A new customer called and reported that his computer wouldn’t start up anymore.
He would consistently receive an error about halfway through the Windows boot process.
It turns out the secondary memory card had failed. I pulled the card thus reducing the memory size to half and the computer came up just fine. So I replaced the memory card with a new one and everything worked perfectly.
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Last week I was called out to do a repair on a computer that would mysteriously shutdown on occasion and then wouldn’t power up again for some time.
I thought maybe a virus, but odds are some component like the CPU is overheating.
This customer had already taken the computer to two other repair services. They said the computer was fine. But she still had the shutdown issue whenever she used the computer.
It seemed to run pretty smooth so I didn’t suspect a virus. But when I shut it down it wouldn’t come up again except for a small power fluctuation before shutting off again. I thought something must be hot but she had the computer turned off for some time before I arrived. So I figured I’d start with the basics:
I reseated the PCI cards and memory cards. I checked the fans to make sure they were working. I checked the wires running from the power switch to the motherboard. Nothing. Then I pushed on the power connector for the motherboard. The computer came up this time. Then I pushed it again, and it shut off.
It seems the power cable running from the power supply to the motherboard hadn’t been seated properly or had somehow become dislodged. So I seated it properly and the computer would start up and shut down without any problems.
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Did you know there’s a very easy to use program available with some versions of Windows that will delete unwanted files from your computer? Last month I showed you how to delete temporary internet files from your computer. With this utility you can do that PLUS remove Windows temporary files, unused downloaded files and files in the recycle bin.
This utility is called “Disk Cleanup”. In Windows 98/2000 click the Start button, then click Programs, then click Accessories, then click System Tools. Within System Tools you should see an item called Disk Cleanup. Click this item to open it. After a short pause the program will ask you which drive you would like to clean. Generally your primary hard drive is already selected. If you would like to clean a different drive then select it from the drop-down list by clicking the small down-arrow on the right.
When you have selected your drive click OK.
Users of Windows XP will need to click Start then My Computer, then right-click the drive they would like to clean and select Properties. In the Properties dialog box select Disk Cleanup.
The program will search your computer for unwanted files then display a list of items for you.
Put a check-mark next to the items you would like deleted from your computer by clicking the small square next to that item. When you have selected all the items you want to delete click OK. If there was considerable space used by the items you selected then it may take the computer some time to delete them.
Note: Sometimes unwanted files have attributes associated with them which keep them from being deleted. You might like to run this program more than once to see if this is the case with your computer. If you have this problem then you will need to delete the files manually.
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Spyware is unsolicited software that installs without user permission (or knowledge). The purpose of which is to trace what the user does on the internet and send this information to a computer (Server) designated by software. In most cases, this information – including detailed user information - is used to “tailor” advertising campaigns (popup ads and unsolicited email).
Some of the things Spyware can do to your computer include:
In most cases, Spyware comes embedded within popular so-called freeware/adware programs. Popular file sharing programs such as KaZaA, iMesh, Grokster, Morpheus (just to name a few) bundle spyware/adware within their programs. They do not hide this from you, however, they tuck it deep within the fine print of their license usage agreements and/or privacy statements that almost nobody bothers to read through before installing the “freeware” program.
Another method spyware is installed is by what is known as “drive-by downloads”. These are installation programs that await you as you surf the net, and depending on your security settings, they can silently load themselves onto your computer or ask permission to get on board while pretending to be legitimate programs that will “enhance” your browsing experience.
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Here’s a typical example of what I go through when removing viruses and spyware from a computer:
AVG (the free version) seems to be fairly popular and I used it for a number of years. But when I came across a particular type of spyware that installed a “fake” antivirus, AVG hadn’t a clue that this had happened. It would detect the viruses being installed on by the spyware but not the spyware itself.
My solution was to download Malwarebyte’s Anti-malware from www.malwarebytes.org. Reboot the computer in “Safe Mode” then install Malwarebytes and scan the computer. When I tried to do this without booting to Safe Mode, the spyware would detect Malwarebytes and delete the executable preventing the Anti-Malware from running.
When this was finished I would reboot the computer as normal, do an update for Malwarebytes. If an update was available I would run another scan to catch anything the previous definitions missed.
Once this was done I would remove “AVG Free” from the computer and install Avira Antivirus. They have a free-for-personal-use version available from www.avira.com/free. I update the virus database and scan the computer, removing any “left-over” viruses from the system.
