My brother's computer has a mind of its own...

[GrayFox]

My brother has a Compaq desktop with tons of problems. It used to run on Windows ME, which is what we thought was the cause of the problems. So I installed Windows XP on it over the summer. That didn't fix the computer. I can't figure out what the hell is wrong with this thing... :eyepop:

It moves files on its own
It used to turn itself on, but doesn't anymore.
It won't burn CDs
It gives tons of application errors, sometimes it doesn't even say what program had an error.
Sometimes, a program won't work for a month, then it suddenly starts working, and then eventually it stops working after a few weeks, days, or hours.
Things take a long time to open
restores recycle bin files to different locations.


Virus scanner finds nothing... though I guess that doesn't completely rule out the possibility of a virus. But what are the chances that a virus survived a reformat?
Spybot S&D finds nothing
Scan disk doesn't help
Defragmenting doesn't help

 

[Curious George]

i say get a new computer, MINE isnt that bad.

 

[Queue]

a computer in my marketing class turns on by itself... as soon as Dave goes to use it it turns on

 

[Zayne.H]

Well does System 32 pop up as a program window when you turn that on?

If so it is a trojan hacker...And Hackers can just go to the harddrive and then after the reformmatiing they can get on your computer again.

I tryed that before on my old PC in 00...I had Windows 98 and I hacked into it and got on my harddrive....I kept my files so that could be your problem...After the reformmating I could still do the same stuff as on W:98.

 

[GrayFox]

Nope, he says that doesn't pop up a window when he turns the computer on. Plus my mom has dialup and the computer does this strange stuff on its own even when he's not connected to the internet. He doesn't even get on the internet much cause my mom's always using it from her comp.

 

[Zayne.H]

Must be a hacker...or a weird trojan virus...

 

[Curious George]

Zayne can help!! he knows these things.

 

[GrayFox]

I doubt it's a trojan cause the weird stuff happens while the comp isn't connected to the internet. Plus nothing detects anything and there aren't any unusual processes running.

 

[Curious George]

i still say trash it...

 

[GrayFox]

Yeah, that's my brother's plan. He wants to try to get himself a new one sometime soon.
What types of hardware issues could cause these problems? Could a bad stick of RAM cause this?

 

[Curious George]

im not that big on computers but i think there could be many things that could cause stuff like this.

-memory problems. you said that some programs would stop working then start again. maybe the memory is making it too hard to find everything needed to start those programs?

-"certain" websites. 'nuff said.

-like you said, bad stick of RAM might do something.

-maybe it was just a crappy computer to begin with and it just never really showed how bad it was.

those probably wouldnt really have much of an effect but might as well put in a few theorys.

 

[Gimpy]

just get a new HD, or better yet upgrade. Get more ram, hard drive, faster CPU and that should take care of most of the problems. As for it turning off prolly your power supply. No offence but you better off getting a new PC. All the upgrades and maintainence will cost you almost close to a new PC.

It's a PC just like a car sooner or later it gets old and dies.... you can always rebuild but not many people do.

 

[Agamoai]

I'm going to go along with Gimpy and just say you ought to just buy a new computer.

-memory problems. you said that some programs would stop working then start again. maybe the memory is making it too hard to find everything needed to start those programs?

Simple, get a faster CPU which is capable of handling larger work loads.

-"certain" websites. 'nuff said.

Porn sites will not cause things like that to go wrong with your computer. Only trojans, viruses, and browser hi-jackers can make any actual changes to your computer.

Beside, if he did go on any "harmful" porn and/or hacking sites (such as Seriall.com¹) sites he would have at the very least gotten some tracking cookies (almost all sites you go to on internet use some sort of tracking cookies), some spyware/adware or perhaps a porn dialer, or even so much as a browser hi-jacker (such as Lop.com's² infamous CoolWebSearch hi-jacker, which is ever evolving and becoming much more complex with each of the many versions which continue to plague the internet).

Note¹: Do not go to Seriall.com. I did once before when I was looking for some lisence codes, and ended up getting a trojan

Note²: Do not go to Lop.com, either. I am unsure as to the consequences which may incur after you go there, so please do not go to their site.

-like you said, bad stick of RAM might do something.

RAM is memory, its just an abrieviation for Random Access Memory. I suppose this could be a factor in the fact that his computer is having so many errors and whatnot.

-maybe it was just a crappy computer to begin with and it just never really showed how bad it was.

A brand-new computer shouldn't be having problems like the ones his brother's computer is having. If it is, then something must have seriously gone wrong in the manufacturing of the computer.

 

[Curious George]

i told you i wasnt that big on computers........but damn i didnt expect someone to write a novel as to why my theorys are wrong.

 

[GrayFox]

He's right. Don't go to that seriall site unless you completely disable java and javascripts. That site sends a trojan to you through a script on the page. The trojan actually attacks Spybot: S&D, making it unable to download updates unless you reinstall the program. The trojan also deletes your firefox extensions if that's the browser it infects. It only seems to affect the browser you're using to view the site. I have no clue what Lop is, and I'm not going to find out. Anyway, I really don't think my brother looks at porn.

