...So WTF happened?

Ok...My pc has been a real bitch, lately. I'm going to have to check it for viruses and whatnot (whenever I stop procrastinating) but, yesterday, something weird happened. My pc is connected to my mom's pc, which is way on the other side of the house, by a wireless network. I was sitting here using mine, while hers was running, and all of a sudden mine completely shut down on me, out of the blue. As it was coming back on, I heard mom's pc beep. I went to check it out and saw that hers had shut down and reset at the exact moment that mine did.

Nothing else in the house even flickered, so it definitely wasn't a power surge. What would make that happen?

Either you had a power spike or else something infected both computers - something that needed root access for itself and thus had to reboot the computers.

PLEASE tell me you are running active virus and spyware protection!

If you have personal information on either computer, get 'em off the net NOW.

Even if you don't, a lot of these infections are about hijacking remote computers for illegal activities and spamming.

No procrastinating, O... or you may end up in a really unfortunate situation. If you need help, let me know. This is in part what I do for a living, and I'm happy to help. I'll PM you my cell phone number.

pj

Ok, thanks man. And nah, I'm usually all over my antivirus and spyware software, but I just reformatted a little while ago, and haven't been able to locate my Norton CD. :( It's been so long since I've had to use it, that damn thing could be anywhere. I don't keep anything TOO personal on my pc, though, that I know of.

I'm going to see if I can get another copy of Norton. Thanks, PJ.

If you are away from Norton, I'd recommend staying away from it. The stuff I PM'd you can all be had legally for free and is in all ways superior to Norton - especially in the overhead department.

99% sure it was a spike in the power

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Originally Posted by Ynot

99% sure it was a spike in the power

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Speaking of which - you really should be at least running these through a surge protector.

I'm not even close to 99% sure though. Remember these computers are networked, and also that they do not have normal protections running on them. I wouldn't take even odds that it is an infection or hijack, but the possibility is way more than 1% IMHO.

Aye, PCs are more sensitive to the spikes. My power here is horrid with periodic spikes and my PC dies while nothing around even blinks. And those are light spikes. I get the huge ones where all the lights and TVs die too but that goes without saying.
It happens. Unfortunately though, that might also be the cause for why I've had to go through 4 power units in the past year... >.<

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Originally Posted by Merlock

It happens. Unfortunately though, that might also be the cause for why I've had to go through 4 power units in the past year... >.<

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I've had two different locations over the years where we were getting all manner of bizarre hardware and software failures. In both cases, (finally) adding an inexpensive UPS cured the problems completely.

You don't need one that will run your system for a half hour - just enough to smooth the dips and spikes if and when they happen is all.

Thanks, guys.

I do have an APC SurgeArrest surge protector strip, but I've also got a crazy amount of equipment plugged into it. Not sure if that makes any difference. I don't think mom has a surge protector on hers, though. Just a power strip. I'm going to secure my pc with some of the links that pj gave me, though. Thanks again!

Yeah, I'm leaning towards power spike. You know its not hardware because it happened to both, and it has only happened once so its probably not a virus (on top of that, viruses typically wont cause this type of an issue. Unexpected shutdown falls under the category of faulty hardware if anything.)

Almost entirely sure it was a power spike too.
But, though it wasn't the cause in this case, I WOULD improve your security.

First: Are you using wireless security? Use WPA2 if at all possible, WPA if not, and WEP as a last resort. NEVER use an unsecured network. Guess what? I'm posting this from my neighbor's WiFi. He has a better internet connection than I do, so I use it when I'm downloading big files. He used WEP. Took five minutes to get the IV's and crack the WEP key. And I live in a tiny little rural town in the middle of nowhere--so trust me, don't think you can get by without it because there's nobody there to exploit it.

Second: Use Lavasoft Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and/or AVG Antivirus. They're all free (for the basic versions, the advanced versions add tools that you don't need--designed for system admins). They all catch MUCH more viruses than Norton. Also, Norton has this nasty habit of displaying several virus-like qualities--like installing rootkits. In short, Norton IS spyware, albeit corporate spyware. It owns your computer, not you. So don't use it--it's just nasty. Also avoid McAffee, it's not as bad, but it still spams the hell out of you to renew your subscription, which is annoying as hell.

And a note--power strips don't actually protect against surges usually. Some do, some don't, and often they aren't clearly labeled.

Thanks WhiteUnit and Tsen.

Actually, it happened once, since then, but it reset my guitar effects panel and I heard my guitar amp blink (they are all plugged into the same box), so I'm definitely leaning toward power spike, too.

I'm not using wirely security at the moment, Tsen, but I will definitely look into it. My friend piggy-backs off of my internet with his laptop sometimes, so I know about the risk. I'll definitely check into the ones you suggested.

And I've heard a lot of bad shit about Norton, in the past, but usually just from people that aren't all that computer saavy, so I never paid too much attention to it. Thanks for the suggestions. I know power strips don't protect against the surges, though. I just stated that she was using one, to highlight that I was pretty sure she didn't have a surge protector.

Thanks again, everybody. :cooler:

Just a quick little story that is relevant to your situation...

We had a power failure at home on Monday. Power came back up Tuesday afternoon.

MOST of our electronic stuff is on surge protectors. My wife's and my clock radios weren't protected.

When the power came back up, almost nothing electronic was working in the house. We ended up having to trash and replace every surge protector - they ALL were toast. Everything that was plugged into them was fine. $60 or so worth of surge protectors verses thousands in electronics. Not bad.

We will be purchasing new clock radios soon. They are history. The new ones will be on a surge protector.

I've never had this happen before - I've had 'em pop and able to be reset, but these were all FRIED.

PJ, I'd would seriously get a full electrical test done on your house
I can only speak for the UK, but can't imagine the US is much different

Surge protectors are supposed to protect delicate equipment from minor surges - anything major (like you described) should be dealt with by the circuit breakers connected to your incoming mains feed.

If you got toasted electrical equipment, I'd get your MCB's inspected, as it's not tripping quick enough


Do some research, but UK residential MCB's (miniature circuit breakers) must break the circuit within 0.4 seconds if the current to the mains ring exceeds 32 amps

Thanks for the advice.

I did check things out and they are all normal now - voltage, wave form and phase. (I didn't hook up my frequency counter, but can't imagine that could change as it is controlled at the source, whereas everything else can be influenced by faulty transformers, inductors, etc.)

What I THINK happened was a voltage spike either when the power went down or came back up. The only way this would trip anything is if the result was shorts that would carry things over the top of the current levels of the breakers. Another possibility is an "inductive kick", if a quick spike went through all the appliances and everything and then just quit again. Remember that breakers are current sensitive, and higher voltages result in lower current. We have no over-voltage protection, but there are multiple levels of circuit breakers from the master on down to the sub-circuits.

No - everything seems to be back to normal now. It was just a really bizarre thing to have happen - especially after hearing about O's situation.