Does any one know of a virus that is going round which causes your computer to lock out when accessing the internet?

 

Quite a few times now I have had my computer freeze for no apparent reason. I think I have narrowed it down to the internet, as if I turn the modem off my computer seems to last all day with out any problems. However about 30 mins into using the internet my computer is likely to freeze.

A few times I have had a blue screen error saying something like Windows has shut down my computer because something tried to wrtie to a read only sector and shutting down would prevent damage.

 

Could this be a virus? Does any one know of one which is going round at the moment which can cause this? I have a fire wall and I often update my virus definitions and do a full system scan at least once a week. I have ran it lately and all is clean and I am safe gaurded against the Blaster virus or what ever its called.

 

On another note, could it be my network card failing causing it errors when getting information from the modem?

 

Any help apretiated,

 

Stuart

this isnt the blaster worm, if it was you would deffinatly get the message telling you your computer is about to restart. Nevertheless go to windows update and get all the latest patches. Seeing as you have a firewall and AV and all is saying clean id say its a hardware problem.

Sounds like something is overheating.

 

Check that the cpu fan is spinning properly.

 

'SiSoft Sandra' ~ the std prog is free, you can get it off 'net and

you'll find it on the cover disc of October 'Computer Shopper'.

Amonst other things it will let you check the cpu temperature

'on the fly'.

When you next have to restart, go into 'setup' where you can

check the cpu temperature.

 

Other suspect component/s is/are memory

I am actually thinking something is over heating to be truthful.

 

I have MotherBoard Monitor 5 which tells you your CPU Outer and Core Temperatures, Hard Drive temperatures and Case temperature, and all though things are a little hot, they are within working parameters.

 

However could my graphics have fried and cause the errors? My dads graphics card packed in about a week ago and I am wondering whether mine is on its way out too as we bought the same card probably from the same batch.

 

Other ideas I have is the power supply is a little weak.

 

I am running a 350W supply on a Barton AMD 2800,

3 Hard Drives,

CD Re-Writer

DVD Re-Writer

DVD Player,

Floppy,

Zip Drive,

 

and then 2 Network Cards and a Graphics Card.

 

Could the power supply be struggling?

 

I have disconnected the the 2 CD drives but my computer still locked up.

 

Suggestions any one?

 

 

Clarkey:

Yeah I run update every few days so I am always upto date with Windows stuff, firewall and virus definitions. Plus it tells me when there is an update when I boot my computer up.

 

Stuart

I would say that your power supply will be pretty close to the edge with that much stuff on a 350w. As you're using MBM, how accurate are the voltages the power supply is putting out. If they vary too much from spec the horrid things may happen. I fixed a PC just recently where the +12 was about +11.05, by replacing with a decent supply.

You might want to try installing the latest drivers for your modem and NIC, Is it XP or NT you are using? Blue screens with hex usually mean a driver corruption, even though most people will swear blind it's hardware (although it could still be hardware). What changes have you made to the software configuration? Tried doing a restore from a previous date when you know the machine was OK (XP, and I think 98 will have this function)?

 

If it is mentioning sectors on your hard drive, perhaps you should run "scan-disk" or "chkdsk", or even check the page file on the boot drive is correct. Might be time to replace the drive.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

Kent.

The voltages are all within the required ranges. MotherBoard Monitor shows you the voltages and they all seem to going well

 

 

I think I will run a scan disc and see if that turns up anything. I will also try to install all the drivers again and see if that helps.

 

When the blue screen comes up it tells you a file name at the end which I never manage to take notice of what it is. It may well be a driver file.

 

 

Attached is a image of Mother Board Monitor showing my voltages and temperatures.

 

My first Motherboard used to problems with the +12V and would often go over 13V. I changed the motherboard and it worked fine after that.

 

 

Stuart

Stuart.

 

Seeing as everything works OK until you access the Internet it would be safe to assume that the problem lies with either drivers for your modem or network card, or the modem or network cards themselves. The monitor software will only show you values, and could even contribute to causing errors as chances of conflicting software increases with the amount of software installed.

