Whats The Worst Virus You Ever Got?

[Silverthorn]

I don't remember the name of the virus but it was extremely annoying because it would give a countdown and after 1min/30seg the computer would shutdown, I didn't had any other access to the internet besides my computer and this made for a frustrating race against the countdown to try to search for a solution and test tools while the virus kept turning off the computer.

I got something very similar too. I never managed to find out what caused it, so I ended up rebooting my computer a few times to back up my files before it shut down, and then I reinstalled windows completely. I haven't had any big problems since then.

 

[porkiewpyne]

About a month after I just got a new computer I got a virus on it from downloading a fake Halo crack... haha. It disappeared out of the download folder as soon as I clicked it and I was just like "ooh, this isn't good" and then two seconds later my computer blue screened. It just kept blue screening whenever it got to the desktop. I tried to do a system restore from the recovery partition but the computer would get stuck on "Setting up Windows for first time use" or whatever it says. I tried using my recovery disks that I created when I got my computer and that didn't work either. I don't know what that virus did... maybe it stored itself in the RAM or somehow messed up the recovery partition... but in the end my brother had to get his Win7 installation disk and completely wipe my computer and reinstall Windows 7 :/

Hmm that's odd. AFAIK the recovery partition should not be able to be editted by viruses. Damn so all this while I have been living with this false sense of security... Well time to turn up the paranoia DX

 

[LockeCole_101629]

Folder copy virus which also disabled task manager & folder option
I don't know what it's called.

back then I'm still using AVG Free
it didn't do anything, I got the virus from client Flashdrive

it starting to attack almost all computer on my network, and it took me almost 4 straight days to recover all of it.
Lost important data & so on... lucky that I'm using FreeNas for my Fileserver so it can be recovered quite easy.
I really disgust with AVG since that day (been using it since 2005).

Starting that day I'm using Deepfreeze even for my personal computer, and ditch AVG completely.
I move all my document and Important data to Fileserver.
I'm happy & satisfied with my decision, fuck you AVG.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Haven't really got a virus in years...Got one that'd display a fake fatal error message and would shut down my PC...but that took maybe an hour to fix entirely. That was my old vista PC with outdated antivirus, haha.

My favorite and most memorable virus was yeeeears ago. I downloaded SOMETHING and slowly, all icons for all programs (and I do mean slowly, took like a wee or two) started turning into cheese icons, and once they were cheese, they didn't work.
For some odd reason I never thought to even question how to stop it. I just ignored any programs that got cheese'd. Probably because the only thing I really used was IE for runescape at the time...and IE got cheese'd pretty late into things.
Thinking back it was a hilariously odd virus. That was probably 7~8 years agoish.

I bet that "Cheesed" you off all those years ago

Hmm that's odd. AFAIK the recovery partition should not be able to be editted by viruses. Damn so all this while I have been living with this false sense of security... Well time to turn up the paranoia DX

Na just backup the recovery partition most OEM's recommend it and there should be a pre loaded app for it

make 2 copies of the recovery partition put one well away and the other where ever you keep your disc's normally

Done and Paranoia mode off

 

[Blaze163]

Gastric flu when I was a kid. Ever spent the entire day throwing up so much there's fuck all left in the tank but you keep wretching anyway? Not as fun as it sounds

On a serious note, I had what I assume was a viral attack a while back where my netbook kept demanding I buy Windows anti-viral software and wouldn't do a damn thing until I did. Fixed it by booting up in Safe Mode and rewinding to previous settings. Not had any noteworthy problems since, although this thing did keep telling me that the 'paging file' had to be altered. Set it to something about twice what my netbook had it set as and the message stopped, but this thing's been awful slow ever since. Any ideas on how to fix it?

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Gastric flu when I was a kid. Ever spent the entire day throwing up so much there's fuck all left in the tank but you keep wretching anyway? Not as fun as it sounds

On a serious note, I had what I assume was a viral attack a while back where my netbook kept demanding I buy Windows anti-viral software and wouldn't do a damn thing until I did. Fixed it by booting up in Safe Mode and rewinding to previous settings. Not had any noteworthy problems since, although this thing did keep telling me that the 'paging file' had to be altered. Set it to something about twice what my netbook had it set as and the message stopped, but this thing's been awful slow ever since. Any ideas on how to fix it?

press start hover over computer press right mouse button then properties
Then click advanced system settings
click settings on performance
go to the advanced tab
click change button
untick the automatically manage page file
highlight C drive and click No Paging file and set
Reboot your pc it will complain of no paging file.. made a temp one its normal
Go back in there and on C drive click System managed size and click set
reboot again and it should be ok now

 

[Janthran]

one time I was throwing up for a week. ugh
OH THAT KIND OF VIRUS
Well, I haven't actually gotten any viruses but when my dad put Safeyes on my computer it took me a week to get by it. Awful.

 

[Blaze163]

press start hover over computer press right mouse button then properties
Then click advanced system settings
click settings on performance
go to the advanced tab
click change button
untick the automatically manage page file
highlight C drive and click No Paging file and set
Reboot your pc it will complain of no paging file.. made a temp one its normal
Go back in there and on C drive click System managed size and click set
reboot again and it should be ok now

Thanks muchly

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I've been trying to think of a time when I've gotten a virus, but I haven't...ever. I, as Rydian suggested, make sure to keep Windows and my AV up-to-date on an almost daily basis. Haven't ever had a problem.


