Blaster virus PSU failure?

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.

 

welcome wildepuzzles to TSG!!!

JUst in case it is something in the BIO



On my profile you will see a link that says 'Hijack This!'. click it ans download it.
make sure it is placed into it's own folder, not a temporary folder. Then doubleclick the Hijackthis.exe.
Click the "Scan" button, when the scan is finished the scan button will become "Save Log" click that and save the log.
Go to where you saved the log and click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" then Paste the log back here in a reply.
It will possibly show issues deserving our attention, but most of what it lists will be harmless or even required,
so do NOT fix anything yet.
Someone here will be happy to help you analyze the results.

 

Hey there Afinogenov,
No can do. I can certainly use my other computer to access the stuff you suggested, but I can't use it on the affected computer - I literally cannot get it up and running, it switches on at best for about 5 seconds and then switched back off, nowhere near enough time to do anything. That's what's so frustrating about this, if some worm has burrowed it's way on to my Mobo/RAM, how do I remove it if it won't allow me to power up the computer?

Thanks.

 

What’s all your computer specs PSU watts hard drives CPU Motherboard ram?

Sounds almost like a bios level problem. or a under powered PSU.

 

Sounds like a hardware problem either overheating [bios may be shutting it down at set CPU temps] or lose/misaligned hardware.
So Id suggest removing everything re-seating them all,reapply compound to your heat sink and recheck all fans are working on power up.

 

Hi again,
Sorry, I should have mentioned my specs before. Just didn't think it was relavent in light of the problem.

As follows -

ASUS P4P800-E deluxe
3.0E CPU
Standard cooling unit used with arctic silver 5
Kingston 512 PC3200 RAM
Radeon 9600 Videocard
Seagate Soundcard
Seagate 80 GB SATA HD
DVD+RW
DVD ROM
400 W Powmax PSU - I know, I shouldn't get cheap on the PSU! What can I say, I was trying to stick to a $600 budget and concentrated on the CPU/Mobo/RAM configuration.

As you can see, the system isn't heavily overloaded, especially with additional HD's. I went with the standard cooling unit because I have no intention of overclocking the CPU - during the first 36 hours when it ran like a charm temperatures were in the mid 40's on idle, low 50's under load. A little warm, but acceptable by Prestcott standards.

Thing to note is that the system worked flawlessly for the first day and a half, so I can't see how it could be a hardware conflict - it would have shown up from the start I would think. It all just started falling apart during my first internet session with the machine.

Odd thing I didn't mention before is that at one point, whilst downloading from Tucows, I experienced some real snail-line downloads, virtually at dial-up speeds which seemed ridiculous. When I went over to Cnet to grab something else it all returned to normal cable speeds in terms of downloads. As this is supposed to be a pointer to spyware/virus attacks I thought I'd mention it.

As I stated before, all help and advice would be much appreciated as this computer is a replacement for another unit we lost through an electrical storm that jumped our surge protectors and fried everything inside. To have this happen is just the biggest pain so soon after all that, especially when insurance wouldn't ante up for the costs to the zapped unit.

One thing I would be interest to know is if anyone could at least confirm if the blaster virus does its damage from within the HD or whether it resides inside the BIOS or RAM - someone mentioned the latter as a possibility.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi again,
Quick update. I slowly disconnected various items of hardware and experimented, mainly to see if it could be the PSU. I don’t think it is, sadly enough. I discovered that all it takes to make everything and anything run again is to disconnect the ATX 12 volt connection, while leaving the ATX power cable in place on the board. With the 12 volt connection out, everything starts up fine, CPU fan, DVD’s etc. Lights on the front of the case don’t though. Of course without the 12 volt in place for the motherboard I can't actually run the computer.

Is this possible confirmation that a worm has borrowed into memory or the BIOS? Maybe it’s a fault mobo, but it was working fine for 36 hours. As I said, al the problems began when I began my downloads from the net.

Hope this helps anyone with their diagnosis of the problem.

Thanks.

 

It could be a motherboard problem I had one that would run fine then just lock up during boot or anytime but would run some time like when I first got it set up.

I’ve seen some wired stuff in some burn in.

Your PSU is probably fine not under powered at least I got a 200-250W PSU but only 1 CD room and 1 had.

I Don’t Recommend running a computer with out the ATX 12V in place.

I have never heard of a virus in ram but I guess anything is possible these days...