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Thread: Is this a virus??

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    Default Is this a virus??

    I'm using a Toshiba Satellite with Win7 Home Premium 64bit - been using it as my 'net machine for about the last six years - occasional issue which has been rectified by the use of either Rollback or Reflect.

    About four days ago, the machine suddenly started belting out a repetitive series of about 4-5 tones (roughly resembling some sort of tune) at about 0750.

    Nothing I did would stop it, and the volume was independent of the Win volume control.

    On the first day it popped up time and time again throughout the day.....even when the computer was asleep.

    Since it had only just started, I did a Rollback to Sept 27 (back about 5 days at the time)....and all seemed to be well.

    But next morning away it went again......starting at around 0750, runs for about 30-40 seconds, and repeats two or three times at about five minute intervals....then nothing for the rest of the day until tomorrow morning.

    I've run current Norton, and current Malwarebytes, and nothing is detected.

    I've got Reflect images back to late August, and Rollback snapshots back way further, but before sending my computer back to the Middle Ages, I was wondering if anyone recognizes the symptoms?

    Is there some sort of system alarm I may have inadvertently set, or does this have all the classic symptoms of a virus.

    I generally only visit the same few legitimate sites each day, although I did visit a few foreign satellite sites about a week ago looking for some info.

    In the same time-frame I also downloaded and tried out a few freewares designed to save scrolling pages of websites, but none of them worked satisfactorily, so they've been removed and discarded.

    Any thoughts?



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    Does it make the tones while its on Mains or Battery power?

    Dash.

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    Is it possible that it is a low battery alarm, maybe your battery is failing or has bad contacts?
    Cheers, Tiny
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    Dash/Tiny,

    Computer sits in the study permanently connected to the mains.

    Battery is showing as 100%......just unplugged the mains and ran on battery....still showing 100%.

    When not in use, the computer is in "sleep" mode, still connected to the mains.

    The last two mornings the damn thing has gone off while the computer was in sleep mode.

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    Ok, then maybe it's a bios alarm, suggest checking bios diagnostics to see if you have a cooling fan problem or overheating CPU.

    Also I don't think there is any alarm clock installed on Windows, so if there is one you would have to have installed it.

    Quick search indicates it is probably BIOS alarm, 119 people had this problem at
    Last edited by Tiny; 06-10-17 at 09:36 AM.
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    Try running it on Battery only. Many years ago I had a TV that did that and it turned out to be a mains generated signal that was some sort of communication signal that the then SEC used.

    Dash.

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    I'd go for bios alarm of some kind, boot it in to the bios screen at startup and have a look through the menus. if there is an alarm menu, you should find it.

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    Are you running any temperature monitoring software or apps, or fan speed control apps? I'm running an older toshiba satellite with linux mint, and I get a similar beep when the drive is running a bit warm. When I say warm, I may have the temp warning set a bit low at 50deg (from memory). It tends to only be on hot days though, and after the comp has been running a while. I think there are also fan speed apps, that you can set fan speeds for different temps that also give beep warnings.

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    Quote Originally Posted by admin View Post
    I'd go for bios alarm of some kind, boot it in to the bios screen at startup and have a look through the menus. if there is an alarm menu, you should find it.
    I've now had a look at the bios menu.

    Unfortunately, no alarm option.

    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    Are you running any temperature monitoring software or apps, or fan speed control apps? I'm running an older toshiba satellite with linux mint, and I get a similar beep when the drive is running a bit warm. When I say warm, I may have the temp warning set a bit low at 50deg (from memory). It tends to only be on hot days though, and after the comp has been running a while. I think there are also fan speed apps, that you can set fan speeds for different temps that also give beep warnings.
    Nope.......stock standard Win7 with no fancy bits added. This machine is kept to a bare minimum for basic internet use.

    This has now happened early each morning for the last two days while the computer was still asleep....wouldn't have thought it would be getting hot under those circumstances.

    I did tip it up and brush off a bit of accumulated dust on the fan grille though...just in case.

    A bit of googling indicates that Toshibas have a "beep" code for various bios problems......the code comprises different sequences of beep numbers....if it happens tomorrow I'll record it on the phone and see if I can discern any pattern.

    Right now, it just sounds like one of those early synthesized tone tunes, rather than a coded sequence.

    I'm wondering if there might be an alarm for a low motherboard battery, but can't find any reference to such anywhere.

    Just determined that I bought it new in March 2012.........so, 5 1/2 years.......battery could be getting on a bit?

    Can't find any way to check that though.

    Quote Originally Posted by dashinson View Post
    Try running it on Battery only. Many years ago I had a TV that did that and it turned out to be a mains generated signal that was some sort of communication signal that the then SEC used.

    Dash.
    I'll unplug the mains tomorrow morning and let it run on battery....see how it goes.

    I remember those SEC tones that used to switch the off-peak appliances, etc. You could hear them coming out of all sorts of places.

    Doubt that will be it, but worth a look.

    Thanks for all the suggestions....I'll keep working it....I can still wind the system back a month or two, but the fact that the level of the tone played is independent of the volume control suggests to me that this is not coming from any software.

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    Yeah, it doesn't sound like Bios POST beeps either, if it happens during sleep mode, or after the operating system is loaded.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    Yeah, it doesn't sound like Bios POST beeps either, if it happens during sleep mode, or after the operating system is loaded.
    Concur.

