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Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 06:02 I just spent 2-3 hours on my total restore of windows XP for the 4th time this summer, a long process! I still have to reinstall my printer driver, various fav. programs, codec updates, etc....I'm asking all you PC experts to help me. When this happened tonight, I had updated to Windows XP sp3(a month ago). I had the latest version of AVG antivirus installed(a month ago) and today's virus update installed. I'm not gonna lie to you, for when it happens, I am on a "torrent" search site. I'm not the only one who visits these sites to be sure. But as a tech favor.......what am I doing wrong? My antivirus is up to date. This time it was not "scareware" as we discussed before. My PC re-booted on it's own, then no applications loaded. It was dead in the water with the HD light blinking about once per second.....forever, and ever, no response from ctl-alt-del, or any other mouse/keyboard commands. Are torrent sites now attack sites, should I just stop? Any PC expert knowledge would be appreciated...... Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Guest Unregistered Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 06:48 Well, several things can be wrong. As far as an attack from a (well-known?  ) torrent site, then not likely. It could be a virus from something you have downloaded or a hardware failure and this can be ram, harddrive, psu, motherboard  what ever. Try - from another computer - to download for example a ubuntu LIVE cd (linux) burn it to disc and try to start and use it without installing the OS. If you're version of xp is illegal, it might contain bugs, malware from the start and then it's just a matter of time before it happens again. You could try download the free RC of windows 7, this you can use until march/june 2010 and this you can download direct from Microsoft, it is 100 % clean. Before installing ANY os, format you harddrive and then do the install.  I recommend win7 it is also compatible with almost any  programs which runs on xp. IF you choose to install your xp again, the FIRST thing you do is to check with at least 2 different anti virus programs for "bugs" within the system. I recommend here Nod32 & kaspersky internet suite 2010 - both can be run online and both can be downloaded as trial version you can use for 30 days legally. - use ONLY 1 program at the time, uninstall - reboot and then install the other. It seems tiresome, but you really need to narrow it down to where and what the problem is by trial and error. If xp is clean, you can find free tools on the net, which test the harddrive and ram etc etc. or you can use the build in features in xp to make a memory test and then a harddrive inspection. If everything checks out fine, be sure that you have the latest driver for any hardware that you have, including the bios on the motherboard, graphic card, sound card, chipset etc etc.. Good luck... Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 08:07 Thank You! So much! I will follow of all that to the letter. I'm so tired of this. I did admit I was on a torrent site. It was in the top 5 most used torrent sites in the world. Are they imbedding virus's in the torrents to teach us a lesson? If so I will cease. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 08:42 Mmmm all I`ll add is the last time I had problems with my computer was after I`d "recently" updated AVG antivirus.That`s also happened to a couple of other people I know as well,so I`d definetly look into that.For the last couple of years I`ve just used Avast(free version) and I`ve had no problems whatsoever.My PC`s getting a bit long in the tooth now though(about 7 years old) so I guess it could probably give up the ghost at any moment. I hav`nt used any Torrent sites for a long while either.Personaly if there`s an album I`m desperate to hear then I`ll either check it out on Spotify(not sure if that`s available in the U.S. ) Or just google the album title along with "blogspot" or "rapidshare" and 9 times out of ten it`s usualy out there.Plus you know it`s a direct download so you`re not pissing about with seeders & leechers and all that carry on.Obviously it`s a bit different if you`re into downloading a million gigabyte flac files of Nuremburg soundbard recording 1983 etc.But everybody has their bag I guess. Back to top

Guest Unregistered Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 09:13 Quote (Scatterplot @ Sep. 05 2009, 14:07) Thank You! So much! I will follow of all that to the letter. I'm so tired of this. I did admit I was on a torrent site. It was in the top 5 most used torrent sites in the world. Are they imbedding virus's in the torrents to teach us a lesson? If so I will cease. Hope everything works out fine. The torrent site doesn't put virus in, but some of the users who upload the torrents might. even-though there is some controversy about the piratebay.org at the moment, I can recommend the site very much. There you can download torrents from uploaders who are cleared and their torrents are safe. They are marked with colored sculls (blue, green, purple) right next to their name. If you are prohibited to visit the site (as we are here in Denmark because of a court ruling which the turds from ifpi has forced through ), I can give you a very quick tutor to circumvent it, and it's totally legal (you just change your dns server from your isp). You have to register though, to get access to the porn section     Disclaimer: I am - and I'm sure scatterplot is too - of course only talking about bit torrents sites and downloading free and legit content so all you assholes at mpaa, ifpi, riaa whatever, put a sock in it and relax   Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 09:58 I wouldn't be surprised if some torrent websites are carrying malicious content. Do you use Firefox? IE is severelly less safe than Firefox (though if you REALLY want to be safe, you're probably better off with Linux). When it comes to torrents, 99% of my searching is done on Isohunt, and it never, ever gave me problems. But it may be a hardware problem too; considering the symptoms you listed, it is possible. Perhaps even a driver issue, or something. Try to update the drivers of your video card (you can do that on the hardware manager), audio card, etc.. I admit this is not my specialty, though, and I think prisoner is a lot closer to the truth here. -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 05 2009, 14:45 I stopped using Firefox after the last scareware attack, so much for that theory. I think it's the site. There's only one commonality to all of this, the torrent site. I was on it all 4 times. Yes, I will stick to piratebay. Nothing ever happened there. Thanks Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 12 2009, 12:09 I took your advice and d/loaded Avast. In all (5) cases now, AVG was installed, updated and active. The last torrent site that killed my PC was piratebay, at the start it was always mininova. So far, I'm staying off them all........I don't think IE(Ver8) or Firefox is an issue, it happened with both. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Sep. 12 2009, 14:42 Ok Jim.When you remove AVG from your computer though you`ll need to go to their website as they have a download removal tool up there which you`ll need to use if you want rid of it completely.It does`nt go away if you just remove it from your programs.The page for it is here I`m no computer expert but a lot of the problems you`re expierencing sound similar to what I had myself a couple of years back as I said just after I`d "updated" AVG.Once I`d got rid of it and started using Avast the problems went away.I don`t know if it`s just some kind of configuration problem or what but it`s a real pain in the arse that`s for sure.There`s some people talking about it on a forum  here Some of the posts towards the bottom of the page look quite relevant I think.Anyway I really hope this sorts it for you...Good luck! Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 12 2009, 21:28 Would AVG have been totally destroyed in yesterday's total restore? I never re-installed it, I just got Avast, first thing and installed it. I like it. So far it looks far superior to AVG. I like the VRDB thing. Unfortunately, there is only one way to test it. Go to 3 places I know are dangerous. Thanks for the link, I bookmarked it. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 12 2009, 23:09 Well Dirk, thanks. Avast passed. I didn't take it lightly to test it on a jimbo-verified attack site, as it takes hours to get my fav. things up and running. The folks in Prague know their stuff. I know the sick feeling of the attack now. Usually, say on tubular.net, I can hit X on IE right-upper corner, IE is gone in 1/4 second. When an attack happens, that won't work. Ctl-alt-del won't end the program and by then it's too late. I got on mininova and it grabbed my PC as before like a black hole. Avast put up a harsh yellow warning that it blocked -long name-, I hit "X" and was gone. The warning turned off. This stuff works. But it does say something to everybody: "Watch out, it's getting harder. Protect yourself." I would urge anyone who reads this thread to install Avast and forget AVG. I'm done with torrents also. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Sep. 13 2009, 10:26 Nice one Jim,hope it continues to work for you. Back to top

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