it is something as simple as the power supply because that's the easiest solution to the problem.
Moral of the story is that I should have had an anti-virus program running the instant I got on the net - at least I'd know for sure where this problem is coming from.
Thanks.
Finally towards the end of the downloads - irononically enough as I was downloading a favored firewall - the compute suddenly turned off completely, the first time it had done it since I'd powered up the previous day. I had kept a very close eye on temperatures since I booted up the system and everything was running fine, no heat concerns at all. I turned th system back on, it lasted for about an hour and then switched off again. It progessively got worse to a point where now I can hardly turn the machine on before it switches off again within a few seconds.
Initially my feeling was that the Power supply was to blame, but then I remembered the little glitch I'd had during the downloads and wondered if somethig nasty had downloaded onto my system and created the situation. I hunted around on the net with my laptop and dug up data on the blaster virus, which would seem to fit the bill. Problem is that even though I've downloaded the solution from Symantec I can't power the system up long enough to try and sort the problem out. If blaster is the problem what can I do from here? I thought I might be able to attach the HD to my other computer as a secondary drive and reformat it, as I assume the worm has loaded itself on there - only concern is can I reformat it on the other computer without contaminating it at the same time?
Other thing that has me wondering if it is in fact a worm is that I removed the HD from the computer and tried powering it up without the HD to see how it would go - nothing! Switched on or about a second and turned back off. I plugged in a an old HD I have sitting around to see if that would work, but that did nothing either. If the worm is on the HD and instructing the computer to shut down, shouldn't the HD's removal get rid of the problem, or does Blaster change settings in BIOS? If that's the case I think I'm screwed!
Other thing to note is that I began to wonder if my initital assumption that the power unit was to blame may have been right after all, aside from one point - if the PSU is deffective, would the LED on my Mobo still be coming on when I plug the power cord in at back?
I would certainly appreciate any feedback or help with this problem. I'm almost hoping that it is something as simple as the power supply because that's the easiest solution to the problem.
Moral of the story is that I should have had an anti-virus program running the instant I got on the net - at least I'd know for sure where this problem is coming from.
Thanks.