Help! No POST, random reboot, persistant virus...

[TheSelfishGene]

I don't know if any of my problems are related but i thought id relate them all to see if someone can make a connection.

For some time my computer has been failing to POST if has been left shut down for several hours (like overnight). The CDrom and harddrive spin up, (that "start-up sound") but the moniter will not turn on and nothing else happens. If i leave the computer 'on' in this state for some time, up to an hour or more, the computer starts just as usual. Its almost as if it needs to 'warm up' in the cold air.

Recently however the computer has been locking and crashing at what seems at random times, falling back into the aforementioned state of comatosis. And its becoming increasingly difficult to 'awaken'. It also seem connected somehow to the video card? For when i try running a game with a CGI intro, the computer often *but not always* crashes when switching between the CGI and the normal 3d state (something maybe with Direct X?)

So what could be happening? I have sufficient power from an Enermax 400w. Is the BIOS or motherboard dying? Im using a 3rd party BIOS but not currently overclocking anything. I'd like to have an idea so i can order any needed replacements parts over the net before it dies for good.

Another annoyance that may be related is a java virus that wont go away. It resets IE's homepage to 'fastclick.cc'. I have d/l 4 different virus proggs; only 2 detected it and, i thought, cleaned it. But after a day it comes back again. Its called i think a java/byteverify virus.

1700XP
ECS K7S5A v1.0
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Radeon 8500
Win98 v.1

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Have you tried Spybot\AdAware? They're very good at getting rid of the IE homepage things.

If you have other parts you can swap in and out, that would be a good start. AFAIK a java "virus" can't destroy hardware.

 

[TheSelfishGene]

Yes i have tried AdAware, PC-Cillian, AVG antivirus, and somethign else. It is classified as a 'bytverify' virus on most of the antivirus pages. It apparently gets 'cleaned' by the software but it comes back over and over. However your right its probably not related to the hardware issue.

Actually the computer randomly reset just in between these two posts! I think i have an old motherboard/cpu Celeron 400 but honestly it is so old there isn't much point in going through all the hassle. Im gettin latest official BIOS now, hopefully that will help, somehow.

 

[thunderhorse]

Does not post. A computer will post with nothing but the motherboard, momory and the CPU plugged in. Reboot, a short interuption of power. Now lay it down in a path. Bad motherboard, memory or CPU. Coroded or loose power connectors. Pull everything loose. Vid, sound card and any other board that is installed. Disconnect the power wire and the ribbon cable from the HD. Now see if it boots. It's a starting point. Now your on your own. Good luck. Yea haw.

 

[buckmasterson]

1700XP
ECS K7S5A v1.0
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Radeon 8500
Win98 v.1

Not the best combination I'd say, but if you are like me and money is tight, this is what you get. How long has this machine had problems? Did all of this start after an upgrade? Do you have any conflicts in device manager? Windows 98v1 wasn't the most stable OS built. Also, I had 3 of these mainboards and none really worked well. The problems I had were related to it's detection of hard drives and CD ROMs though.

With the little I know about your system, I'd suggest a different mainboard, and OS. Newegg has the "Pro" version of this board for 40$ shipped as I type (best part is this board will run either RAM, SD or DDR so whatever you have should work). I have 2 of these, one running 98SE, the other XP and they are stable.

The ECS K7S5A v1.0 was a picky board, and in some cases it didn't like some types of RAM either. The Pro seems to be a little better.

 

[bacillus]

trojan.byteverify.