i think i have a similar problem once, and it turned out the (thermal) grease issue (and they said bacon is bad for your health,pfftt ;D)
anywho… now a friend of mine got similar problem.
she run an internet cafe, few days ago some of her computers (client computers) suddenly shut off at the same time, completely shut off-not reboot. she turned them on again, got no problem, until today the problem re-occurs.
now she’s confused, is it possible that her computers got hacked? i don’t think a hacker can even do that ??? or maybe it’s just electrical failure? she got no stabilizer nor UPS, but she said this is the first time she encounters this kind of problem in all her years (makes it sounds dramatic eh? ;D). is it even possible for hackers to do this kind of thing?
so? any clue?
p.s. “she” is actually a guy, but statistic says men most likely willing to help a damsel in distress more than a denzel in distress ;D
There is always a chance it’s a hacker, but it doesn’t “smell” right. Assuming that she has all the PCs in her cafe configured reasonably similarly, if the ones that are turning off had been hacked it’s reasonable to assume that all would have been hacked and therefore all would have displayed the same symptoms.
It’s not like a hacker is going to say “Oh look, I’ve found a pool of 10 PCs I can attack but I don’t want to be greedy - I’ll only affect 4”.
I would still investigate the electricity circuit. If this is in SE Asia, electrical consistency and constancy should never be assumed. In Borneo, they’ve given up electrocuting criminals, as more of themn were dying from Deep Vein Thrombosis from sitting too long, than from electric shock.
If you’re gay friend said there’s no problem with his hardware/electricity, then you can be certain it’s one of our local virus.
I’ve had this problem before.
And one of them get caught by pcmav.
…I’m not sure about smadav. But lately it’s gaining rank and having quite a good review.
So try that smadav too, before you ■■■■■■ your partner further, yah!
PS:
Make sure he check his registry for a remote administration software.
And double check for an application scheduled at the schedule task panel.
It’s ‘common’ practice by some disgruntled customer, or one happy competitor to do that kind of thing.
Theirs a small possibility that it was a virus or hardware problems
Of the 2 possibilities, It’s easier to rule out if it’s caused by a virus. Since your NOT a computer beginner, try this (below)
Just run “hitman pro” it’s a cloud scanner and it’ll clean with 3 or 4 different anti-virus companys combined. http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro
Step 3 is probably overkill, but it’s optional.
3) and then run “combo fix” <-------DISABLE ALL ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE (AT LEAST DISABLE "REAL-TIME"MODE IF YOU CAN’T BEFORE RUNNING COMBOFIX http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe
It’s not mine.
But one of my client is.
They’re running a few net cafe chain, and I’ve got to fix two branch (40 each) last January.
Turns out, someone broke they’re DeepFreeze security, and plant a few trojan there…
Did the pc’s shut off at the same time and without saving? I.e… Just cut out?
Sounds very much like power failure. If thats the case, it won’t be a virus.
Do the concerned computers have the same power supply? If so that is another good indicator for power surges. Every PSU has a different time it can keep up the voltages in case of a power surge.
Ditto. I’d go for power as well. I’d suspect that all the computers were linked power-wise… same buzzbar/ring main or whatever you have. Something that was different for the other computers. But, I wouldn’t rule out wired communications either.
I’d be stunned if it was a virus or something. I really can’t imagine that many independent windows systems managing to pull that trick off with perfect timing. Na… one of them would foul it up and refuse to shutdown or be slower than the rest… or faster.
she’s in jakarta btw.
