Re: Virus/hacker question

From: Billie Ellis (nonurse_ratchettspam@ameritech.net)
Date: 02/24/03 

From: nonurse_ratchettspam@ameritech.net (Billie Ellis)
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 04:10:35 GMT

>> I don't know if this is the right place to ask, so if not would you
>> please point me in the right direction. A couple of weeks ago, my bank
>> called me and said they got a list of debit cards that had been hacked
>> and mine was on it. They said it would have been between Feb 3rd-7th.
>>
>
>Sorry for your bad luck.
>
>I don't think the above has anything to do with the below.
Thank you, I was worried someone hacked my computer to get my card #,
then screwed with my HD.
>
>
>> On the morning of Feb 8th I turned my computer on to a blue screen,
>> error in OE some numbers called from VXD. When I hit enter a fatal
>> exception screen came up and when I hit enter again, it would re boot.
>> I eventually re-formatted and re-installed everything on my drive (a
>> real pain in the ***).
>
>Did you even attempt to start Windows in Safemode and remove drivers
>that could be causing the fatal exceptions? Did you write down the fatal
>exception that was occuring and try to research it? Did you recently
>update Windows through http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com? If so, you
>could have tried to remove the update by going into Safemode and
>removing the recent update.
I did start in Safe Mode, but didn't know which drivers were causing
th problem. I did write down the exception and tried to research on
the HP site (I have an HP system), but couldn't come up with anything.
I guess I should have researched the newsgroups/google instead. I
have since thrown away the info, but may be able to retreive it. I did
not update Windows lately.
>
>Did you recently install any new programs?
The only new programs I installed was Nero, and My DVD. Of course when
I reformatted I lost everything I hadn't backed up. Stupidily I hadn't
backed up in a while.
>
>Did you have a backup of a good, reliable, working copy of the registry?
>Or a good backup of the entire machine?
No, I'm not real sure how to do this or a good program to do this. I
guess I just thought it would never happen to me. I know, before I get
an responses, I'm an idiot. I am trying to find out what happened and
how to protect myself do it doesn't happen again.
>
>> Several days ago I downloaded from KaZaa and 2
>> of the files were virus (one was Hantaner, the other Surnova), My
>> virus scanner got those and deleted them.
>
>
>I would hope it "got them" before you opened/ran the program.
Thankfully, I am smart enough to have a virus scanner. Right now I'm
using a trial version of AVG. Before all this happened I had Norton,
but after reformatting, I've tried to re-install Norton from my disk
and it won't allow me to. I get a runtime error. I am trying to
download Norton now and going to try to install it. I am also using
Zone Alarm Pro Trial to see how it works.
>
>> My computer has not acted
>> right since the blue screen incident. For one thing WMP will not play
>> certain files (I have Xvid and Divx on my computer).
>
>Have you set it or any of the other programs as the default for this
>type of file? Do you have proper libraries installed, such as DirectX,
>etc?
I am not sure, (I am a novice when it comes to this) Is there a way I
can check this?
>
>
>
>> Also I can't
>> download from WMP site the WMP 9.0. When I do download my little box
>> for downloading does not show the progress bar, but it does say how
>> many Kb or Mb have been downloaded.
>
>What browser are you using? Do you have the latest version? Have you
>tried to download through another browser? Does the site require
>javascript? ActiveX? Do you allow that to run in your browser? Have you
>tried to download it elsewhere?
I am using Internet Explorer 5.0 I did download it from another site
and re-installed it, Xvid and Divx and still couldn't get WMP to work
with the AVI I was trying to watch. I can watcht the AVI on Virtual
Dub.
>
>
>> I have updated my virus scan and
>> ran it several times, but it says no virus.
>
>
>What virus scan? Have you tried another, in addition to, your virus
>scan? I recommend using f-secure or f-prot. Use google.
AVG trial. I will check out the 2 you mentioned.
>
>
>
>
>> What does this sound like?
>
>It's sounds like a K2M problem, or possibly an 1D-10t error.
Thanks so m uch for responding. This is driving me nuts. I will
research the the problems listed above.
Bj
>
>
>
>> Could someone have hacked my computer and messed it up? Do I have a
>> virus?
>
>
>
>> When I reformatted my drive, would that have got rid of the
>> problem?
>
>Depends if the virus was memory resident or was contained in the BIOS or
>boot sector.
>
>
>
>> Sorry for so many questions, but I don't know what to do.
>> TIA,
>> Bj
>>