I really think bad RAM could be responsible. The majority of the problems started when I put a stick of 128MB in to upgrade it from 256 to 384MB. Or maybe I added a stick of 256MB... I can't remember if the computer had 256 or 128 to begin with. Anyway, like I've said, he does plan to get a new computer sometime soon.

 

[Agamoai]

Here's what I dug up on Lop.com.

Lop.com is a web site owned by C2 Media. It is mainly a pay-per-click search portal where other web sites pay for each click-through to their site via lop. This isn't a terrible idea, but rather than create a quality web site to get surfers to their site and clicking those links, they instead created a program which is labeled variously as an mp3 search program, a porn search program, or some other such thing. The installer turns the user's web browser into a device with a seemingly endless supply of links to lop.com.

An early version (installer name download_plugin.exe) installs two files in the user's wallpaper folder, one an html file and the other a shockwave file. The html file contains code to load the shockwave file. The installer sets the html file as the user's wallpaper so that the flash search engine program is sitting on the desktop at every boot. The flash file does little more than open and close a series of collapsible menus containing more lop internet shortucts and a search function which queries - take a guess - lop.com.

A later version (installer name mp3serch.exe) omits this desktop feature as its bugginess reportedly led to its being discontinued. Both versions install a stripped down browser which uses the Internet Explorer web browser engine. This browser automatically launches the following URL:
http://www.mp3search.com.

Not content to leave the user with this browser, the lop installer also makes dramatic changes to Internet Explorer, Mozilla Navigator, and most likely Netscape Navigator. The default search engine pages, toolbar settings, and start page are changed. The lop installer adds scores of internet shortcuts in Internet Explorer's Favorites folder and in Mozilla's Bookmarks.htm file. The download_plugin.exe version does not alter Mozilla Navigator.

These lop installers create a BHO which produces an accessories toolbar in Internet Explorer full of - you guessed it - even more lop.com internet shortcuts. This BHO also takes control of the browser to make it redirect to lop.com if there is some error loading a page. This BHO is named plg_ie0.dll. As with all BHOs, it can be disabled with BHODemon, although I've had two users report that after disabling it, another BHO was automatically generated with the name plg_ie1.dll.

In addition to altering the security nightmare that Internet Explorer has become, the installer also makes changes to Mozilla and presumably Netscape. During testing, I found that Mozilla's prefs.js file (the file that contains user settings) was changed to prefs.bk! and replaced with another with the following setting added.
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "www.lop.com");

It also changes bookmarks.html to bookmarks.bk!. The replacement file included all of lop's bookmarks. Bookmarks.html is where Mozilla and Netscape store the user's saved bookmarks. Deleting the altered bookmarks.html and prefs.js, then renaming the two .bk! files to bookmarks.html and prefs.js respectively restores mozilla's settings. Again, the download_plugin.exe version does not alter Mozilla / Netscape Navigator.

The lop installers finishes up by creating a registry entry to load a file named mp3serch.exe (or lopsearch.exe if you have the download_plugin.exe installer) at every boot. This entry will make Windows load the lop executable file on each machine restart.

The effect of all of this is to turn the user's web browser into a device to present them with a seemingly endless supply of lop chosen links to click. The user becomes a visitor to lop.com with nearly every action that they take with their browser, whether it be searching for something, typing in an incorrect URL, or simply by opening a new browser window.

Newer variants of C2Media's software omits the browser and BHO altogether, and instead installs dozens of internet shortcuts and sets the home page to http://unitedstates.rub.to. The installer for this variant may be named mp3.exe or freemp3z.exe. These files may appear on your computer as a result of an activex script which automatically begins to download them when you load pages at certain mp3 and/or pornographic web sites. The files are digitally signed by C2Media, the company which owns the lop.com web site and software.

Another software product that does roughly the same thing as lop.com's software and leads to a web site that is virtually identical to lop.com is the Xupiter toolbar from xupiter.com. Although there is no other evidence that they are related, considering that the software and web sites are nearly twins of eachother, many people speculate that xupiter is also made by C2Media.

Unfortunately for lop.com, their tactics have gained them the attention of Lavasoft, maker of Ad-aware. Starting with version 5.7, Ad-aware started targeting lop.com along with a number of browser hijackers. Spybot S&D also target and remove lop.com software. Ad-aware and Spybot both updated recently to target xupiter.com's software as well.

 

[GrayFox]

Woah... my brother's computer died recently. Probably the hard drive. It doesn't even load windows... it just loops back and restarts when it gets that far.

 

[Zayne.H]

RIP Computer...

Can I have the remains? Im might use it for a robot...

 

[GrayFox]

That's a very bad idea, unless you want to build a robot that doesn't work right.

 

[GrayFox]

My brother just got a new computer today.