Have I been hacked?

[jepeters]

I put a new, custom-built computer in my home and got DSL with a hardware firewall. It is connected, but, procrastinator that I am, I didn't install the software. I figured, 'what are the chances that someone would hack in to MY computer'

Well, it appears to have happened. I left my computer on for several hours while I was away. When I came back, it was locked up as tight as could be. The only way to shut it down was to unplug it. After restarting (several times), I still can't do anything. I have to wait a couple of minutes after clicking the Start menu before it will pop up, then a couple more minutes after selecting my next choice, etc etc. I tried starting up Photoshop--after 20 minutes all I had was a blank (white) window (although the title bar DID say 'Photoshop'.

If I try to shut down it will pop up windows saying that such and such a program can't shut down. Most of these look like legitimate 'background' programs, but one is called 'Desire'. That sounds suspicious.

I have the newest version of Norton AV installed and it is set to update automatically. I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express.

Have I been maliciously hacked or is there something else that may be the problem? My ISP said that it is very unlikely that I've been hacked--I'm not so sure

[Statica]

It doesnt quite appear to be a hack as much as it is a trojan or a virus. Desire seems like something of a dialler program, I remember having seen it .. dont remember if it was a vbs virus.

However there are a few common sense steps you should be taking.
1) Install Zone Alarm or similar watchdogs to see what program tries to connect out .. or what tries to connect in. That will clue you in on what diallers etc might be working
2) Check your computer extensively for a virus, with an alternate virus scanner .. I have always recommended (without gettign paid for it by Trend Micro ) PC-Cillin's online counterpart http://housecall.antivirus.com ; On a weekly basis, I have heard more and more reports of NAV that seem to have let files slip through, while it baffles me, it doesnt give me a whole lot of confidence. I've heard good things about AVG as well
3) Run something like an antispyware program
4) run a port check on your computer from grc.com to see what ports are open, if any.

Good luck.

[jepeters]

I'll have time to break the computer down this weekend and see just what is wrong. but is it possible that there was damage by overheating?

The computer was running for almost 24 hours straight, and it is put in a desk cabinet that is only open on the front. It has completely lost one of the hard drives (connected to a pci board controller). Could that have been caused by overheating? I'll be taking that hard drive out this weekend and putting it in another computer to see if it works in there.

On the other hand, the fact that once I get to Windows I have to wait 10 minutes before any mouse click takes effect seems more like a software problem to me.

I've tried to boot with a set of startup floppys (this is XP home), but I get a message saying tht it can't load BIOSINFO.INF, Error Code 4096. Does that mean anything to anyone?

[ZANEY123]

if you dont have have a good exit in the rear of the cabinet it might be a good possiblity...usally it might be close to a wall but the air can exit through the sides..

[scott_d]

do u have enough case fans? too few fans couppled with your cabinet could spell disaster for your computer

[jepeters]

There are 3 fans (not counting the one on the CPU).

Anyway, on FridayI was able to get it to run in safe mode, although my 120 GB video drive still didn't show up. I gave up trying to get it to work in normal mode. I re-loaded the Norton Ghost cds that the custom builder included.

But it STILL didn't work. Finally it occurred to me to remove the pci cards (I know--that should have been one of my FIRST options, not the last). It worked just fine. I put the cards back in one by one, and worked after all boards were re-installed.

But, just after I had finished connecting everything back up, it stopped working again--same symptoms as before. I removed the Matrox RT x100 video editing board, and it started working again. I put the Matrox back in and it is working again--question is--for how long?

Any guesses--could it be that the board is just bad? It IS installed snugly. Also, why would this board cause the 120GB hard drive to not be seen -- there are 4 IDE connectors on the motherboard, this one is connected by itself.