Pc Linux Tutorials and Removal Tools

Because of the publicity that viruses have received, it is easy to blame any computer problem on a virus. The following are not likely to be caused by a virus or other malicious code:

• Hardware problems. There are no viruses that can physically damage computer hardware, such as chips, boards, and monitors.
• The computer beeps at startup with no screen display. This is usually caused by a hardware problem during the boot process. Consult your computer documentation for the meaning of the beep codes.
• The computer does not register 640 K of conventional memory. This can be a sign of a virus, but it is not conclusive. Some hardware drivers such as those for the monitor or SCSI card can use some of this memory. Consult with your computer manufacturer or hardware vendor to determine if this is the case.
• You have two antivirus programs installed and one of them reports a virus. While this could be a virus, it can also be caused by one antivirus program detect the other program’s signatures in memory. For additional information, see Should you run more than one antivirus program at the same time?
• You are using Microsoft Word and Word warns you that a document contains a macro. This does not mean that the macro is a virus.
• You are not able to open a particular document. This is not necessarily an indication of a virus. Try opening another document or a backup of the document in question. If other documents open correctly, the document may be damaged.
• The label on a hard drive has changed. Every disk is allowed to have a label. You can assign a label to a disk by using the DOS Label command of from within Windows.
• When running ScanDisk, Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect reports virus-like activity. Read Alert: “Virus Like Activity detected. The application . . . is attempting to write to the file . . . What would you like to do? for instructions on what to do.