Chernobyl Fiasco - HELP!

[Roy]

My web machine has been running just fine 27/7 for several weeks. I've done a few Windows "Restarts" - no problem.

Yesterday I powered down to change SDRAM. When I brought it back up, the HD accessed for about 5 seconds, there was no video, and after that, the ATX power switch ceased to work. Killing the PS shut it down AND brought it up, same freeze.

A friend went through these woes just after CIH went around, so I guess that is what happened. The mobo is now "spare parts", its BIOS is not socketed. That's OK, it was a **** Intel LX and deserves to die.

Here's my question. I have to assume the HD is where the infection resides. There is some data I'd like to recover. My friend who had the troubles reformatted his and lost everything but the drive itself.

I've just downloaded the latest from McAfee, I'll make sure the system that's now on line is VScanned regularly. What I'm thinking of doing is to hook up the infected HD as Primary Slave and scanning it from the clean Primary.

I'll probably pluck up the courage and do it, but I'd really appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts about this somewhat risky adventure.

[This message has been edited by Roy (edited 05-30-99).]

[Dominus]

Try this:

Use the clean computer to download this onto a floppy:
http://www.pspl.com/download/cleancih.exe

Hook up the infected drive on the clean comp

Boot to command prompt only (F8 on startup, select option)

put the disk in and run a:\cleancih.exe c: /autoclean


go here for more info:

http://www.pspl.com/download/cleancih.htm




[This message has been edited by Dominus (edited 05-30-99).]

[Bleeding Edge]

Yikes. Sorry to hear about this Roy. I hope Dominus is of help.

Good luck, captain.

[Roy]

Well, I've gone through the CleanCIH.exe ritual, no virus was found on either HD. Thanks, Dominus.

I guess next I'll run McAfee on the drive in question. However, I have a floppy with Eicar.com (test virus) on it, and the Brand New McAfee failed to recognize it!

Finally, I think I'll put the Web Machine back together to see if the malady mysteriously has disappeared. I've seen that happen.

Maybe I'm victim of Magic 8-Ball. I've been thinking pure thoughts and avoided cursing throughout this adventure. If the problem goes away and the Intel LX board resuscitates, I'll know that The Elf has been through here. His tricks are temporary. The Old One's are irreversible.

More to come.

[CMonster]

Roy,

Assuming the worst so quickly??

It's probably the SDRAM you put in it or something got knocked loose or unseated in there.

[800XL]

I've never had the pleasure of coming up against CIH in bios infection form, so far. <knocks on wood> I don't know how pervasive that sucker can be, but you may have a recovery mode available on the board to get the bios back to functional. If that is a true blue Intel board, they have made very few boards ever with no bios recovery mode. Check out the old Intel website for a bios download and maybe they'll have something for you. With my lowly knowledge of what CIH can do with a bios, I don't know A) if recovery mode will work and B) if the virus will be gone after its over. Perhaps someone who is more wise in the ways of science than I can elighten us primitives...

[socalgal]

Roy, I hope CMonster's theory is the correct one here. Good luck bud!

Well isn't it encouraging to hear that the latest MacAfee couldn't find a TEST virus? Maybe I'll check that out and see if my latest NAV does.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 05-31-99).]

[Roy]

CMonster - The first thing I did was test the SDRAM in the other machine and check all connections. Not that easy, and still not fully resolved.

800XL - No boot = no flash. My friend was lucky enough to have a socketed BIOS EEPROM that he could move and flash after the board was up and running.

While it was down, I tore the P2-300 apart "to see what's inside". Actually, to find a way to secure a Peltier sandwich between the P2 plate and the HS. I think I have a test answer, the 450 comes apart soon. Results to follow.

CIH UPDATE - I put the P2-300 back together and reinstalled the HD. One last try ... still dead. I won't blame 8-Ball, I think it's just a case of an Intel board getting what it deserved! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by Roy (edited 05-31-99).]

