Is There A Virus That Does This?

milehigh

So, I got home, started some music up. Went to change something and noticed the keyboard wasn't responding. Then I started up Word, and it's getting a continual feed of 11111111111 (ect.). I unplug the keyboard, unplug all USB devices, restart. Computer looks like it's full on dead, boots to a bios screen asking for information to flash it. Restart. Same screen. Restart again, this time it gets to Windows. Things are still sketchy and Windows looks to be attempting to install some new drivers I'm not familiar with. Things are still off. So I reconnect the kb/mouse, Windows goes crazy and starts trying to install more stuff I don't recognize.

I look at the back of the machine and see the only things hooked up are the display, the speakers, kb/mouse and the ethernet (edited for clarity). I pull the ethernet cable and BAM. Everything works beautifully. Keyboard mouse, software, everything goes back to normal. Is this a thing? I have MS Security Essentials as well as Super Anti Spyware installed and updated. I'm currently backing up all my critical data and still playing music, but I'm wondering if it's even worth trying to save this installation or if I should just backup and reimage the whole thing. I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm really curious if there are virus' like this that would actually control the machine remotely.

Any help or advice (as always) is greatly appreciated. Thanks H/A

Aioua

Eep. I'm not sure if that's a virus, it could be your network card has gone loco and is spewing all sorts of data everywhere.

milehigh

I have a wireless card in there I could try out. My biggest fear was that someone on the internets was sitting there waiting for my connection to go live so they could steal all my data. Or something...

NightDragon

This sounds hella bizarre. Initially I thought your "1" key must've simply been stuck, but even if that was the case it would not have caused all those other problems.

Rend

Try starting the computer in safe mode with no networking, with and without the ethernet plugged in. If safe mode w/o networking works with the ethernet plugged in, then try it normally once more.
If the problem persists, if you can manage to get spares to temporarily sub in, try:
1. Replace the ethernet
2. Replace the router/modem

Essee

milehigh wrote: »

I'm really curious if there are virus' like this that would actually control the machine remotely.

Sure, there are things like this. Would they just make you type a bunch of 1's in a row? Probably not. :P I think most likely one of your components is failing majestically, trying to go out in a blaze of glory. I hope for your sake it's something cheap!

milehigh

Well, plugged the ethernet back in. Am now running full scans on the system. Seems ok, that was incredibly bizarre though. I had some really important stuff on that machine (Not valuable to anyone else, but stuff I would be devastated to lose) and it really freaked me out. Said data is now backed up both on my iPod and my laptop, so hopefully the desktop continues to function.

Any excuse for a rebuild I suppose. Might go to Newegg and price something out. Thanks all for the help, if I have any updates to this I will definitely post them considering the oddness of the issue.

k-maps

I have troubleshooted this issue before on a friend of mine's laptop, and it is really odd!

For him it was continuously emitting Os everywhere. Now this is going to sound hokey, ad I'm a CS guy, not an EE guy: eliminating all other causes, I eventually found out that it was a weird static electricity issue because, the strangest part, when you hover your hand above the O key without touching it, it would start printing again. The solution ended up being moving the laptop to a different table, one that was "grounding" it? Really bizarre, I know. But it's the only thing that seemed to help.

My guess is that when you connect the ethernet cable you're basically creating some sort of "circuit" between whatever source of current and your motherboard's IO components (makes sense, given the proximity). It may be something else but I'm willing to bet money it's not a virus. I would try jiggering the cables or otherwise moving stuff around until you find a position that the IO gods are happy with.

People forget how miraculous it is that these insanely complex machines can even work, let alone with extreme reliability. We shouldn't be so shocked when weird shit like this happens, though I understand where you are coming from.

Inquisitor77

Your computer has become sentient and is trying to communicate with you via binary.

This does sound like a hardware problem, though. A really nasty one to try to troubleshoot and fix, so I'm not sure what you can do beyond keeping the ethernet plugged in and just dealing with the problem until it's time for an upgrade.

Make sure you let the computer know before you scrap it, though. If it starts repeating "00000000" everywhere afterwards, then you know for sure that it's sentient.

Then you'll definitely need to kill it.

Thanatos

milehigh wrote: »

Well, plugged the ethernet back in. Am now running full scans on the system. Seems ok, that was incredibly bizarre though. I had some really important stuff on that machine (Not valuable to anyone else, but stuff I would be devastated to lose) and it really freaked me out. Said data is now backed up both on my iPod and my laptop, so hopefully the desktop continues to function.

Any excuse for a rebuild I suppose. Might go to Newegg and price something out. Thanks all for the help, if I have any updates to this I will definitely post them considering the oddness of the issue.

Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon Cloud, or iDrive. Choose your service, and back up your important shit to that (photos, tax documents, receipts, etc.). You can then connect to it and access it from any computer.

If security is a concern, I know Google Drive offers two-part verification, wherein you have to enter a code sent to your cell phone in order to access your account; I don't know whether or not the other services offer something similar.

milehigh

Awesome! I didn't even think about that option. I already use Google Drive and Dropbox for various stuff at work/school but didn't think of using it as a backup tool.

Abracadaniel

Dropbox also offers 2-step auth (throught Google's Authenticator app) and it's a nice bit of added piece of mind.