Do I Have A Virus?

Discussion in 'Silicon (v)Alley' started by TrippinToad, Jul 20, 2014.

  1. So I grab my computer today and load up itunes, when I try and play a song it says couldn't locate the file...
    I found about 100 songs in my trash, saying deleted on Wednesday, which is impossible because I wasn't home. Does this sound like a virus? Is there anything I can do for free to get it off my PC?


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  2. #2 philmcan, Jul 20, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 20, 2014
     
    AVG free virus scanning. Google.
     
  3. oh shitttttt :eek:
     
  4. Philmcan is right in that you should do a virus scan. Do you have a Windows machine or a Mac?
     
  5. Windows 8.1


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  6. If it's Windows I would get Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, and it has no ads unlike other anti-malware. Besides Windows 8.1 is very new, I doubt hackers have already broken into the filesystem this early. Also from a programming point of view, there is a much easier way to permanently(not technically*) delete a file than having it end up in the trash. As much as Windows security sucks it only does because no one writes malware for OS X or Linux, or at least up until recently. But I would bet that someone's just messing with you, because true malware if they had those privileges, they wouldn't delete just your music. But what the hell, maybe someone made a virus for the giggles that moves music to the trash bin lol. Anyway I really believe someone's just messing with you, anyone else have access to the computer?
     
  7. No nobody else has access, also I don't have the internet at home so I'm rarely connected. If I do go online I tether to my phone for a few minutes, or I'll bring It somewhere with wifi and torrent some stuff. I know torrents+the sites are low security and that's why I assumed I had a virus


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  8. Downloading some porn were you? Maybe some has remote access to your computer

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  9. #9 LinuxJ, Aug 12, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2014
    Perhaps, best bet is get Microsoft Security Essentials, it's better than that proprietary shit because no one knows Windows better than Microsoft. Also I doubt it was a virus, but because your file was deleted on Wednesday, and supposedly you didn't go on that day, a virus may have changed the datetime stamp(which seems so unnecessary), or your computer is technically an always on computer. Anyway best bet is Essentials, it's free, and its also super easy. Try it, see if it finds any malware and get back to us.
     
  10. No haha just music




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  11. #11 TrippinToad, Aug 12, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2014
    thanks for the help man I appreciate it. Like I said I don't have access to the internet often so I'll download it next time I get on and post back here

    Oh and by the way my computer is always on, it's a windows 8.1 tablet with a core i5 so I leave it on for days or weeks at a time


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  12. A good thing to do is turn it off. Not only are you going to save electricity, those Intel processors aren't as energy efficient as AMD's APUs or RISC processors, but they are smaller(40/28nm vs 22nm), much smaller so they don't use as much energy as you'd expect, but they use more than other architectures. I won't say it stresses your hard drives, but having them spin 24/7 isn't a great idea, because it's mechanical a good analogy would be an engine, having it on 24/7 isn't going to help it last longer, but it sure wastes energy and more things can go wrong when it's on and you're not there. I'm not going to scare you because hard drive failures are extremely rare, and getting rarer, but the energy is going to hurt you. A normal i7 uses around 100 watts by itself, and that doesn't include the rest of the PC. 
     
  13. It's solid state, no hdd. But I see what you're saying nonetheless


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  14. Lucky you, SSDs are real nice, they're all transistors so there's no moving parts. Anyway SSDs don't really ever go bad, but the energy transistors give off in heat is the only reasons computers even need energy. I would say your computer uses around 120-130 watts, I have one that spends around 500 so you can understand why I'm religious when it comes to turning computers off. I bought a laptop that uses 7w for that exact reason.
     
  15. #15 TrippinToad, Aug 22, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2014
    Thanks for the help, I downloaded Windows Defender, I don't have any viruses. Which is great, but I am still pretty puzzled about what happened to my music. Doesn't really matter though so I'm not gonna trip on it


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  16. Hmm sounds like you could be infected with a RAT. Look at the processes that are running on your PC and see if there is anything suspicious, it's rather easy to be infected with a RAT, it can be hidden within a picture, a piece of software, an mp3, pretty much anything.
     
  17. #17 TrippinToad, Aug 29, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 29, 2014
    Fuckin A. I read this and googled how to locate a RAT on windows, followed the guide and sure enough I've got the Nimda worm virus. Windows Defender didn't even locate it


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