 

If you had a problem with either your mother-board, CPU, or memory etc, you would experience problems when using the PC at other times and not only when you access the internet.

 

It might be in idea (if all else fails) to remove the hardware you are not using (or is not needed to run the PC), and test it then. I am guessing that because you have 2 network cards, you are using this PC for more than a simple PC... Maybe you have a network set up and are running the Internet through it? Or you accesss the Internet directly through the Modem?

 

Kent.

Also you might have a lot of stuff running in memory that has accumulated over the years. Check out processes under Task Manager and cross ref against this lot http://www.answersthatwork.com/

 

Also if you have spyware suspicions, try Adaware or similar http://www.lavasoft.de

 

Good luck - Gio

Actually guys, I have fixed about 200 pc's with dialling problems and internet connections.

 

This is the blaster virus.

 

Visit http://www.symantec.com, download the relevant virus removal tool and run this.

 

At least then you can eliminate this from the equation.

 

I work for Travis Perkins, and we have loads of AS400 dialup connections, this virus caused many connections to terminate prematurely.;)

 

Hope this helps.

Ahhh AS/400's are nice machines - cant get viruses on them and they dont crash.

Hi guys, thanks for your help.

 

 

I have run the Blaster Virus checker from Symantic and said all was clear but I will run it again though. And I did let it run correctly because it took over an hour to check all drives.

 

My PC at the moment it set connected to a hub and the other network card is plugged into the cable modem. I share the internet connection with who ever is on the hub, which most of the time it is just my computer and my dads, but he does connect his laptop and my girlfriend connects hers every now and then to get updates, but its nothing to do with that I dont think.

 

I showed to picture of the MotherBoard Monitor to show you my volts as that can cause problems. Im not too up on the Volts part but I presume that the volts being very slighty under the stated level is OK.

 

Gio:

Yeah I have Adaware installed and its a great program. I reinstall windows about every 6 months because of all the stuff that accumilates and this installation of Windows is only 2 months old at the most and was done on a new HDD.

Stuart,

 

I see that you've got Ad-Aware installed, well so av I, and it's a great little Free prog that works. Well someone at work put me onto another Free prog called 'Spy-Bot - search and destroy'. This is similar to Ad-Aware, but much better, as you can imunise certain attackers, that the prog will then recognise next time they attempt to latch-on to your pc.

I ran mine for the first time when I installed it and, although I'd run Ad-Aware only the day before, it found 97 trackers and other stuff that you don't want on your pc!!!!!!! :eek: This is stuff that Ad-Aware didnt find.

The prog takes about 6 to 8 mins to run a full system check, once youve downloaded the Free update, or 4 mins with out the update.

 

I found this prog available froma site called http://www.tudogs.com , all you need to be on this site is a valid e-mail addy. Then they send you an e-mail about once a week telling you about other Free progs for all sorts of stuff, if you dont want to receive this stuff just tell them, it's as simple as that! :D

 

Anyway, I hope this may be of use to yourself and others on here.

 

Dave

Stuart lad,

 

Theres also a pacth to make sure you dont get infected by the virus everytime you connect to the web, as its still going around our firm now.

 

If you want a copy of this patch, drop me a mail on:

 

mark.stevens@travisperkins.co.uk

 

quoting your OS.

 

Hope this helps,:) :)

D'u have Win XP?

Has a firewall in it but needs to be enabled.

 

'Internet Alert' is good.

 

Beware of opening items from unknown sources!

Thanks for all who helped.

 

I think I have found the problem now.

 

I think the sound card is on its last legs. I took notice of one of the errors and it was sound driver. Also my computer kept crashing when I was trying to access http://www.sportinglife.com and would also crash when I loaded word or write an email. I would get to Dear whoever, and the crash. I then realised it crashes just as the ****er Paper Clip come on. The web site I later found had an advert with sounds on and as that started to play would cause it to crash. I have installed new drivers, but I think they are older ones and all seems well, but I have not tried to crash it yet to see if it was the drivers or if the whole sound system is causing problems.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Stuart