Can a virus(or similar) lead to BSODs?

[Mykl]

Hi,

Im not sure if any one can help but I would really appreciate it if they can.

I have searched forums all over the place inc here but not had much luck finding answers.
A while ago my desktop started acting funny.

First some basic info, running vista home ultimate 64, tried to keep os and antivirus updated, Hardware is MSI p7n2 mobo, intel q9550, 280GTX, 4x2gb Corsair DD3 ram, 2x500gb hdd + keyboards/mice/headphones. +antec 900 case, gigabyte 720 watt psu.

First off it would freeze randomly, when under load and when nothing was running, this would occur both after hours of running and within minutes after of booting up from cold.

A little while after that as the computer was booting up and during the windows welcome screen only part of the image would display, with areas of black sometimes in bands running horizontally across the screen.
About this time I also started getting numerous BSODs, some of which were IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_TO and somthing about a process timed out on secondary processor. there were others but I cont remember what they were.

The computer used to run most things but it was pretty unstable, AVG would crash at start up, firefox, MS office, Archicad, Photoshop would randomly and frequently crash. Some games mostly RTS (dawn of war + similar) would sometimes run but FPS (UT3, ARMA2, Fallout3) would crash as they started up. Strangley ANNO 1404 would run fine.

I tried backing everything up to external HDDs and reinstalling vista, using this to reformat the HDDs but didnt improve. installed UT3 again and had same issues.

Computer is now at a repair shop and they have tried some diagnostics but have been unable to replicate the issues, except for UT3 crash! They cant decide if it is hardware or software related.

Anyway the reason I was wondering if this may be a virus is that I am experiencing similar (not identical) simptoms on a laptop that has been plugged into the External HDD, also have now had 2 BSODs. This has been scanned with several antivirus softwares and nothing found tho. Sometimes when starting the laptop will display a black screen after the welcome screen. This lasts for about 10 seconds, but once or twice has not gone and I have had to reboot.

Any ideas would be great now what might be going on and if it is possible that the laptop has the same issues. Sorry for the length of the post, but its better to be descriptive.


Again thanks for reading all this and for any help anyone can provide.
Mykl.

[Mykl]

Anyone have any ideas? 

Its still at the shop and they still cant figure it out.

Im going to go and get it tmw and have another try myself, then maybe take it some where else.

Thanks in advance,
Mykl.

[SuperDave]

If you re-formatted the HDD I hardly think that the problem is malware. Re-format starts you out with a clean slate.

[Mykl]

Thanks Dave,

That's what I thought but didn't know if there was a way to hide a virus somewhere so it did not get erased.

I heard from the shop about 2 hours after I posted this. Definitely the mobo they say. I spoke to MSI (Australia) and they said they will fix it under warranty, but I need to pay to get it out and ship it to them. Going to cost about $80. cheaper than I was expecting.

Does anyone know a good cause for mobos to fail?

That is the third one that has failed in about a year in different computers at my house. One computer repairer said that it may be to do with minute fluctuations and brownouts from our electricity supplier. Does this sound feasible?

Thanks again.
Mykl.

[computersecurity]

Hi,

Im not sure if any one can help but I would really appreciate it if they can.

I have searched forums all over the place inc here but not had much luck finding answers.
A while ago my desktop started acting funny.

First some basic info, running vista home ultimate 64, tried to keep os and antivirus updated, Hardware is MSI p7n2 mobo, intel q9550, 280GTX, 4x2gb Corsair DD3 ram, 2x500gb hdd + keyboards/mice/headphones. +antec 900 case, gigabyte 720 watt psu.

First off it would freeze randomly, when under load and when nothing was running, this would occur both after hours of running and within minutes after of booting up from cold.

A little while after that as the computer was booting up and during the windows welcome screen only part of the image would display, with areas of black sometimes in bands running horizontally across the screen.
About this time I also started getting numerous BSODs, some of which were IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_TO and somthing about a process timed out on secondary processor. there were others but I cont remember what they were.

The computer used to run most things but it was pretty unstable, AVG would crash at start up, firefox, MS office, Archicad, Photoshop would randomly and frequently crash. Some games mostly RTS (dawn of war + similar) would sometimes run but FPS (UT3, ARMA2, Fallout3) would crash as they started up. Strangley ANNO 1404 would run fine.

I tried backing everything up to external HDDs and reinstalling vista, using this to reformat the HDDs but didnt improve. installed UT3 again and had same issues.

Computer is now at a repair shop and they have tried some diagnostics but have been unable to replicate the issues, except for UT3 crash! They cant decide if it is hardware or software related.

Anyway the reason I was wondering if this may be a virus is that I am experiencing similar (not identical) simptoms on a laptop that has been plugged into the External HDD, also have now had 2 BSODs. This has been scanned with several antivirus softwares and nothing found tho. Sometimes when starting the laptop will display a black screen after the welcome screen. This lasts for about 10 seconds, but once or twice has not gone and I have had to reboot.

Any ideas would be great now what might be going on and if it is possible that the laptop has the same issues. Sorry for the length of the post, but its better to be descriptive.


Again thanks for reading all this and for any help anyone can provide.
Mykl.

take out wires out of your case and then clean it and reconnect it properly. Take out your ram and clean it, take out your SMPS connections from MOBO then reattach it.
Moreover, if this doesn't help reinstall your OS and install Avast Pro.