Do I have a BIOS Virus?

[ajhoey]

Well first off my World of Warcraft account got hacked twice in 2 days. After updating and running spybot, Adaware, Malwarebytes, and a few others and remove the infected, withinthese 2 days no more computer. Also talked to Blizard and changed all loggin info for the safest way to logg in to Warcraft. For about Half a day I could use my computer like normal. But after letting spybot run, over night, I restarted computer , then just as the desktop was going to load, it would imediatley logg off, no matter how many tries. Then I started in safe mode ran the programs mentioned above and still a few infected files, so I removed. Then i couldnt log in in safe mode. Would log out just as desktop ready to load. Couldnt do a system restore. Now when I turn on I get "disk read error press CTRL,Alt DEL to resart",safe mode or not. Tried reinstaling windows, no go, runs configuration at beginning and the end.

Anyone know whats going on? any helpful info would be greatly appreciated.

So should I replace hardrive? or is my BIOS infected? If BIOS is infected is it possible for new hardive to run long enough to flash my BIOS? or should I not flash my BIOS?or am I just screwed? should i spend money I dont really have to get new motherboard, chip, drive, etc...

 

[jsrudd]

Unlikely that your bios is infected. I think only recently has that been proven possible. What do you mean you tried reinstalling windows and it "runs configuration at beginning and end".

At any rate try and load up an ubuntu live CD. see if that works and at least recover your files.

 

[Helloworld_98]

@jsrudd, that wouldn't work if the BIOS virus directly attacks the windows OS.

 

[montyuk]

i doubt the bios is infected, i would say install a fresh xp sp3 installation, dont connect to the internet until the installation has completed and all firewalls are activated.

use an official cd or a known clean installation disc.

 

[ajhoey]

What I mean by "runs configuration at beginning and the end" is that it starts to run a configuration of system and thats it. Noting else happens after that.

I also cannot run a clean installation. Ive tried. I cant even connect to internet nor is my computer even conected to a line for the internet. I cant run in safe mode or any mode. All I get when trying to boot is "disk read error press Ctrl, Alt, Delete to restart". When trying to do autorized clean installation of Windows I load disk and get a message stating checking "Inspecting you compers harware configuration" and a black screen for hours.

 

[montyuk]

then new hard drive, have a spare hanging around you can test with?

 

[jsc]

Have a friend go online and download the latest BIOS for your motherboard and copy it to a floppy (one of the few remaining uses for a floppy drive). Then you can flash your BIOS without risking any new hardware.

Then start testing components.