Bios Virus

[Trip411]

What's it take to install a bios virus remotely? I thought it was next to impossible however I got a nasty 2part virus. First is just a boot sector virus that shuts off your screen during POST and only turns screen back on to see some type of weird text, hitting any key reboots the system. Not positive of the language but after the text whatever is says it has a !!=*. I have done a fresh install and even changed my OS to Vista. I had a cracked copy of XP x64 so I figured he got in because I couldn't install critical updates. I do have mcafee on my system but I show 0 intrusions or attempts. The only way to get past the virus is to let it sit idle for 8hours and the timer on the virus goes out (I'm guessing) because after that it will finish loading my OS. Even after the fresh install I am getting the same thing and that's why I figure it has to be a bios virus. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Once the OS is installed any attempts to access the bios does not work even holding down my key during the screen off phase doesn't work. I swapped out the hard drives with a clean one and I wound up with the same thing on the clean HDD. Any ideas? I am fresh out of them and it's driving me nuts. This is my main PC with three Geforce GTX 280's and Intel Core2 Extreme 9770 3.2GHz overclocked to 4.40GHz on a MSI P7N Diamond board with 8gigs of Corsair XMS2 DHX 4-4-4-12 RAM. This thing cost me more then I even want to talk about and it's a fuckin paperweight. Please help.

[Dragonthorne]

I will post this here just for info.

When using Windows update on XP, just don't download the Windows Geniune Advantage Tool. You will then be able to download all the updates.

If you do have the Genuin Advantage Tool already downloaded, remove it via control panel.

[hoppy96pgtbs]

Looked on some other forums, sounds like you may have to replace the MB from what others are saying. I hate to hear of this on such a nice machine Several responses on different websites about it. Sorry it happened to you. Have you tried to flash your bios? From what I read you get it from updating your Bios from a site that is corrupted. I am assuming this just happened out of the blue and not from initial build? Sounds like it could be a Ram Virus also. Have you tried turning it off and taking out the ram for a while and then rebooting? Give it a whirl.

From computing.net

a virus can get into the bios a lot easier than you think. if you do not disable write to bios either by jumper or in the bios, a virus or wrong bios autoupdate can get in & screw the bios royally even with dual bioses. happened to a friend who got auto update for bios that was bad, ended up replacing board

[WickedMofo]

Hmm...used to be a way to "reset" the bios to default years ago by having a switch set. Not sure but I would check with the board's manufacturer for fail safe procedures. I know mine at home (am on the road) has an option to be upgraded if booted by diskette/cd. I really believe you should be able to boot with the "reset" idea.

[Cravin]

Originally Posted by Trip411

What's it take to install a bios virus remotely? I thought it was next to impossible however I got a nasty 2part virus. First is just a boot sector virus that shuts off your screen during POST and only turns screen back on to see some type of weird text, hitting any key reboots the system. Not positive of the language but after the text whatever is says it has a !!=*. I have done a fresh install and even changed my OS to Vista. I had a cracked copy of XP x64 so I figured he got in because I couldn't install critical updates. I do have mcafee on my system but I show 0 intrusions or attempts. The only way to get past the virus is to let it sit idle for 8hours and the timer on the virus goes out (I'm guessing) because after that it will finish loading my OS. Even after the fresh install I am getting the same thing and that's why I figure it has to be a bios virus. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Once the OS is installed any attempts to access the bios does not work even holding down my key during the screen off phase doesn't work. I swapped out the hard drives with a clean one and I wound up with the same thing on the clean HDD. Any ideas? I am fresh out of them and it's driving me nuts. This is my main PC with three Geforce GTX 280's and Intel Core2 Extreme 9770 3.2GHz overclocked to 4.40GHz on a MSI P7N Diamond board with 8gigs of Corsair XMS2 DHX 4-4-4-12 RAM. This thing cost me more then I even want to talk about and it's a fuckin paperweight. Please help.

well IMHO your Mobo is the issue not a virus. I know with Intel Mobos you can pull a jumper and re flash the bios back to default. you can also pull the BIOS battery and let the board sit for a while or hold the power button for Ohh 30 seconds or so (after unplugging the power from the wall) if your bios got corrupted ( it does happen not often but it does happen) it would have the symptoms you describe.)if mcaffe says no virus i would guess there is no virus.

[Public]

Yea pop the battery out of the motherboard and do a few mins of power on/off from the case or the PSU. To where the green light on the MB flashes. Also do this with the ram in and out of the MB just to make sure everything resets to factory settings. If this just started it could be a set virus since it didnt happen on first post up.

Also if you updated to the newest bios when it wasnt needed to be and it was bugged it could just Fu*k up your whole MB and some wont even reset. If you still have a warrenty on the MB i would RMA it asap just for the hell of it to make 100% sure you get a new fresh start on one. Even if you do seem to *fix* this one it could happen again if its a hardware problem.

[qat]

My old motherboard had a dual-BIOS system, and I assume this is part of the reason why.

Maybe yours has similar functionality?

[kukmuk]

Btw, pulling the battery out of the system / holding the power button (I dont believe this actually does anything involving the BIOS) / moving the jumper to "CMOS Clear" or any other reset possibility you can think ONLY resets the BIOS options back to defaults (boot order, onboard sound on/off, default CPU and RAM options). It does not re-flash the software on the physical BIOS chip. Your BIOS chip is a EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), and when you flash your BIOS you are physically overwriting whatever is currently there.

This being said... if your computer boots and you have the ability run a piece of software from a boot disk / boot CD, you can always overwrite whatever code is currently flashed to it. Just wait the 8 hours to boot to a boot disk, then flash a KNOWN WORKING revision from the MANUFACTURES website (never ever ever ever use a BIOS flash that is not from the manufacturer website). Good luck.

[Public]

Originally Posted by kukmuk

Btw, pulling the battery out of the system / holding the power button (I dont believe this actually does anything involving the BIOS) / moving the jumper to "CMOS Clear" or any other reset possibility you can think ONLY resets the BIOS options back to defaults (boot order, onboard sound on/off, default CPU and RAM options). It does not re-flash the software on the physical BIOS chip. Your BIOS chip is a EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), and when you flash your BIOS you are physically overwriting whatever is currently there.

This being said... if your computer boots and you have the ability run a piece of software from a boot disk / boot CD, you can always overwrite whatever code is currently flashed to it. Just wait the 8 hours to boot to a boot disk, then flash a KNOWN WORKING revision from the MANUFACTURES website (never ever ever ever use a BIOS flash that is not from the manufacturer website). Good luck.

Cant flash bios with a new verison until you can post to download a new version.

[stevieg]

my bet is the overclock or motherboard as well, a cmos clear jumper will reset the bios as well as get rid of the overclock. does that work?

steve