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I'm quite sure its a virus and not a hardware problem. My computer was infected roughly ~2 weeks ago. I could write out a long descriptive list of all the very very obvious signs but I dont feel its necessary. It was very obvious. I wasnt worried at the time because I used a different user on the computer which worked but it got so bad and started to crash my computer I finally decided to completely wipe my hard drive and reformat my computer. Well it wasnt that easy.
Here are some screenshots of what my computer screen looks like at all times:
+ Show Spoiler +
My computer looks like this before, during and after wiping my hard drive and reinstalling windows. I've done a bit of research. From what I understand, its not a hardware problem so buying a new motherboard is an absolute last resort. Also, the second to last resort is "flashing" the bios. I didn't even know what this was until today. I've read a lot about it and it seems quite complicated and dangerous with many opportunities for me to completely fuck my computer. I've also read a certain instructional saying I could potentially reset my BIOS to factory standard by pulling out the CMOS battery. I obviously would attempt to do this immediately except I'm confused on why these long winded instructional how-to articles don't suggest this immediately when giving advice on how to remove viruses from the BIOS. Is pulling out the battery bad advice? Could this lead to permanent problems?
I think this is my motherboard model: ASUS Striker Extreme 680i
Anybody have any suggestions? any advice would be really really appreciated.
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And how exactly did you get a virus in your BIOS? Also, given that you think this is the case, I'm not sure I trust your ability to diagnose, so why don't you list the symptoms. Or do you not want us to find out what you were trying to download?
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I am no expert on BIOS viruses, but whoever wrote that surely spent an awful lot of effort in writing code that generate those pretty pictures.
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I've never once had any issues resetting the cmos by removing the jumper, but I'm no expert. I've removed it at least 5+ times because I've messed up overclocking and my shitty ram wouldn't let me get to bios otherwise.
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On July 01 2011 09:27 JingleHell wrote:
And how exactly did you get a virus in your BIOS? Also, given that you think this is the case, I'm not sure I trust your ability to diagnose, so why don't you list the symptoms. Or do you not want us to find out what you were trying to download?
Well what else could it be besides the fact that the virus is not located on my hard drive? And I don't know how I got it or I would have told you obviously.
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On July 01 2011 09:31 billyX333 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2011 09:27 JingleHell wrote:
And how exactly did you get a virus in your BIOS? Also, given that you think this is the case, I'm not sure I trust your ability to diagnose, so why don't you list the symptoms. Or do you not want us to find out what you were trying to download?
Well what else could it be besides the fact that the virus is not located on my hard drive? And I don't know how I got it or I would have told you obviously.
How about saying what it does? IF it actually is a BIOS virus, (they're kind of rare because they're kind of specific) flashing the BIOS may not be possible, so knowing what it is will help figure out what you can do to fix it, or if you can.
Anyways, how do you know it's a virus? What's it doing that proves it's a virus and not hardware?
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On July 01 2011 09:33 JingleHell wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2011 09:31 billyX333 wrote:On July 01 2011 09:27 JingleHell wrote:
And how exactly did you get a virus in your BIOS? Also, given that you think this is the case, I'm not sure I trust your ability to diagnose, so why don't you list the symptoms. Or do you not want us to find out what you were trying to download?
Well what else could it be besides the fact that the virus is not located on my hard drive? And I don't know how I got it or I would have told you obviously. How about saying what it does? IF it actually is a BIOS virus, (they're kind of rare because they're kind of specific) flashing the BIOS may not be possible, so knowing what it is will help figure out what you can do to fix it, or if you can. Anyways, how do you know it's a virus? What's it doing that proves it's a virus and not hardware?
Well when using my computer, I continuously got linked to a big "Your computer may be infected!" popup and then it would redirect me to a site to get it cleared. It also did this when I tried to enable my firewall. Thats just one specific detail I remember. I read that BIOS viruses are rare and one particular BIOS virus does indeed do exactly what I just described. I guess thats my best example
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lol dude... your hardware is going to hell...... its not your bios bud..... as far as I know there has only been 1 virus that has ever targeted hardware, and it was for a specific motherboard.. a long long time ago...... but yeah somethings going out in ur computer, I'd venture to say graphics card 
oh also I should probably list qualifications to just straight up drop some knowledge like this right? haha
-GCFA certification
-ACE certification
work as a security consultant currently
I do incident response for fortune 500 companies every day, and see a lot of malware on a daily basis...
also I had an old computer that did this exact same thing.... I threw it off of a balcony... heh
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Can you atleast give us a link to the virus you think it is.....?
Giving us half the info and expecting us to fix it isn't really the best way to help yourself.
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On July 01 2011 09:37 billyX333 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2011 09:33 JingleHell wrote:On July 01 2011 09:31 billyX333 wrote:On July 01 2011 09:27 JingleHell wrote:
And how exactly did you get a virus in your BIOS? Also, given that you think this is the case, I'm not sure I trust your ability to diagnose, so why don't you list the symptoms. Or do you not want us to find out what you were trying to download?
