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11:38 p.m. - 2003-08-24
Byte Me
Link to the Masses for the Music Entry With apologies. I "Write On" everyday. The rest of ya'll "Rock On"!

I spent a reasonable amount of time today dealing with a computer virus? worm? or something. We have an active anti-virus program and it did seem to be catching all the "sobig" et al, assaults coming through the e-mail, but obviously something slipped through.

It disabled our graphics card and altered the configuration in the basic computer set-up. Forgive the lack of correct techno-ese, dear diary, but it is a language in which I have very poor skills. All I can do is describe the effects. I spent a lot of time just opening up different control/setting options in different areas of the computer trying to see where the problem was stemming from. Finally found the root cause and the sequence of steps necessary to undo the damage. In the settings option off the start menu, I chose control panel. Then I selected "add/remove programs". There were two ersatz (phony) versions of Internet Explorer added plus some "support" programs for it. It took quite a while to remove everything, because it managed to re-install one element while I was removing some others. Artificial intelligence? Not really, just a mobius strip effect I think. When that was all cleaned up, I had to go into the computer setup that can be accessed when the computer is booting up. I didn't touch anything of which I wasn't certain, but I did change some settings back to their original configuration. That seemed to help too. Finally I went back to the control panel and chose the display option. I had to reinstall the adapter I was using and reconfigure the display settings that had been altered.

Doesn't sound like it should take all that long, but I had to track the problem backward from the effects seen on the screen to the source of the disruption remembering the sequence. Then it was necessary to start at the end (source) of the trouble and work my way forward through the steps, in sequence in reverse. Have to admit it took a few tries to get everything in the correct order. I'm certain there are a lot of people who could have fixed it with their eyes closed, but I decided to take my time so I didn't make things even worse by adding even more errors. Withdrawal symptoms from my computer addiction would not have been a pretty sight (or sound).

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