Re: Boot Up issue--sign of infection?

On 04/02/2009 12:37 PM, Diane P. sent:
Hello Diane:

Is the age of your system well beyond three years old? Your system's
motherboard CMOS battery becomes a candidate for replacement as systems
age. Some CMOS backup batteries don't make it to five years. YMMV.

You have a good lineup of antimalware in your arsenal and the only
additions I'd make are MBAM (as a partner with your SAS) and MRT if you
forgot to mention it. Some might add GMER for periodic rootkit checks,
and others might add Windows Defender.

You might wish to schedule a chkdsk scan for some future boot-up.

If your system has an actual video board, reseating it wouldn't hurt.
The cable that runs between your monitor and the computer could be
unplugged and replugged to clean the pins that carry the video and sync
signals to your monitor. If you /do/ have an actual video board, it
could be in the early stages of failure.

Opening your computer to check for excessive dust might also include a
check of all your system's cooling fans.

If any of the hardware checks give you a feeling of dread, many self
guided instructions can be had with Googling.

Thank you for the lucid description of your trouble. We don't
frequently see this. Tell hubby you deserve a hug. Please post a
follow-up with progress.

Best wishes,

Pete
--
1PW @?6A62?FEH9:DE=6o2@=]4@> [r4o7t]


Hi Pete:

I ran all the security software again ....nothing found.

The first thing I thought of was CMOS battery. The mobo and chip are June
2007, but it they seems a bit too new to be acting up. We refurbished this
PC back then. The "C" drive is 18 mos old or so and "D" is 6 mos old.

It was also mentioned to me by another person in the forum, that he had a
similar problem to mine, but his was caused by a flaky PSU, an Antec to be
precise. Guess what mine is...an Antec 650W; so, it was suggested that I get
SpeedFan which I did. I figured out how to check the disk drives as SMART
was enabled; they passed. The fans ran pretty steady at 2130 or so; But,
reading the voltages threw me a bit. There was fluctuation, but it seemed to
me to be minor and then settled down. I am not sure what I am supposed to
see, but I will have familiarize myself with the use of the software. I will
Google it and I'm sure I'll find the answer

I do have a video card, Nvidia 8600GT, but I haven't done anything with the
driver for a couple of months. I have PSI and use Firefox as my browser; and
the only thing that has come my way for updates has been Java and Firefox
and of course the Windows updates.

I thought of the monitor and video card connections and the dust. Cleaning
the pins is a great suggestion. I thought of an overheating CPU, but my
specs call for 45-65C and this chip runs at 50C, but the PC had just been
turned on and wouldn't have overheated that quickly. The hub is the go-to
hardware guy and after a hug(like you suggested), I'm sure I can con him
into getting inside the case for me. I am no hardware person and he's redone
the inside of this PC for me umpteen times.

I also ran memtest...no errors found. I use MRT at WUpdate time and just did
use it after the latest update. I'll do the MBAM thing though. Thanks for
that.

I think I'll have him do voltage checks at bootup and check the battery
while he's got the PC open. It's so frustrating when the prob is
intermittent like this one.

Have a great day and thanks for your suggestions.

Diane

Hello Diane:

I too recently tried SpeedFan and although it wasn't compatible with the
mobo I tried it on, it appears to have good promise. I'll need to let
the author know what my hardware setup consists of.

Memtest86+ is probably the top in its category.

An excellent companion utility to Secunia PSI is FileHippo's Update
Checker. Both are in the "must have" category now.

If you ever feel like taking SMART monitoring to the next step, try
looking at smartmontools.

Judicious (but careful) reseating of the other usual suspects might be
fruitful.

Lest you forget, the Nvidia video board should be reseated while the
case is open. Also, it's a good time to carefully look for electrolytic
caps that are swelling or leaking. Badcaps has very good photos.

<http://www.badcaps.net/>

Another "divide and conquer technique" is to exchange monitors (or other
suspect components, with your husband's system). I'm sure he'll never
notice. :-)

After doing your check/replacement with the CMOS battery, see the following:

Three notes regarding your bios in passing: 1) Remember what keystroke
would be required to go to your computer's bios setup. Hence, if you
sense that your /not/ going to have video, if you allow the boot to
continue, go into bios so you won't need to probably depress and hold
your computer's power button for recovery. 2) Go into your bios setup
and record any non-default settings you may have changed to. Try going
to the default setup and re-enter any custom changes made. 3)
Hesitantly, check to see if your computer's manufacturer has issued an
applicable BIOS update. However, if it doesn't directly address a
current problem, I'd probably forget about it; "Here there be dragons!"

I would say that you have a *good* start on your list of due diligence
items.

Googling might give you the acceptable voltage limits for your system's
particular mobo.

What kind of monitor are you dealing with - make/model and age?

If you wish, keep this thread going although we're way displaced from
malware issues, or if you like, move it to the previous forum.

Best wishes,

Pete
--
1PW @?6A62?FEH9:DE=6o2@=]4@> [r4o7t]
.

Loading