undetected virus?

[sculus]

I recently bought a new laptop and keep having problems that could indicate the presence of a virus, such as the system failing to restart after installations, and blue screening. I was especially concerned when I downloaded the latest Windows updates but the computer crashed at the restart stage so they never actually installed properly. I then tried to perform a scan with Symantec's online virus detection tool, but the scan refused to run even though I had ActiveX and scripting enabled as per instructions. Is it possible that my problems are caused by a well-hidden virus that Avast fails to detect?

I use Avast! 4 anti-virus, together with ZoneAlarm as my personal firewall, both of which are updated, and run Win XP Pro SP1.

[lee16]

The nortan scan doesn't work with me sometimes aswell, have you tryed any others such as Trend micro or RAV online scanners.

Also have you tryed Checkdisk/scandisk, and are you sure its not a problem with windows, such as bad instalation.

if it is a virus could you password zip it and send it to virus@avast.com , for it to be tested.

--lee

[sculus]

Thanks, lee. Trend Micro could not download, but I successfully ran RAV scan, which found no viruses (Phew!)
I now have the problem of finding out what else might be wrong -- software conflict, perhaps?

[lee16]

Thanks, lee. Trend Micro could not download, but I successfully ran RAV scan, which found no viruses (Phew!)

Thats good to hear.

software conflict, perhaps?

Possibly, but i don't know too much about software conflics, are you using more then one firewall/anti-virus at the same time?, that can cause conflics.
But i think it is best to use the scandisk/checkdisk and mabey even a defrag, this sometimes helps, they will be someware already on XP, i don't use XP so i don't know exsacly where.


Also have you tryed a spyware scanner such as spybot which is free to use.

If none of this works you may have to try reinstalling your OS (in your case windows XP home), but don't do this untill someone who understands more about XP replys, they always do.

--lee

[Eddy]

You mentioned BSOD's. Take the errors on those screens as well as all errors in the event and system log to the MS-knowledgbase and solve them.

[REDACTED]

 >:(AVAST! did not detect a worm called WELCHIA.
It killed my mobo.It uses SVchost.exe wich will often give problems running windows 2000.
Just delete the file!

[whocares]

Hi @ndre,

Avast should detect all known welchia-variants

And neither WELCHIA nor it EXPLOITing svchost kann kill a MoBo or damage Hardware..

Have we overclockd ??

[inthewildteam]

I recently bought a new laptop and keep having problems that could indicate the presence of a virus, such as the system failing to restart after installations, and blue screening. I was especially concerned when I downloaded the latest Windows updates but the computer crashed at the restart stage so they never actually installed properly. I then tried to perform a scan with Symantec's online virus detection tool, but the scan refused to run even though I had ActiveX and scripting enabled as per instructions. Is it possible that my problems are caused by a well-hidden virus that Avast fails to detect?

I use Avast! 4 anti-virus, together with ZoneAlarm as my personal firewall, both of which are updated, and run Win XP Pro SP1.

If it's a recent purchace (as you stated) take it back under warranty and have the supplier check it out, it could be a faulty unit and not a virus.

[sculus]

Thank you all for your replies.

inthewildteam: my computer is an Amilo Pro V2000. Fujitsu-Siemens has such a bad reputation for technical support and customer care that I wouldn't trust them to detect the fault. I would rather return the computer for a refund if the problems are not resolved within the next few days.
 
lee: I'm not running multiple anti-virus/firewalls and have tried Ad-aware/Spybot and checkdisk.

Eddy: I did try posting error logs to Microsoft but have had difficulty understanding all the technical details in its knowledgebase. I think I'll give it another try though.

I too keep getting the svchost.exe requesting access through ZoneAlarm and allow it through otherwise I'm unable to connect to the Internet. Is it safe to allow it through? Could a virus exploit this to gain access to my computer?

Another thing that troubles me is that system info lists the RAM on my computer as being 504Mb instead of the expected 512Mb.  Is this normal? (The computer has integrated graphics but I'm not sure how to check the Video RAM spec).

I'm seriously considering a system restore.

[Eddy]

svchost = Application that works as a host process for services that run from dynamic link libraries.

svchost itself is not harmfull. But when it asks for permission to the net it depends on what is asking. Normally it is ok to allow it, but there are viruses/trojans that are using to svchost process for not so nice reasons. You can use this application to see what modules are used.

And personally I am more thinking of a hardware error you are having. Have you already tested the memory? (memtest86)

[sculus]

Thanks Eddy, I'll check out that application.

I run memtest86 overnight but I'm not sure I chose the right option. I set it at 'default' and after 12 hours it was still running! At that point I aborted as there were no errors reported that I could see, but I wonder whether I should have let it conclude. How many hours does it normally take?

Anyway, I think I'll try reinstalling Windows today and see if that helps.

[Eddy]

The test runs in a loop unless you specify otherwise. But that is a good thing. It does happen that a memory stick is bad and that the fault not always happen. So it may miss the fault the first, second ..... x-time but eventually it will be found

Let us know what happens after the clean install. Make sure you have a firewall and av installed before connecting to the net !

[MikeBCda]

Another thing that troubles me is that system info lists the RAM on my computer as being 504Mb instead of the expected 512Mb.  Is this normal? (The computer has integrated graphics but I'm not sure how to check the Video RAM spec).

If you have an integrated/"on-board" video controller, in addition to its own capacity (64 meg for my Intel, if I remember correctly) about 8 megs of your RAM gets reserved for use with that and is unavailable to the rest of the system.  So your figures sound about right.

[sculus]

Eddy, MikeBCda, thank you both. I have now re-installed Windows and the computer seems to be working fine: no hangs, blue screens or anything of the like, so I assume it must have been some software conflict causing the problems. This time I proceeded vey cautiously and step by step, which is why I took so long to reply.

Eddy: with regard to the memory test, I counted 13 passes before aborting, which is a rather good result, isn't it?

I've now connected to the Internet wirelessly but have been having problems updating avast. Each time I try to update I get a message saying:

Error when updating avast! Last encountered error: Other HTTP error (302) while trying 67.15.0.83:80/iavs4x/servers.def

Any ideas?

[sculus]

I forgot to add that I connected to the Internet through my university's network. Could it be that the uni's firewall prevents Avast in my system from getting to the servers and locating the updates?