[MrEd]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think you can rule out most viruses because viruses today are mainly macros attached to Word and Excel files. Unless you've got those programs installed, you shouldn't worry about them too much. But as a precaution in the future to you and to all, you should never open an attached file from you're email if you don't know the person sending you the message. Just a couple cents worth of thought. (I'm bored tonight guys and gals)
Oh yeah, one other word. I heard through the grapevine that there is a new virus hitting some people that is sent through Corel products. It's such a shame http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif that some people have to be such pains.
Okay, that was more than one word. I'm done.

-MrEd

[800XL]

No boot=no flash is not explicitly correct. If the motherboard has a jumper setting for recovery mode, it will (maybe) attempt to restore the bios from floppy. You will need a floppy prep'd correctly for the given motherboard, but I've had it work. Here is what Intel has to say on the subject:
http://developer.intel.com/design/motherbd/genbios.htm#5

The bios disk needed for most Intel boards should be available somewhere below:
http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/

[CMonster]

Ya know a light bulb almost always burns out the moment you turn it on. ..I'm still betting against CIH.

[800XL]

Even if it is not CIH, odds are still not bad that the problem is in the bios. With boards storing settings in the flash rom and updating at bootup it is not too hard to imagine the occasional 'oops'. I look at more dead boards than one person really should, and bios corruption problems are among the top of the troubles I see.

[Steve R Jones]

"Yesterday I powered down to change SDRAM. When I brought it back up, the HD accessed for about 5 seconds, there was no video, and after that, the ATX power switch ceased to work. Killing the PS shut it down AND brought it up, same freeze."

Have you trippled cheched ALL cable connections. Maybe you accidently pulled a ribbon cable partially out.

[DavidX]

Roy, I'm sorry to hear about your disaster http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

I'm with CMonster; I'm also betting it's not CIH. And I'm hoping 800XL's Intel recovery mode solution can work for you.

Regarding what Steve R Jones said, I personally suspect BIOS corruption but I would suggest quadruple and even quintuple checking all your connections anyway (though I guess maybe you already have). I remember I once knocked a cable connection loose without even realising I'd done it. It looked fine to the human eye but I reseated it anyway among all the other connections. Still no good. Finally, I sensed it must be the culprit and after about the fifth reseat, I got it right.

Another thought: incompatible RAM? I guess you already tried putting back the old RAM just to make sure? I heard those LX boards can be choosy sometimes.

Don't be too hard on Magic 8-Ball and The Elf http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by DavidX (edited 05-31-99).]

[ENVY]

Had an almost exact type of problem,after installing a case fan.Harddrive access for awhile and then nothing!Checked all connections and rechecked and tripled checked but nothing,nada,dead!Undo the handy work and still dead!Finally,after much plugging,unplugging,replugging,I found that the 4 pin connector plugging to my primary drive(actually the socket on the drive itself)was being a tad finicky.After reseating the wires in the female end and then making sure that the hd connector was solid I plugged it back in and hurrah!It worked!
I also do not think that it is a virus,Bad connection,one of those wonderful static zaps,or maybe a bios corruption issue.
From my experience,I have found that if a machine does not boot after work was performed and ya followed the necessary safety steps then either the part is bad,ya knocked something loose,or it was it's TIME TO DIE! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[Roy]

Just checked out the Intel pages. As anticipated, the system has to be able to boot to flash a BIOS upgrade. Later I'll give every connection a seventh reseating and try for the last time.

FYI - That "TV Engineer" part of my profile is vague. One of the hats I wear is Electronic Maintenance. I know not to assume, and very little gets by me in this type of situation. Still, sometimes we all miss the obvious. One more thing I will try: a different power supply. We'll see.

[Roy]

Thanks for all the input. I find myself "at work", or at least at my place of employment on this otherwise delightful holiday.

I will dig into the possibility of a recovery mode. Maybe I'll just send it to 800XL for his continuing adventure.

Since I've been surfing on the 450/527 machine, I don't really want to go back to the 300! Of course that means an overclockable mobo, maybe the MicroStar MS-6163 - I like to think of it as a "BH6-2". The review at www.thetechzone.com (http://www.thetechzone.com) implies I might even be able to squeeze more than 350 out of my old Klamath 300.

The Peltier/450 goes together today, I'll let y'all know how both machines progress. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif