SOLVED Virus got to my BIOS!!??

[clifford_cooley]

Which laptop do you have Kalario. Every computer has different approaches when it comes to flashing the bios.

1. There is boot disk that can be created for some. (This technique is slowly dying though).
2. Some motherboards have bios updater built within the bios.
3. You may even have a model that has a Windows version bios updater.

 

[Kalario]

It is a Dell laptop.

 

[Veedaz]

Two or three years ago there was a virus nicknamed Chernobyl that was able to erase Flash ROM BIOS and wreak a HDD, if you was lucky DBAN would sort the HDD and the BIOS would need flashing. As systems change BIOS update is important and made much easier today.

 

[Nibiru2012]

It is a Dell laptop.

Klario if you have a thumb drive you can put the BIOS update on it. Like C_C said, some laptops you just press a certain key and go from there.

I don't trust "windows-based" flash updater apps though. Easier but not as reliable sometimes.

Dell's website should have info on how to do the BIOS flash on your laptop though.

You may have to make a bootable DOS CD to get there though.

 

[Kalario]

Just checked the Dell website, and I found what I have to do. Looks easy enough. I am going to try to flash the BIOS when I get home. thanks guys!!

 

[catilley1092]

I have an older laptop, too (a Latitude D610). Would a BIOS flash, update, or whatever it's called make mine run more smoothly? I'm not expecting miracles here, just any performance increase possible. My RAM is maxed out (2GB), although Belarc reports that I have an empty RAM slot. I verified this through Dell customer support. Too, the other slot is behind the keyboard, mabye that's why it was shipped with a 2GB chip in the easy to get to location. I'm just trying to squeeze the last drop of performance from it. It's acting like it's beginning to fade on me, firing up slow, upon the OS loading it's home page, it flashes in & out (the screen goes black and back to normal a few times), the mouse sometimes is hard to drag, and lately the DVD slows and speeds up (especially when hot). But amazingly, the laptop is running, can still run a VM, but Vista drags it badly. Hopefully, a BIOS flash may help.

 

[TrainableMan]

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Hardware-Guides/Why-and-How-to-Flash-Your-BIOS/

You might want to find the change log and see what benefits if any are included. I am considering flashing mine for the simple reason that I want to overclock it and need more options. Dell, or in my case Gateway, create their own versions of the BIOS and remove settings and also make it say GATEWAY when it boots but if you get all the right specs you can supposedly find the board manufacturers BIOS - but I need the right one including sound and graphics that are on the board. And I want to make sure I have the original backed up.

 

[Nibiru2012]

The nice feature about doing a BIOS flash is that one is always given the option to back-up the old BIOS to a floppy, thumb drive, or hard drive.

@Cat - the reason it's called a "flash" is because it is written to an EPROM chip on the motherboard.

Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

LOL! Looks like the thread got hijacked!!

 

[clifford_cooley]

:lol:

Started with good reading material and converted to good reading material

 

[Veedaz]

Flashed a BIOS on a MSI MOBO this morning and went as smooth as cream

 

[Nibiru2012]

I have marked this thread as solved... although I am waiting for anything Thrax may dig up on his quest.

 

[msdos622wasfun]

Kudos on an exceptional moment of diagnostic repair work. I think if this had happened to me, I would have immediately panicked, and I'm not sure how long it would have taken for me to identify the BIOS as the source of the problem (of course, my geek ego wants to think that there's nothing I can't handle!).

 

[Nibiru2012]

(of course, my geek ego wants to think that there's nothing I can't handle!).

msdos622wasfun - I believe that there's a lot of us who suffer from this common delusion! LOL! :lol: :hmmmm2::alberteinstein:

 

[clifford_cooley]

I believe that there's a lot of us who suffer from this common delusion! LOL! :lol: :hmmmm2::alberteinstein:

So say we all.

 

[davehc]

Echoed!


View attachment 1053

 

[Thrax]

How timely that this thread has been bumped. I'm back with some (or a lack of...) information.

I checked 0-day virus reports from all the major security firms (Trend Micro, Symantec, etc. etc.), and none of them had anything to offer in the way of new BIOS viruses. They're just not a common avenue any more, because virtually every computer's BIOS is subtly different, making it a market that isn't at all lucrative to play in.

Given that the 80GB drive is totally non-functional, and that viruses no longer have the low-level hardware access necessary to damage hardware, I'd say the 80GB drive itself is somehow the culprit in this scenario.

After ruminating on this one for a few weeks, it's the more probable solution. And as they say about the simplest solutions...

 

[Nibiru2012]

Thanks Thrax for your time and effort on this one!

Looks like Occam's Razor comes into play again.

Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.