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IT Techy help - CMOS virus?

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baybuscamperkid prince of insufficient light, ruler of heck

4,316 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#273348
ok tech heads, i've got a problem. just got given a dell P3 a mate had hidden away in his shed. haev booted it up, but there apears to be a virus on board. after 30sec to 3min the screen starts changing, letters and colours and shapes just magically morph. thinking it was a hard drive bug i formatted the harddrive through DOS, but the same problem occured during teh wiping and again since the wiping was completed. is there such thing as a CMOS virus? and if so does this sound like one, and how do i get rid of this problem?

thanks
Ryan
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baybuscamperkid prince of insufficient light, ruler of heck

4,316 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#273538
anyone?
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zac_smits Coolest Person Ever!

3,634 posts · joined Jan 2003 ·

#273545
yes it's possible...
Computer virus that has the capability of infecting and/or modifying the CMOS. This could mean that even if the computer hard drive is erased the virus still has the capability of infecting the computer once information is placed back on the computer. A good example of a CMOS virus is the AntiCMOS virus, which is cable of erasing or resetting the CMOS.

here's a cmos virus

CmosDeath
It is a very dangerous memory resident boot virus. It hooks INT 13h and writes itself to the MBR of the hard drive, and boot sectors of the floppy disks. Depending on the system timer it erases the CMOS. The virus contains the text string:

so yeh..get a decent, new anti-virus program and try doing a heuristic scan or deep scan.

zac
MOB: 0423890217

mnsKmobi Wolfsburg Wizard

589 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#273560
I would be surprised if there were viruses resident in the CMOS (as distinct from viruses that wipe the CMOS). How about trying this experiment. Create a floppy boot disk on another PC and set the tab on it to read only. Test the disk by using it to boot the other PC. No symptoms? Ok, now try booting the affected PC with the boot disk. Do you still get the symptoms?

zac_smits Coolest Person Ever!

3,634 posts · joined Jan 2003 ·

#273561
yeh cmos viruses are damn rare..like seriosly..

(youldn't you just try resetting the cmos jumpers??zeroing it?)
MOB: 0423890217

EgeWorks Wolfsburg Wizard

602 posts · joined Jan 2004 ·

#273587
If it is a CMOS/BIOS virus the way to get rif of it is to reflash the BIOS, which involves going to the manufacturer of the motherboard's website getting the right BIOS and following the instructions that will be with it.

Quoll Officially Full-On Dubber

232 posts · joined Jan 2003 ·

#273705
Sounds more like a hardware issue then a virus
Could be a video card problem if you have a spare one try swaping them to see what happans

baybuscamperkid prince of insufficient light, ruler of heck

4,316 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#273838
ok, Mike's idea didnt work, will try spare video card (was in shed, maybe just damaged), if that doesnt work i will go with EgeWorks idea
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Beerboy Custom Title Time!

1,030 posts · joined Jul 2004 ·

#274105
are you aure its not a screen saver of some sort or another app. not sure if that is a really daft question or nor?
WANTED kombi drivers side rear corner for a early bay! found after six years lol
WANTED engine lid for early kombi 71

baybuscamperkid prince of insufficient light, ruler of heck

4,316 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#274138
no, no screensaver or anything, is happening all the time, after computer has warmed up. still havent tried replacing video card yet. will do that soon.
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Da Wiz Officially Full-On Dubber

330 posts · joined Dec 2002 ·

#274267
agree with mike latest thinking ... video card is likley to be dodgy ... will probably have to purchase a PCI video cat as it probably won't have an AGP slot.

...
¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.-> Keepin' it Real !!

mhbourke Commited Dubber

72 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#274395
Dam those PCs with everything built on the motherboard! That's why I will not buy a "brand name"