Well what else could it be besides the fact that the virus is not located on my hard drive? And I don't know how I got it or I would have told you obviously. How about saying what it does? IF it actually is a BIOS virus, (they're kind of rare because they're kind of specific) flashing the BIOS may not be possible, so knowing what it is will help figure out what you can do to fix it, or if you can. Anyways, how do you know it's a virus? What's it doing that proves it's a virus and not hardware? Well when using my computer, I continuously got linked to a big "Your computer may be infected!" popup and then it would redirect me to a site to get it cleared. It also did this when I tried to enable my firewall. Thats just one specific detail I remember. I read that BIOS viruses are rare and one particular BIOS virus does indeed do exactly what I just described. I guess thats my best example
Ok, yes, that's a sign of some sort of malware. If you found info on a BIOS virus that does that, and that's what you think it is, then follow the instructions for removal that came with that diagnosis.
Flashing your BIOS is no fun, but if it IS a BIOS virus, that's probably your only real option. I guess you can try clearing CMOS first, but I'm pretty sure that's only motherboard temporary memory.
It's just that BIOS viruses are incredibly rare, because they target small sectors, and nobody wants to target a small sector.
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On July 01 2011 09:39 Sir.Kimmel wrote:lol dude... your hardware is going to hell...... its not your bios bud..... as far as I know there has only been 1 virus that has ever targeted hardware, and it was for a specific motherboard.. a long long time ago...... but yeah somethings going out in ur computer, I'd venture to say graphics card
How do you know its not my BIOS from the given information? Is it just a coincidence that I got about a half dozen symptoms of a virus at the same time as my computer began to crash?
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On July 01 2011 09:44 Madoga wrote:
Can you atleast give us a link to the virus you think it is.....?
Giving us half the info and expecting us to fix it isn't really the best way to help yourself.
I read about ~10 articles on BIOS viruses and BIOS flashing. I'm currently searching for the article which referenced to a virus that does what I experienced. Thats the only reason I didn't reference it is because I currently cant find it
edit: This is one of the articles I've read that describes the virus I was experiencing:
The most commonly known BIOS viruses are those that create warning messages that say the computer is infected by a virus. These messages are followed by the automatic opening of a Web browser and the loading of a page for fake virus scanning and removal software. Presumably, the creators of the virus stand to profit by tricking computer users into entering their credit card information into these websites. I know its not the most thoroughly descriptive or convincing but thats what I have to go on for now.
source: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4809843_removing-bios-virus.html
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On July 01 2011 09:45 billyX333 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2011 09:39 Sir.Kimmel wrote:lol dude... your hardware is going to hell...... its not your bios bud..... as far as I know there has only been 1 virus that has ever targeted hardware, and it was for a specific motherboard.. a long long time ago...... but yeah somethings going out in ur computer, I'd venture to say graphics card How do you know its not my BIOS from the given information? Is it just a coincidence that I got about a half dozen symptoms of a virus at the same time as my computer began to crash?
He's not entirely correct, there's been a few, and there was a vulnerability that allowed for a little bit of cross-motherboard compatibility.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/bios-virus-rootkit-security-backdoor,7400.html
Even so, this is just plain rare, and hardware is much more likely to be an issue. And yes, there are coincidences like that.
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It seems like it could just as well be a graphics card problem. If you have another graphics card laying around, you could try to hook your monitor up to that one and see if the problem persists.
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looks like your gpu is fried 
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Something similar happened to me a couple years back, it was actually my GPU. If you are using a PCI GPU and have onboard video as well, try removing your card and using the onboard video. If things are still messed up, then it could be a BIOS virus I guess.
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On July 01 2011 09:47 JingleHell wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2011 09:45 billyX333 wrote:On July 01 2011 09:39 Sir.Kimmel wrote:lol dude... your hardware is going to hell...... its not your bios bud..... as far as I know there has only been 1 virus that has ever targeted hardware, and it was for a specific motherboard.. a long long time ago...... but yeah somethings going out in ur computer, I'd venture to say graphics card How do you know its not my BIOS from the given information? Is it just a coincidence that I got about a half dozen symptoms of a virus at the same time as my computer began to crash? He's not entirely correct, there's been a few, and there was a vulnerability that allowed for a little bit of cross-motherboard compatibility. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/bios-virus-rootkit-security-backdoor,7400.htmlEven so, this is just plain rare, and hardware is much more likely to be an issue. And yes, there are coincidences like that.
1 because IT IS a coincidence.... and start testing it, grab an old graphics card toss it in.. problem will be fixed.... or you can simply pull out the CMOS battery like u hinted at earlier... simple... quick... and when you plug it back in and it does the same thing my point will be proven
now onto the next comment... let me rephrase that there has been one HUGE outbreak of a virus
affecting the BIOS, but the conditions have to be right with a specific hardware type, the user has to be an idiot and run as administrator, and they have to also not password their bios.... Also, so lets say you finally find that one system, with the right BIOS and version, and you have a virus on there..... and they are running the specific OS version that you are targetting.. what now...
literally this is all theory craft, there has only been one major outbreak of any virus affecting a systems BIOS, the rest is proof of concept, and honestly doesn't matter... its to hard to pull off, and there is no point in an attacker going after hardware and potentially damaging a machine, for instance an example, why would the US government take down a terrorist forum when instead we can just use it to glean information.... I mean come on.... post some actual viruses in the wild, and what they do... instead of posting to some "tomshardware" site...
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Its starting to look like my next thread is going to be: "building new computer. 800 dollar budget"
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Your symptoms follow a graphics card related problem. A google search on bios viruses suggests that it is pretty rare.
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Well what do you recommend I do from here? I dont have any spare parts around to test anything. Whats the cheapest solution?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nVF7x.jpg)
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