Avast WEBforum
Other => General Topics => Topic started by: consm002 on July 24, 2012, 09:05:33 AM
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After opening Steam, I got one of the bottom-right corner messages from Avast. It was something along the lines of "potential malware detected, boot in safe mode/sandbox" (I didn't memorize the wording, sorry I can't be more specific). I didn't think much of it, but I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry and clicked 'okay'. Pretty soon, my screen went black, presumably as part of the boot.
The screen remained black for ~half an hour, then I accidentally pulled the power plug out (the flex is taut, I should really buy a longer one). I turned it on again, and left it on for hours, but my screen is still displaying 'No Signal' and going black wherever turned on. No idea what's wrong. Yes, I've tried using a different HDMI socket/cable. Is Avast the issue, or is it more likely some hardware component has failed, and by chance this occurred while Avast was doing the reboot?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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After opening Steam, I got one of the bottom-right corner messages from Avast. It was something along the lines of "potential malware detected, boot in safe mode/sandbox" (I didn't memorize the wording, sorry I can't be more specific). I didn't think much of it, but I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry and clicked 'okay'. Pretty soon, my screen went black, presumably as part of the boot.
The screen remained black for ~half an hour, then I accidentally pulled the power plug out (the flex is taut, I should really buy a longer one). I turned it on again, and left it on for hours, but my screen is still displaying 'No Signal' and going black wherever turned on. No idea what's wrong. Yes, I've tried using a different HDMI socket/cable. Is Avast the issue, or is it more likely some hardware component has failed, and by chance this occurred while Avast was doing the reboot?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
@ consm002,
Welcome to the forum.
Some more information about the Computer and the Operating System would help.
Have you tried booting into Safe Mode ???
Can you boot from either your Recovery disk or your Windows Installation disk ???
If none of these items work, I would suspect hardware.
If any of these suggested alternate boot methods work, then it's not hardware related.
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here is a cheeky trick to try when turning on the system press and hold the ctrl and alt keys on the keyboard
wait for 5 minutes and then release now restart the system if this doesn't work then you have a hardware problem
most problems ac-cure due to hardware failure
is your computer well ventilated has it got cool air flowing to it
most mother boards are controlled by thermoelectric devices if the temp is to high this could be a factor
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After opening Steam, I got one of the bottom-right corner messages from Avast. It was something along the lines of "potential malware detected, boot in safe mode/sandbox" (I didn't memorize the wording, sorry I can't be more specific). I didn't think much of it, but I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry and clicked 'okay'. Pretty soon, my screen went black, presumably as part of the boot.
The screen remained black for ~half an hour, then I accidentally pulled the power plug out (the flex is taut, I should really buy a longer one). I turned it on again, and left it on for hours, but my screen is still displaying 'No Signal' and going black wherever turned on. No idea what's wrong. Yes, I've tried using a different HDMI socket/cable. Is Avast the issue, or is it more likely some hardware component has failed, and by chance this occurred while Avast was doing the reboot?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
@ consm002,
Welcome to the forum.
Some more information about the Computer and the Operating System would help.
Have you tried booting into Safe Mode ???
Can you boot from either your Recovery disk or your Windows Installation disk ???
If none of these items work, I would suspect hardware.
If any of these suggested alternate boot methods work, then it's not hardware related.
Thanks for the advice; unfortunately, I can't boot in safe mode as I have literally nothing on-screen. The monitor simply comes up with the customary "No Signal" message you'd expect if you turned it on without connecting it to a computer at all, then goes into sleep mode. If I re-connect the HDMI cable, the screen will register this and come out of sleep mode, but only to display another brief No Signal.
The computer is new (within warranty), it's running Windows 7 and I've had no previous problems. The only programs I've installed are Firefox, Chrome, Jarte and Steam. All the advice I'm getting suggests it's a hardware problem, so I was thinking of sending it back to the manufacturer (FreshTech Solutions UK), but I thought it'd made sense to check every other possibility first.
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If you have integrated video try plugging your display into the VGA port. If there is an issue with your graphics card it may have fallen back to using the integrated graphics (I'm assuming you have a graphics card from the fact you are running steam). If this works you can try reinstalling the drivers for you specific are or call the manufacturer's support to exchange the card/computer if necessary
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If you have integrated video try plugging your display into the VGA port. If there is an issue with your graphics card it may have fallen back to using the integrated graphics (I'm assuming you have a graphics card from the fact you are running steam). If this works you can try reinstalling the drivers for you specific are or call the manufacturer's support to exchange the card/computer if necessary
Many thanks - the monitor's working fine with the VGA input.
Avast popped up to tell me I was opening malware upon me booting up Steam, I agreed to the system reboot, right now there's a BIOS-style screen scanning my folders. It's already flagged up one bad executable within Steam's Program Files folder (I deleted; better safe than sorry) and the screen is now of full of files within the Crysis folder (seem to be models and textures) which are flagged as corrupted. Kinda worrying; is it a false positive, or has Steam been hacked? If the latter is true, I can't be the only person hit.
No idea if this has anything to do with my 680 failing, but given the timing and the fact the card is pretty much brand new, it's surely possible.
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It sounds like the boot time scanner, which is scheduled to run when an infection is found. I don't believe this is a fluke but indeed a false positive. Instead of deleting, move the files to the chest and submit one to the lab as a false positive.
Did you try updating/reinstalling your graphics drivers from Nvidia? Just to eliminate a driver issue before you go to the hassle of returning the card.
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On looking further, it does look like there was a false positive issue with steam:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=101884.0
Looks to be fixed in the latest VPS Update so make sure to update your definition files and then reinstall the steam client