Windows Vista 9-11-09 virus?

[Ferryman]

Was just wanting to mention this on here to see if anyone else has had the same problem that I've been dealing with since Friday.

Friday night, my computer crashed. It started with the screen flickering on on off, and then a black screen, which just a frozen cursor arrow. It then rebooted itself, which appeared normal, until after the Windows Corporation loading bar finished scrolling side to side. Black screen yet again. So I rebooted it myself, and managed to get back in via Safe Mode to try and see what was going on. All of my personal files seemed to be generally ok, but I was still locked out from the regular desktop I use. I managed to also get into the Startup repair, and ran one of those a number of times, until I finally managed to get back in once again. I gave off a huge sigh of relief. This turned out to only last for about an hour, when I was trying to update a thread on the forum yesterday morning. The screen flickering started again, and back to system lockout I went.

Today, I do a system restore to 3 days ago, as well as a Startup restore. I was able to get back in. No sooner than when my MSN started up, the dreaded flickering began. I shut off my wireless just a second or two before it crashed, and managed to recover from it. Then a little bubble appears in the bottom corner saying, "Windows has successfully recovered from nvvssc driver".

So now, I'm trying to do a full virus scan, plus debugging, plus drefrag, anything to clean this computer up.

Reason why I'm posting this here, is because my roomate, who I share a wireless network with, encountered the exact same problem as I did, at the exact same time. Then I get talking with my Mother over the phone, who notifies me of the exact same problem with her computer at roughly the same time as mine.

I did a google search about it, and came up with a post on a computer tech forum, which mentions the same symptoms back in 9-11 2004.

So has anyone else encountered this yet/before, and does anyone have any extra advice for me? Would be much appreciated

[Canucks]

My computer has been fine throughout the last week. What were you doing at the time of the crash on your computer? If you can save your pictures and documents your best bet might be to format your hard drive and start from scratch.

[Northern Exploration]

I am a Vista user and didn't experience any problem. It might have been something that was through a particular provider. My system a few days before freaked out over my google task bar that I have used for quite a while. So it got put into quaranteen and then I just deleted it.

[Ferryman]

Thank you for the input, fellas. Very much appreciated.

I managed to back up any files that weren't backed up in the past few days while in safe mode. Finally also able to get back on to my regular desktop with out the screen spazzing out.

Haven't gotten rid of the culprit yet, but I'm starting to track it down a little better. It's been telling me its a faulty driver called, "nvlddmkm", which is connected to my video card reader, Nvidia.

This is pretty much what I've been dealing with, and Scott sent me the link to this board.

www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/135481-nvlddmkm-sys-problems.html

Will try these steps and see what happens.

[Ferryman]

Ok, just thought I might as well post the results of all of this.

This turned out to not be a virus, but a faulty driver that was installed in a recent Vista update. The driver known to cause the troubles was called "nvlddmkm.sys". When the computer would crash, and the blue screen would appear that you see in the caption I posted in one of the links above this post, it would mention that driver. After doing some research, I found out that you shouldn't delete the driver, as that will screw up some things on the computer, especially because it's part of the video card. One website source mentioned that a good fix was to search through your drivers, find the culprit driver, and slightly rename it. So that's what I did, I renamed it "nvlddmkm.old". The ".old" tells the computer it's an old driver, and it shouldn't use it, as opposed to deleting it, which could leave some gaps on your screen. That's all I had to do, and it works perfectly upon restart, and regular use. No need to reformat or anything.

[Kahloke]

That's good that you found out what it was. I've not heard good things about Vista from any of my friends and colleagues who have it. Microsoft seems to have this pattern of releasing a good operating system every other time: Windows 98-good, Windows Millennium Edition-bad; Windows XP-good; Windows Vista-bad. If they continue this pattern, Windows 7 should be a winner. We're still on XP at work, and I have Apple products at home, so I can honestly say I've never tried Vista.

[Nick]

I have a few friends who have beta versions of Windows 7, and they have nothing but good things to say. Most people have been saying it's head and shoulders above Vista, and for a lot of things much better than XP. I'm hoping it's as good as all that, otherwise my next computer might be a Mac.

[EGfleet]

Sept 21, 2009 21:29:17 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

That's good that you found out what it was. I've not heard good things about Vista from any of my friends and colleagues who have it. Microsoft seems to have this pattern of releasing a good operating system every other time: Windows 98-good, Windows Millennium Edition-bad; Windows XP-good; Windows Vista-bad. If they continue this pattern, Windows 7 should be a winner. We're still on XP at work, and I have Apple products at home, so I can honestly say I've never tried Vista.

I can vouch for Vista being truly awful--though I have remained virus free since I've had it. That could be because I don't use IE, which seems to be a perpetual weak point.

I've heard nothing but good about Windows 7 too, and am happily counting the days down to October 22nd I believe it is when I can boot Vista to the curb for good!

[Barnacle]

I'm only half-looking forward to it, because it means I'll have to replace about half of my gear--CPU and printer. The printer's no big deal (I'm going to take the opportunity to upgrade to a laser printer, since I'll once again be able to network with EGFleet and his great photo printer) but the transfer of data is a PIA. I'll probably also pop for an external drive to simplify the process. Guess I ought to start cleaning out my hard drive now...