Sometimes as an added precaution I would download Spybot-Search & Destroy from www.safer-networking.org, install it, update the definitions and run an additional spyware scan. Although Malwarebytes has found the majority of the malicious software I’ve come across, Spybot is good for picking up what Malwarebytes missed.
A quick note on Avira. When I installed Avira and did a scan, I had also installed at the time Windows Defender. When I scanned the computer for viruses and spyware every time Avira detected something Windows Defender would also indicate something had been detected. I suppose that’s saying something for Windows Defender. I also noticed Avira was pretty good at catching spyware that “AVG Free” tended to miss.
This post may seem a bit derogatory towards “AVG Free” but it’s what I’ve personally experienced. As for “AVG Professional” (the one you pay for) I’m under the impression it has more enhanced spyware detection ability but I couldn’t say for sure as I’ve never used it.
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In this issue I thought I would mention that the bulk of my work has consisted of removing viruses from computer systems. In every post and newsletter I try to remind readers to install anti-virus software on their computer and keep the anti-virus definitions updated. It seems that viruses are becoming much easier to manufacture and as a result the anti-virus definition files change almost daily.
Some people who don’t install anti-virus on their computer seem to feel secure by simply not opening attachments. Unfortunately because of the design of the Windows operating system this isn’t a “cure-all”. Simply looking at an email can cause a virus infection even if you NEVER open “attachments”. So you never open email from people you don’t know? Believe me, the people who make viruses are always looking for a way around what you DON’T do… So…
With some versions of Internet Explorer certain websites can contain viruses that take advantage of security holes by infecting your computer when you simply browse them or even if you are connected to an infected computer on a network. For example, the rash of the “MS-BLAST” virus a few years ago (which kept me fairly busy) took advantage of a security flaw in all Windows “NT” versions – this included Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. This virus could infect a computer without ANY action on the part of the computer user. It would simply find a vulnerable Windows NT computer on the internet and install itself quietly. Before you know it the computer was shutting itself down at random without any explanation.
I should mention here that it is also important to download the latest “Windows Updates” available and install them as they contain “fixes” for security issues in Windows and Internet Explorer.
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If you have trouble doing this or any other problems then please give me a call. I will be happy to handle any problems you might have.
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In this Guru Lounge IT Service News Article we’ll talk about “Spoofing” and “Phishing”.
Email spoofing is the practice of changing the name in email so that it looks like the email came from somewhere or someone else. Spoofing is generally used by spammers as a first defense against people finding out who they are.
Phishing attacks use ‘spoofed’ e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them.
A number of vulnerabilities remain that would allow an attacker to display false information in your address bar. One particular virus called a “web proxy” will redirect your browser to a fraudulent website when you type in such locations as ebay.com or paypal.com.
Also, a dangerous new type of phishing attack has been detected that replaces the “Address” bar at the top of a Web browser with a working fake, using JavaScript. This technique allows the phisher to display a completely fraudulent Web address URL, while taking the consumer to the phisher’s spoofed site.
Although checking the address of the website is still a good means of determining it’s validity, it is highly recommended that when you receive emails asking you to update your information that you go to the actual site from your browser and navigate to your personal information rather than click the link provided in the email. When accessing secure information on the internet make certain your web browser has the security symbol displayed at the bottom of the browser. This is usually the image of a closed lock:
Also make certain you occasionally check for viruses and spyware that may have infected your system. Remember that not all anti-virus software will detect spyware. In which case you should have a spyware removal tool installed such as SpyBot or Ad-Aware.
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It seems this week I’ve found myself in a situation where I needed to backup some files. The easiest way for me to do this was add another drive to my Linux system.
Fortunately in Debian the process isn’t all that hard. Once the drive was installed I booted the system and in a in a root terminal:
# fdisk -l
My new drive came up as /dev/hda. So…
# fdisk /dev/hda
I press “m” for menu, “n” to create a new partition of the whole disk using the defaults provided. Then “w” to write the partition changes to the drive.
Now time to format the drive:
# mkfs -t ext3 -c /dev/hda1
I used the “-c” option because this was an old drive and I wanted to check the disk for errors.
Now that the drive was ready I wanted to create a standard mount point from the root file system, rather than from /mnt or /media so:
# mkdir /backup
Now mount the drive:
# mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/hda1 /backup
The drive was accessible now but regular users could only read the drive, not write to it. So:
# chmod -R all=rwx /backup
With the proper permissions set on the mount point I updated my /etc/fstab file with a new line:
/dev/hda1 /backup etc3 rw 0 0
I rebooted and checked that the drive was working properly and accessible from my normal user account. Then proceeded to backup my files.
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