Patch Error or Virus?

RaZoR1911 · 06-08-07, 05:52 AM

After patching to 2.1.0.... my PC keeps rebooting once per half an hour. I can smell a virus or a major bug in the latest patch. Am I right? Does anyone have the same problem? I wouldn't post it if i wouldn't have to pay over 10g for repair per a day because of dying when I'm disconnected

It's a little bit disturbing in instances you know :S

Gravelbeard · 06-08-07, 05:54 AM

Could be a over heating problem? Have you blown out your computer case of dust buildup?

Zyonin · 06-08-07, 06:22 AM

It is one of a couple of things:

- Bad graphic card drivers. Have you updated your graphic card drivers recently? If so, revert back to your old ones. If not update your graphic card drivers

- Overheating. Clean out the dust and other curd from your PC. Pay special attention to your CPU's and graphic card's heatsinks as well as the fans and air intakes. You may need to remove the fan from the CPU's heatsink to get the dust and fuzz cleaned out from under it. Just be sure to remount it after you are finished cleaning.

Ratheri · 06-08-07, 11:59 AM

Also, there's a few other options...
A) Did you use the blizzard updater to install the patch, or did you get it from a third party site? If you got it from a third party site, it may have been infected. However, there is no such problems with the release on Blizzard's end

B)Did you install anything else around the time of the patch? Could be that was what was infected instead. Changed any settings? I used to have a problem where the windows updater would restart my comp in the middle of playing because the little "restarting to complete update" window wouldn't show through the game. Freaked me out the first two or three times it did it until i realized what was going on.

In any event, it probably wouldn't hurt to follow the suggestions above, then run a good anti-spyware program and a virus scan afterwards.

Also, does it ONLY happen when you are playing WoW? If no, does it happen only when you are connected to the internet, or does it occur regardless?

Edit: woot! I'm a cyclonian now! Does that mean I get a shiny metal suit with a flashy red eye now? ....oh, wait, that's a cylon...

RaZoR1911 · 06-10-07, 11:39 AM

I tried everything possible with drivers and i checked temperature none of them was above critical and it does it only when playing WoW tried it reboots after 20 minutes playing and even if its only running in background

Dreadlorde · 06-10-07, 11:50 AM

get a mac.

Purity · 06-10-07, 02:08 PM

I would delete your addon folder and start fresh. (And SavedVariables from WTF) My friend had a similar problem...it was addon problems he had not updated and certain events would tigger these old addons to hang up his WoW and his computer for a few minutes till it rebooted. He was stubbornly hangin on to some outdated addons, duh.

After updating EVERYTHING to 2.1...he is completely fine. (BTW he uses and intel mac. No way it was a virus.

)

Aygen · 06-10-07, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadlorde

get a mac.

QFT ... and cause I need 10 characters to post it, i'm writing this line.

Wowgamer233 · 06-10-07, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Purity

I would delete your addon folder and start fresh. (And SavedVariables from WTF) My friend had a similar problem...it was addon problems he had not updated and certain events would tigger these old addons to hang up his WoW and his computer for a few minutes till it rebooted. He was stubbornly hangin on to some outdated addons, duh.

After updating EVERYTHING to 2.1...he is completely fine. (BTW he uses and intel mac. No way it was a virus.

)

Mac viruses and exploit code do exists. Don't let Mac users pretend otherwise. The thing is the are just not popular enough machines for virus writers to divert attention from attacking the hugely more prevalent world of M$crosoft software. "Mac's don't have viruses" follows the same "logic" of when I heard an astonishing comment from a security consultant who visited my company with a Linux computer and said he did not have antivirus software installed "...because there aren't any Linux viruses." This comment left him quickly embarrassed when I showed him recent Internet references to malicious code that targeted Linux.

Of yes, and in response to the original question...

I helped a friend with a similar issue a while ago. What we did was zip up his whole Wow folder and then delete it. Backups are always useful to keep even if to just determine what the original cause was via subsequent analysis. Fully re-installed the game and played for a week raw, i.e. no-addons. Installing mods on an as-needed basis until they were almost all re-installed resulted in a working machine.

Oh, and I'd also recommend a scandisk and a defrag. Wow has such large files that they are possible casualties when disk corruption occurs. Could just be a core file or directory that is having difficulty being read by the OS.

Ratheri · 06-11-07, 12:50 AM

Heh... PopularScience's 10 worst jobs in science, "Microsoft Security Programmer" was actually considered a worse job than "Whale Fecees Collector". At least it was considered better than being a hazmat diver, but I digress...