Though I do remember my school got a pretty nasty virus last year. Deleted everything on the student-shared network drive and on some of the first infected ones it deleted system32. It was pretty funny watching the tech guys try and reinstall Windows XP on some 60-odd PCs afterwards to "make sure it's gone" lol.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Thanks muchly

Anytime mate

 

[Rydian]

Hmm that's odd. AFAIK the recovery partition should not be able to be editted by viruses. Damn so all this while I have been living with this false sense of security... Well time to turn up the paranoia DX

Sounds like the recovery disc he had was relying on something specific about the install that got edited by the virus (which is why an actual windows install disc worked).

Gastric flu when I was a kid. Ever spent the entire day throwing up so much there's fuck all left in the tank but you keep wretching anyway? Not as fun as it sounds

On a serious note, I had what I assume was a viral attack a while back where my netbook kept demanding I buy Windows anti-viral software and wouldn't do a damn thing until I did. Fixed it by booting up in Safe Mode and rewinding to previous settings. Not had any noteworthy problems since, although this thing did keep telling me that the 'paging file' had to be altered. Set it to something about twice what my netbook had it set as and the message stopped, but this thing's been awful slow ever since. Any ideas on how to fix it?

How much RAM do you have, what was the page file before and what is it now? HDD or SSD for the drive, what capacity? Just curious on how a larger page file would cause slowdown, wanna' know the numbers involved.

 

[Arras]

On one of my old computers I remember getting a virus that just kept opening different porn sites on Firefox.

Like I don't know how I got it, I didn't download anything suspicious or go anywhere suspicious (certainly not any porn sites), it just happened.

Worst thing was that it was on the family computer and my whole family was home. So basically I had to go between working on getting rid of if and shutting off my monitor so they wouldn't think I was browsing porn.

Fun times, fun times... although I haven't really gotten a virus since then and that was years ago.

Oh wait, I think I had that too, a LONG time ago. Random popups would just keep appearing, even on sites that were fine before.

 

[Blaze163]

Sounds like the recovery disc he had was relying on something specific about the install that got edited by the virus (which is why an actual windows install disc worked).

How much RAM do you have, what was the page file before and what is it now? HDD or SSD for the drive, what capacity? Just curious on how a larger page file would cause slowdown, wanna' know the numbers involved.

It's only a bare bones model netbook, 160GB hard drive, 1GB Ram, Intel Atom N270. Basic stuff. The paging file changed size every time it asked me to check it, so I got sick of it popping up and set the maximum size to 1GB as the highest it seemed to go to was 800MB before, figured if I gave it a little more it'd leave me alone. Now whenever I try to post on Facebook and go back to correct any mistakes, it locks up and tells me the system is low on memory. I deleted some of my old files today in case it meant hard drive space (it just said memory, never specified space or RAM, and I'm a complete computer mongoloid, I have no idea how they work) and it seems to have shut it up for the time being.

 

[YayMii]

I don't think I've ever gotten a virus, but I remember back in the XP days my brother got a virus that would execute itself on boot and duplicate until the computer BSODs from running out of RAM.

 

[Rydian]

It's only a bare bones model netbook, 160GB hard drive, 1GB Ram, Intel Atom N270. Basic stuff. The paging file changed size every time it asked me to check it, so I got sick of it popping up and set the maximum size to 1GB as the highest it seemed to go to was 800MB before, figured if I gave it a little more it'd leave me alone. Now whenever I try to post on Facebook and go back to correct any mistakes, it locks up and tells me the system is low on memory. I deleted some of my old files today in case it meant hard drive space (it just said memory, never specified space or RAM, and I'm a complete computer mongoloid, I have no idea how they work) and it seems to have shut it up for the time being.

It was talking about RAM yeah, but downloaded files wouldn't affect that, only running programs, so if you uninstalled some program that was running in the background (lots of them like to do that nowadays) that could have fixed it.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Oh wait, I think I had that too, a LONG time ago. Random popups would just keep appearing, even on sites that were fine before.

Well it wasn't that pop ups would appear, like I'd have all my web browsers closed, but then it'd open up a new window in a browser and go to a random porn site. I think that was also paired with a scareware thing.

It was a bit of a main but I managed to get rid of it. Although that computer was a POS anyway and died a couple months later.

 

[Arras]

Well it wasn't that pop ups would appear, like I'd have all my web browsers closed, but then it'd open up a new window in a browser and go to a random porn site. I think that was also paired with a scareware thing.

It was a bit of a main but I managed to get rid of it. Although that computer was a POS anyway and died a couple months later.

Huh. I seem to remember the one I had just opened new pages (in a new window) while browsing. That was ages ago, back when I knew nothing about computers though.

 

[Sly 3 4 me]

The worst intrusion I have had on one of my computers was a rootkit a while back. I'd say eight or so years ago when I was not as well versed in the internet. I was pretty dumb at the time and it ended with my uncle reformatting the computer. It wasn't too bad since I only had games on the computer, and my sister with a bunch of music from questionable sources. I'm guessing it was her fault that the rootkit was there in the first place.

 

[DroRox]

Wasn't really a virus but my computer shut down in the middle of a stupid Windows Update and it screwed up my BIOS so bad I had to restore it to factory settings. :/ Lost a lot of data...

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

The worst intrusion I have had on one of my computers was a rootkit a while back. I'd say eight or so years ago when I was not as well versed in the internet. I was pretty dumb at the time and it ended with my uncle reformatting the computer. It wasn't too bad since I only had games on the computer, and my sister with a bunch of music from questionable sources. I'm guessing it was her fault that the rootkit was there in the first place.

Wouldn't shock me those days "limewire" and "Kazaa" was top dog of file sharing but was rampant with viruses :/

Also w00t 100th post!