Can the malware affect the audio device on my laptop?
So a couple of days ago (i believe that's when the malware stuff really blew up) i was listening to itunes and then all of a sudden my sound just stopped. I checked itunes and the file was still playing but no sound was coming out. I muted and unmuted itunes and my laptop and tried to fiddle with the master volume control on my laptop (the little speaker icon on the bottom right, if you have a pc with vista). At this point the volume control froze (which has never happened before) and windows was telling me it need to close the unresponsive program.
I then decided to restart my computer but when it started up again the speaker had a little red x next to it and all it tells me when i click/scroll over it is "No Audio Output Device is Installed". A few friends have told me to do a system restore and i tried that but to no avail.
Could the malware have affected my audio? Any help on fixing this problem is appreciated!
January 27th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
Probably all those football players at Iowa were on MGoBlog which is why they ended up in the hospital.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the malware was all on Brian's side of things.....so no, unless in your search to find the most disgusting pron on the interwebs you too got malware on your comp.
What you're describing sounds either like a bad audio driver or a bad audio device that has failed and your computer can no longer find.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^
Not quite, the malware propogated itself thru MGoBlog to a visitor's computer. I know because my Dad's computer was infected (he declined to install the anti-virus software I purchased for him when he got a new computer).
That said, your audio drivers should not have been affected but some times weird things happen (esp. if you were infected). Google "System Tool" to see what's involved in removing that malware from your comuter and see if it might have affected your audio drivers. You may want to take this opportunity to upgrade your anti-virus software as well.
BTW, my Dad had installed MS Security Center (freebie and recommended by "those in the know"). Ha! It didn't even raise an eyebrow. Get some real anti-virus software and don't be fooled into thinking something free is going to protect your computer. Common Sense rules apply here.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^
its probably just Vista being Vista. you probably want to re install your sound driver and if that doesn't work, i'd consider upgrading to 7
January 27th, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^
Are you using a Dell by any chance? I had that problem on a regular basis with my Dell laptop, and I don't really know what caused it or how I fixed it. I think I just re-downloaded the drivers from Dell.com and reinstalled them.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:51 PM ^
No, i'm running an HP pavilion dv6000. I also tried to download directly from HP but i always got a message that said something around the lines of "No media device found"
January 27th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^
January 27th, 2011 at 1:41 PM ^
Perhaps you could let everyone know what you experienced. That is, what indicated you were infected and what you did to fix it. Some folks aren't sure if they're infected or not and would like to know what to look for.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:50 PM ^
You'll know if you're infected. You get a consistent pop up window that tells you your computer is infected and tells you to buy their AntiVirus software.
This thread has solutions:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/meta-malware-warning
Basically downloard MalWareBytes, restart your computer in Safe Mode (Google how to do it for your particular machine), run a Malwarebytes scan, should take care of it for you.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:09 PM ^
My mom's computer got infected by a similar manner (the dreaded Security Tool Virus). You get a pop-up about your computer being at risk, and you should "buy" antivirus software from them. She couldn't open most applications (including FF or IE). Here is what I did to get rid of it:
Booted to safe mode with networking
Downloaded malwarebytes (http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html) and spyware doctor (http://download.cnet.com/Spyware-Doctor/3000-8022_4-10293212.html).
Rebooted in safemode without networking and installed and scanned with both.
rebooted normally, and everything worked fine.
Malwarbytes is free, and so is spyware doctor (only it will only tell you infected files, reg. entries, etc. but not remove them unless you purchase the subscription).
hope this helps everyone, and good luck.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:24 PM ^
And suggest you buy the upgrade, which is a lifetime license for your computers.
The free version is great, but it does not prevent Malware downloads. The paid version detects Malware and blocks and / or quantines it before it infects your system. It's like an electric fence. Highly recommend.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:45 PM ^
I don't even have any fancy anti-virus stuff, what with me being not only an old guy but also a poor country boy tryin' to make a living in the big city. I only have this Debian thingy and Chromium.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:48 PM ^
Hahahaha Mr. Linux user, I'm gonna write a virus specifically designed to attack Linux based OS's. Not really though, I've been playing around with Fedora 14 and I must say I'm in love.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^
installed f14 on a test machine.
There are plenty of rootkits and exploits for Linux, it just isn't susceptible to a lot of the common crap that floats around.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:27 PM ^
mmm, delicious Debian. Definitely the distro I decided on. It did not disappoint.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:41 PM ^
Most likely it's a driver issue. Right click on My Computer and go to Device Manager, than go under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers than look for anything that has a Red X or and Yellow Exclamation Point. If so, righ click, disable, than right click again and enable it. If that doesn't fix it, Right Click Uninstall, than re-install the drivers.
January 27th, 2011 at 5:51 PM ^
I had a very similar experience this week with my iBookG4. Sound was completely frozen. Was able to get sound to my stereo via an airport but not from my laptop speakers. I had never experienced this before. After attempted a number of different things I decided to reboot and the problem was resolved.