I hope this thread doesn't devolve into a Mac vs. PC flame war, but I just wanted to agree that Mac DOES have viruses. For every operating system out there, there's at least one hacker writing some kind of code, malicious or not, that exploits it's weakness. you're just less likely to encounter such a thing on Mac OS, Linux, or whatever other OS you chose to use. If and when Mac or Linux supplants Microsoft's install base, they'll become king of the hill with everyone taking swings at them while Vista2012 (or whatever) suddenly becomes the "virus free" OS =D

Kinda sounds wierd that a broken LUA script in WoW could actually cause the computer to reboot, but considering I was using several out of date addons when I had similar problems awhile ago, I suppose it COULD happen. Considering certain broken addons can cause your client to disconnect from the server, I suppose it's not entirely unreasonable. Wish i would have thought of the scandisk and defrag too... dear god, I just realized with all the other maintinence stuff I do, I haven't run either of those myself in three years...

Good luck and godspeed, sirrah...

RaZoR1911 · 06-11-07, 06:35 AM

I am currently checking drivers but none of them is outdated, at least couldn't find one. Checked defragment and scandisk too but didn't find any problems - yet. They are now running

Dreadlorde · 06-11-07, 09:53 AM

If you can't find updated drivers or you get updated drivers and that doesn't work, either repair WoW, or unistall and reinstall WoW

doc309 · 06-11-07, 11:29 AM

faulty RAM chip...
i know having almost completely rebuilding my computer after random Blue Screen O' Death's
was going to blame mazzle or the 2.1 patch but then it started happening outside of WoW. i replaced HD, OS (yeah i'm vista now), virsus and firewall programs, drivers, and RAM. if there is a bad address in one of your chips whenever a program tries to store and retrieve info there it crashes... ram intensive programs (games) crash more often.
if the ram didn't fix it i was going to go mac... since the only thing left would be the motherboard.

so before buying an new computer try getting some RAM. maybe be cheaper.

doc.

Dreadlorde · 06-11-07, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by doc309

faulty RAM chip...
blah.replaced HD, OS (yeah i'm vista now), virsus and firewall programs, drivers, and RAM. blah

That has to be the WORST thing you could do, vista isn't really ready for games yet.

Ratheri · 06-11-07, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadlorde

That has to be the WORST thing you could do, vista isn't really ready for games yet.

Yeah, I kinda gotta go with Dreadlorde on this one. My sister plays WoW on a machine that came with Vista pre-installed, and it took her a week to get WoW working right. Mind you, she's not as good with computers as I am, but she's not an idiot either.

When Vista works, it works BEAUTIFULLY. When it doesn't... I'd rather go back to the DOS prompt...

Nechckn · 06-11-07, 06:31 PM

Since you said you are already doing the ScanDisc, Defragment, and verifying all of your drivers are up to date, will skip that.
Next, ensure that your antivirus and antispyware software is up to date and functioning- if you do not have one or the other, get some.
As previously suggested, backing up your addon and variable flolders, then using the WoW repair tool could go a long way, be sure to select the option to clear out the settings and the cache.
If that is of no help, halt the boot process on your machine, usually ESC but just read the startup information and that should tell you. In the menus, select Full Memory Test, then see if that shows anything regarding the memory.
Your video card may also have a set of diagnostics, if not find a set via the manufacturers site or appropriate message bard, be sure to run that too.
If none of those things correct your issue, then would suggest biting the bullet and calling either tech support from your PC manufacturer or a local PC shop. (If you are not under warranty, would suggest trying the local shop first.) If you cannot get a reference for a good one, then many of the big box stores now have a fairly decent PC support department too.
Hope this helps and best of luck,
Nikk

RaZoR1911 · 06-15-07, 11:37 PM

Dreadlorde's "get a mac" post started my wheels working... I thought what if i partition the hard disk in two parts and one XP one Vista. Ladies and gentlemen, the strangest news you will ever hear: IT WORKED AT LAST! No rebooting, no UI bugs (not even at custom ones). Its only miss is its system energy usage - if I go up to the top of Zabra'jin inn, it runs with like 5-10 fps xD but I'm working on the problem. Thx for help - everyone!

Dreadlorde · 06-16-07, 06:41 PM

Get the new mac pro fully pimped out, it only costs $18,371.00

http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/We...j2sUqlb/1.?p=0