Possible Virus or Spyware?

Hey guys. Figured I'd see how knowledgeable you all are when it comes to spyware and viruses.

We've got a PC, I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but I will have it tomorrow.

Here's the preliminary assessment.

When you click the mouse on anything, once or twice, every mouse click, the screen flashes/flickers to black and then comes back. Sometimes however, it will flash and then hard lock the PC.

We have tried different mouse, keyboard, monitor and the problem is still there.
I'm thinking it's either a virus or video card.
If it is a virus, have any of you ever heard of one that would cause such symptoms?

thanks!

Well, without more information... it is hard to diag.

Does this happen in Safe Mode or a Linux Live CD? If not, you've got your answer. It could be a faulty device driver, or it could be Windows is corrupted. That is the best I can do without seeing the unit.

True...
I'll have the PC in my hands tomorrow.

Windows XP. It happens in Safe mode as well. It won't do a System Restore to any restore points either. Sounding more like a Virus...Oh and to add fuel to the fire. The user ALWAYS browses the web and had an outdated version of Norton. (SHOCKING!)

I'm in the same boat as you. I need to see it to check it more extensively.

Could be a virus, could be hardware. I'm interested to know if the problem does continue in a Live CD as well.

Never seen a virus that would cause that sort of problem, but combinred with a corrupt OS anything is possible.. Sounds alot like a hardware problem to me though especailly since you are having same issues in safe mode. Test in clean OS, then swapout video card, failing that i would look into memory and motherboard.

It was the Video card. It's possible it was the AGP slot as well. We simply yanked the AGP card and replaced it with a PCI one. Good to go.

The guy that was checking it for me onsite, lied when I asked him if it exhibited the same behavior in Safe Mode. It did not, so with that I was about 99% sure it had to be hardware related.

Wow. That's very interesting. It is weird it is manifesting itself in a mouse click.

I'd love to see the unit to really find out.

Really? Wow. I would have never guessed...

Computers are so weird.

Video card, wow.

Very interesting.

Jeezus.

I just changed my DVD-Rewriter and I had to reactivate Windows...fukin MS.
What a nuisance.

What do you expect from Microsoft.

You are treated as a criminal.

Said By NTSCrZhao

What do you expect from Microsoft.

You are treated as a criminal.

I guess their philosophy would be
"Guilty until proven innocent"

Nope. Guilty until...

Always guilty.

Case in point... WGA.