BIOS problem? Virus?

[Ddos Attack]

Hey community

So I own a 2009 ASUS F5SR notebook computer which has been having problems over the past few days.

I decided to upgrade its bios from 207 to 212 due to some small problems and although everything seemed fine as first, after a while a few problems began appearing.

I installed a clean copy of windows 7 32 bit onto the machine, however once getting it installed these occurred:

- After having the laptop run for a while, if I try restarting it, it will go into a "reboot" loop before the POST appears (screen blank); the CD drive will keep loading and never stop, whereas if i hard reset the laptop and turn it back on, it's fine again and boots.

- the next problem was that also once having the laptop on for a while, the system froze in the sense that I couldn't go to windows explorer (I received an error dialog instead), and many system processes had ended; WiFi disabled itself, graphics card stopped working, and although the system wasn't frozen I couldn't access any programs unless I restarted.

- those were the main two problems, however I noticed that I would also tend to receive BSODs out of no where (can't give codes atm).

From this information, would any of u happen to have any idea what's causing these problems?

As a side note, I only recently started using the laptop again in the past week after having built myself a desktop in February this year.

Thanks in advance

- Nicholas

[Ddos Attack]

** I should also mention that if it gets into a reboot loop and I hard reset it, windows will not go past the boot screen until I hard reset it AGAIN, which is quite strange.

[Redliquid]

sounds fishy af, but if you cleaned the harddrive and installed nothing but a windows copy it shouldnt be a virus i think?

Sorry that i cant give a better comment x)

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

Once it's passed the BIOS, it's all on the OS. One, I would avoid a 32-bit OS at all costs if you can. Two, from the sounds of things, your install of W7 is messed up beyond belief. It is hard to determine what is really causing the issue(s) however, since you changed to major things recently.

[Tsuki]

either your win7 installation got messed up, or you fucked up the bios update.

[Ddos Attack]

sounds fishy af, but if you cleaned the harddrive and installed nothing but a windows copy it shouldnt be a virus i think?

Sorry that i cant give a better comment x)

Weirdly enough, I had a similar problem on this laptop when I first bought it back in 2009 where the system would collapse after x minutes of use.

[Ddos Attack]

Once it's passed the BIOS, it's all on the OS. One, I would avoid a 32-bit OS at all costs if you can. Two, from the sounds of things, your install of W7 is messed up beyond belief. It is hard to determine what is really causing the issue(s) however, since you changed to major things recently.

It doesn't pass the POST screen before the restart problem.

Unfortunately, I only have a 32bit version of Windows 7. I do have a 64 bit version of Windows 8, however when upgrading it to 8.1, it always fails because the processor is not compatible with 8.1 due to its changes.

[Ddos Attack]

either your win7 installation got messed up, or you fucked up the bios update.

Could be either. I might clean install Windows 7 again and see if the problems occur again, however if it is the bios, would I be able to downgrade back to my previous version?

[Tsuki]

Could be either. I might clean install Windows 7 again and see if the problems occur again, however if it is the bios, would I be able to downgrade back to my previous version?

you might be able to, however its not something im overly knowledgable about

[Mojo-Jojo]

All I'd say is re-attempt the BIOS flash.

Re-download it, verify file hashes (hasTab or something similar can do this), reflash.

 

If issues persist, downgrade back to the 207 BIOS.

[Ddos Attack]

All I'd say is re-attempt the BIOS flash.

Re-download it, verify file hashes (hasTab or something similar can do this), reflash.

 

If issues persist, downgrade back to the 207 BIOS.

Thanks for the info

I've redownloaded it (plus hasTab), however how do I verify it's file hashes?

[Ddos Attack]

Okay guys. I've re-flashed my bios to the latest version (212) and it was successful doing so.

I'm going to reinstall Windows 7 again; I'll let you guys know the final outcome.

[Mojo-Jojo]

Thanks for the info

I've redownloaded it (plus hasTab), however how do I verify it's file hashes?

Sorry for the late reply; I'm ill so I was in bed by that time.

 

Once you've installed hashTab, simply right click on a file, go to properties and it'll show a new tab called File Hashes.

Go there. It'll calculate the hashes for the file. Usually you're interested in the MD5 file hash. 

 

Now, sadly the ASUS website doesn't show any of the hashes (They really should, IMHO), but you can also compare the old and new file to each other.

If they're the same, it's very unlikely the file's become corrupted in download.

 

(Usually you would check file hashes against the publisher's website to see if the files have been tampered with, such as added malware. That's why critical, security sensitive application distributors such as PHP and DigitalRiver have hashes publicly available.)

[Ddos Attack]

Sorry for the late reply; I'm ill so I was in bed by that time.

Once you've installed hashTab, simply right click on a file, go to properties and it'll show a new tab called File Hashes.

Go there. It'll calculate the hashes for the file. Usually you're interested in the MD5 file hash.

Now, sadly the ASUS website doesn't show any of the hashes (They really should, IMHO), but you can also compare the old and new file to each other.

If they're the same, it's very unlikely the file's become corrupted in download.

(Usually you would check file hashes against the publisher's website to see if the files have been tampered with, such as added malware. That's why critical, security sensitive application distributors such as PHP and DigitalRiver have hashes publicly available.)

Get well soon!

I reflashed and reinstalled Windows, however I'm getting exactly the same problems.

Weird thing about the restart glitch is, once I open and close the CD drive, it will boot like normal... Otherwise it just hangs.

I'm sensing that this is because of the bios update. What do you think?

[FireFox]

Get well soon!

I reflashed and reinstalled Windows, however I'm getting exactly the same problems.

Weird thing about the restart glitch is, once I open and close the CD drive, it will boot like normal... Otherwise it just hangs.

I'm sensing that this is because of the bios update. What do you think?

 

If these issues came about after the BIOS update then I would go back to the previous one you had and leave it at that.

[Ddos Attack]

If these issues came about after the BIOS update then I would go back to the previous one you had and leave it at that.

How safe is it to go backwards?

Also, what tool should I use? The flashing tool from within the bios, or a tool like WinFlash?

[FireFox]

How safe is it to go backwards?

Also, what tool should I use? The flashing tool from within the bios, or a tool like WinFlash?

 

No idea because I don't f**k with the BIOS. I know quite a few people who will update it just because there is a newer one but I would only update if there is an actual issue with it. They are best to be left alone, the BIOS on my Z68A-G43 is from 2011 but it working perfectly fine. There is a newer one available but I won't be downloading it.

[RossMadness]

First, I would make sure that the Boot Order is correct in the BIOS. Set it to boot to the primary HDD. If the issues still persist, try removing the ODD from the laptop and booting again. I say this since you sometimes have to have the CD drive open to get it to boot. This makes me think that it's attempting to read from the ODD and failing. 

[anicked1]

The only thing that I think of is : 
 
Possibility 1 : I heard a "RUMOR" about a virus that flashes the motherboard with a copy of its self and screws everyone and everything.

 

Possibility 2 : Bad laptop?