Hmph...that was fun :p
Hardware or trojan
from 
WinCustomize Forums
WinCustomize Forums
Hopefully my PC in online for good again.
Two weeks ago, my HP (XP) shut itself down for no apparent reason. I had a 7Mb file that I was working on in PS, plus notepad to jot down some notes. I minimized both windows, went to the bathroom, came back to open up notepad again, and poof - hard shutdown.
I tried the power button again. Fans kicked on, HD started spinning, beeps, lights...the normal things. Once my screen ticked (as if it were turning on to show boot process), it would do a hard shutdown again. I finally ended up removing the side and front covers to clean the inside (clean, dry towel of course) and to check for loose connections. Tried power button again...same-o.
Eventually, a neighbor and I were looking at it, and came to the conclusion that it must've been a short in the power button wires (about the only wires not checked). If I played with the wires, I could 'work' between 20 minutes and four hours at a time.
About 3-4 days ago, 2 things happened. (1) I noticed that the ground wire appeared farther from its connector than the others - so I pushed it closer. (2) Norton AV found a trojan hours later (loader.exe), so I quarantined it.
Everything seems to be running fine again. With both happenings occurring in the same day, Im still not sure what the problem was. Plus, after a week of family visiting as well, Im back to skinning. Hopefully from all this info, someone can give some insight about this (more like hardware problems, or 'just' an infection?).
Two weeks ago, my HP (XP) shut itself down for no apparent reason. I had a 7Mb file that I was working on in PS, plus notepad to jot down some notes. I minimized both windows, went to the bathroom, came back to open up notepad again, and poof - hard shutdown.
I tried the power button again. Fans kicked on, HD started spinning, beeps, lights...the normal things. Once my screen ticked (as if it were turning on to show boot process), it would do a hard shutdown again. I finally ended up removing the side and front covers to clean the inside (clean, dry towel of course) and to check for loose connections. Tried power button again...same-o.
Eventually, a neighbor and I were looking at it, and came to the conclusion that it must've been a short in the power button wires (about the only wires not checked). If I played with the wires, I could 'work' between 20 minutes and four hours at a time.
About 3-4 days ago, 2 things happened. (1) I noticed that the ground wire appeared farther from its connector than the others - so I pushed it closer. (2) Norton AV found a trojan hours later (loader.exe), so I quarantined it.
Everything seems to be running fine again. With both happenings occurring in the same day, Im still not sure what the problem was. Plus, after a week of family visiting as well, Im back to skinning. Hopefully from all this info, someone can give some insight about this (more like hardware problems, or 'just' an infection?).
