Monitor blinks after virus removal

On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:39:05 -0500
Ray K wrote:

Several weeks ago I got a virus call MaCatte, which imitates a McAfee
page. I probably picked it up in a program called crack.exe.
Since eliminating it (with a combination of things I can't remember),
I have an unusual problem with occasional monitor blinking.

It's highly predictable with the Windows game called Spider Solitaire.
About five seconds after starting a new game, the screen will "blink"
for a fraction of a second, as though it's refreshing. It will do this
once or twice during the first 10 seconds, then be okay for the
remainder of the game. Once I start a new game, or replay the existing
one, the blinking will predictably occur again.

Other programs do not seem to have this problem. But sometimes I set
my CoolEdit Pro program to record something in the timed mode, with a
start time several hours later. When I get back home, the recording
hasn't started. I believe this is because this mysterious "blink" or
refresh has occurred during that several hour period and messed up
the timed mode.

Otherwise, everything is okay, but startup time since the virus is
long: 1:46 to the desktop, with about 65 seconds at the blue "Windows
is starting up" screen.

XP, SP3; Envision LCD monitor. The display adapter is an integrated
ATI Radeon 3000, part of the Asus M3A76-CM mobo and AMD 760G chipset.
Screen refresh rate: 60 Hz (70, 72 and 75 Hz are the other options).

Thanks,

Ray


You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One of
them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The dead
giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the screen is
blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up the main system
RAM, leaving no room for processing video information. If you had a
dedicated video card, this wouldn't happen, as the virus wouldn't be
using the same RAM that is processing video to send to your monitor.

That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable display,
but then you might not have a symptom to show you that you still have
an infected computer.

Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless bloatware
that claims to be security software while totally ignoring most virus
infections. Then install something useful (and free) like avast! or
similar. -Dave

Several weeks ago I got a virus call MaCatte, which imitates a McAfee
page. I probably picked it up in a program called crack.exe.
Since eliminating it (with a combination of things I can't remember), I
have an unusual problem with occasional monitor blinking.

It's highly predictable with the Windows game called Spider Solitaire.
About five seconds after starting a new game, the screen will "blink"
for a fraction of a second, as though it's refreshing. It will do this
once or twice during the first 10 seconds, then be okay for the
remainder of the game. Once I start a new game, or replay the existing
one, the blinking will predictably occur again.

Other programs do not seem to have this problem. But sometimes I set my
CoolEdit Pro program to record something in the timed mode, with a
start time several hours later. When I get back home, the recording
hasn't started. I believe this is because this mysterious "blink" or
refresh has occurred during that several hour period and messed up the
timed mode.

Otherwise, everything is okay, but startup time since the virus is long:
1:46 to the desktop, with about 65 seconds at the blue "Windows is
starting up" screen.

XP, SP3; Envision LCD monitor. The display adapter is an integrated ATI
Radeon 3000, part of the Asus M3A76-CM mobo and AMD 760G chipset. Screen
refresh rate: 60 Hz (70, 72 and 75 Hz are the other options).

Thanks,

Ray

Ray K wrote:

...the screen will "blink" for a fraction of a second, as though
it's refreshing.

Probably not the solution, but the only example of that behavior I
know of in Windows XP is corrected like this.

.... open the Windows registry editor

.... search for "PlayOnMyTV"

.... append "-disable" to the Default entrys (about 3/6 times), to
make each PlayOnMyTV Default entry look like this: {...-Disable}

.... close Regedit and restart your computer

That screen blinking happens when opening certain files.
Conceivably, it could happen programmatically.

Good luck and have fun.

Dave C. wrote:


You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One of
them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The dead
giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the screen is
blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up the main system
RAM, leaving no room for processing video information. If you had a
dedicated video card, this wouldn't happen, as the virus wouldn't be
using the same RAM that is processing video to send to your monitor.

That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable display,
but then you might not have a symptom to show you that you still have
an infected computer.

Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless bloatware
that claims to be security software while totally ignoring most virus
infections. Then install something useful (and free) like avast! or
similar. -Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the comments.

AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of health.

I have never used Norton or McAfee. I've been using AVG as my virus
program since my problem with the MaCatte virus.

FWIW, I recovered from the MaCatte virus without having to format c: or
even do a reinstall or repair of XP.

Ray

John Doe wrote:
Ray K wrote:

...the screen will "blink" for a fraction of a second, as though
it's refreshing.

Probably not the solution, but the only example of that behavior I
know of in Windows XP is corrected like this.

... open the Windows registry editor

... search for "PlayOnMyTV"

... append "-disable" to the Default entrys (about 3/6 times), to
make each PlayOnMyTV Default entry look like this: {...-Disable}

... close Regedit and restart your computer

That screen blinking happens when opening certain files.
Conceivably, it could happen programmatically.

Good luck and have fun.

John,

The search didn't find any occurrences of PlayOnMyTV.

Thanks, anyway, for the lead.

Ray

Ray K wrote:
AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of health.

Try this one:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Ray K wrote:

....

FWIW, I recovered from the MaCatte virus without having to
format c: or even do a reinstall or repair of XP.

For what it's worth... I can recover from any virus without having to
format or repair, by keeping a hidden copy of the Windows partition on
the hard drive (some keep it on another hard drive). Once you learn
that trick, personal computing is a whole new world. Knowing where
personal/important files are and keeping a backup copy of those files
to removable media is part of that process. ALWAYS KEEP A COPY OF ANY
IMPORTANT FILES TO REMOVABLE MEDIA.

"Ray K" wrote in message
...
Dave C. wrote:


You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One of
them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The dead
giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the screen is
blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up the main system
RAM, leaving no room for processing video information. If you had a
dedicated video card, this wouldn't happen, as the virus wouldn't be
using the same RAM that is processing video to send to your monitor.

That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable display,
but then you might not have a symptom to show you that you still have
an infected computer.

Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless bloatware
that claims to be security software while totally ignoring most virus
infections. Then install something useful (and free) like avast! or
similar. -Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the comments.

AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of health.

I have never used Norton or McAfee. I've been using AVG as my virus
program since my problem with the MaCatte virus.

FWIW, I recovered from the MaCatte virus without having to format c: or
even do a reinstall or repair of XP.

Ray

oh dear Dave's feeling all embarrassed now....

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:24:31 -0000
"Jef Roe" wrote:


"Ray K" wrote in message
...
Dave C. wrote:


You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One
of them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The
dead giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the
screen is blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up
the main system RAM, leaving no room for processing video
information. If you had a dedicated video card, this wouldn't
happen, as the virus wouldn't be using the same RAM that is
processing video to send to your monitor.

That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable
display, but then you might not have a symptom to show you that
you still have an infected computer.

Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless
bloatware that claims to be security software while totally
ignoring most virus infections. Then install something useful
(and free) like avast! or similar. -Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the comments.

AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of
health.

I have never used Norton or McAfee. I've been using AVG as my virus
program since my problem with the MaCatte virus.

FWIW, I recovered from the MaCatte virus without having to format
c: or even do a reinstall or repair of XP.

Ray

oh dear Dave's feeling all embarrassed now....


Nawwww...just hesitant to give the OP the bad news. -Dave

Fishface wrote:
Ray K wrote:
AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of health.

Try this one:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

I just finished scanning with it. Upon completion, it also gave a clean
bill of health.

However, while it was scanning, AVG interrupted the scan three times.
The first time the message said WIN32: Patched LF [Trj]. Once I deleted
it, the malwarebytes scan resumed by itself until it next halted at
WIN32: Malware-gen. I deleted it and the scan resumed, halting a final
time at WIN32: Patched LF [Trj](yes, same message as the first time).

It's almost like AVG was detecting problems in malwarebytes program.

Ray