    I'm wondering if this is an overheating issue....got any dust buildup that might effect the air to the fans or M/B?

    Try to run it for a bit in an uber cool environment and see if it happens....
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    You say it happens at 0750 every day, that sounds like an ordinary old alarm to me. In the windoze menu, one of the first items is "Alarms and Clock" click on that and see what you find. Whoops, sorry, you said Windoze 7, not 10. IIRC there was something similar, but it was buried in "Accessories" IIRC.
    Last edited by lsemmens; 06-10-17 at 02:25 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by enf View Post
    Concur.

    I'm wondering if this is an overheating issue....got any dust buildup that might effect the air to the fans or M/B?

    Try to run it for a bit in an uber cool environment and see if it happens....
    Nope....don't think so....the unit runs cool as, the fan doesn't run all that often (unlike that heap of *&%$ HP DV6 I use as my working machine, that runs like a toaster).

    Also happens in the morning when the machine has been asleep all night........right now, you couldn't get a much cooler environment than early morning in NE Vic

    And doesn't happen for the rest of the day when I'm actually using the machine.

    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    You say it happens at 0750 every day, that sounds like an ordinary old alarm to me. In the windoze menu, one of the first items is "Alarms and Clock" click on that and see what you find. Whoops, sorry, you said Windoze 7, not 10. IIRC there was something similar, but it was buried in "Accessories" IIRC.
    Yeah....it's called Task Scheduler, and it's buried in "Accessories - System Tools".........found it and checked the Schedule Library where all scheduled tasks are displayed...........zip.

    Tomorrow morning I'm going to sit here with the phone and record the sound (what is it they say about a watched kettle?).........maybe someone will recognise the sound. Might need some help later though on how to share the audio file.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thala Dan View Post
    ......maybe someone will recognise the sound. Might need some help later though on how to share the audio file.
    Save the file as an .mp3 and upload it to a file sharing website such as mega.co.nz and post the link here.

    They will provide a FREE 50GB account. Many members here at Austech use the site for sharing files.

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    Considering the amount of time you've spent trying to fix this, my solution, if an answer could not be quickly found, would be to blow it all away and start again. The downside to that solution, though, is; a)you don't know what caused it, b)You learn little as a result, and c)If it occurs again, you still don't know what caused it. The upside is; a) problem solved (unless it's hardware related), b)you've now got a complete backup (which you would do in the event of a reload) c)your system is now clean of little things that gradually accumulate over the years. c) You'll probably find a little more free space because of said clean up.
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    Personally, I'm totally opposed to "quick" solutions for the reasons that lsemmens has quite ably stated.

    Don't capitulate Thala Dan. Persevere, fix it and then let us all know the cause of the problem.


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    Sounds a bit like an old VCR that a little old lady got me to take a look at years ago. She said it made a beeping alarm sound about 3am every morning. I took one look at the ancient machine, and said it couldn't be that VCR, it doesn't have any beeper. Can't remember the brand or model anymore, but this was around 1995, and the machine was ancient then. She was adamant it was the VCR, so I took it to the workshop just to make sure. Anyway, the next morning, after having run the machine for a few hours, and setting the time so it covered roughly the time she said happened, I get a phone call from her.... "Oh Bob, I'm so sorry... I found what was making the noise", it was an alarm clock that had fallen down behind he TV. Although I didn't charge her for the job, I did get a box those sugar coated fruit jellies, for my efforts.. LOL

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    my experience with Toshiba's - they have a two tone error tone when you seat faulty RAM - might be that your machine is experiencing an intermittent failure

    as for the 07:50 - dunno


    I do remember a fellow at work logged into the work computer from home one Friday evening, and decided to play the North Melbourne theme song everytime they got a goal - the poor fellow what was working (and supported Hawthorn) had no idea where or how it was happening


    f
    Last edited by freakee1; 10-10-17 at 05:19 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thala Dan View Post
    Tomorrow morning I'm going to sit here with the phone and record the sound (what is it they say about a watched kettle?).........maybe someone will recognise the sound. Might need some help later though on how to share the audio file.
    Well it is a few days now, what happened with your 07:50 mystery alarm?
    Did you 'watch' it away with the expectation effect
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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    Well it is a few days now, what happened with your 07:50 mystery alarm?
    Did you 'watch' it away with the expectation effect
    Sorry, nomeat........spent the last few days on a mower trying to get the jungle under control before the rain started again...which it has.

    Waited the following morning to record the tones....nothing happened.....opened up the laptop to awaken it from slumber....nothing happened again....and I mean nothing....damn thing was locked up, wouldn't talk at all.

    Rebooted, and got as far as "Windows is starting" screen.....and that's all she wrote.

    So, two options available....throw the damn thing against the wall, or load an old image.......I opted for the less violent (and less expensive) of the two.

    So I loaded an image from late August (the earliest I had).....and, just for good measure cleaned and reseated the RAM modules and HDD connectors.

    So far so good........everything working OK, although I've not spent much time on it since.

    Thanks to all who contributed......it's now a case of wait and see.

    And, nope.....no alarm clock behind the TV
    Last edited by Thala Dan; 11-10-17 at 10:00 PM.

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