Could a virus have done this?

[Sam]

I decided to delete an MPEG file from my PC. The file had played okay on
previous occasions.

That's when the problem started : I went to delete the mpeg and as soon as I
put the cursor on the mpeg the CPU maxed out and there was a time lag on
everything I did, but when I highlighted the mpeg, that was it, nothing at
all would work.

I could move the cursor but when I 'clicked' nothing happened, I couldn't
close anything , I couldn't open anything, I couldn't even open the start
menu to reboot so I pushed the reset button. At the time this occurred I had
OE open. When the reboot was complete I tried again to delete the mpeg and
exactly the same thing happened, so that's when I decided to shut down for
the night, and had to use the power button in order to do so.

Upon starting the computer the next day, my inbox is now completely empty,
and a list of subscribed newsgroups has also disappeared.

Incidentally, after I rebooted I went back to the mpeg file and, although
the CPU maxed out again, this time I managed to delete it.

Can mpeg files carry viruses?

If anyone can help or tell me what may have caused this, I'd be extremely
grateful.

I am running XP HE SP1, with Norton Internet Security Suite.

Many thanks.

 

[Mich]

I decided to delete an MPEG file from my PC. The file had played okay on
previous occasions.

That's when the problem started : I went to delete the mpeg and as soon as I
put the cursor on the mpeg the CPU maxed out and there was a time lag on
everything I did, but when I highlighted the mpeg, that was it, nothing at
all would work.

I could move the cursor but when I 'clicked' nothing happened, I couldn't
close anything , I couldn't open anything, I couldn't even open the start
menu to reboot so I pushed the reset button. At the time this occurred I had
OE open. When the reboot was complete I tried again to delete the mpeg and
exactly the same thing happened, so that's when I decided to shut down for
the night, and had to use the power button in order to do so.

Upon starting the computer the next day, my inbox is now completely empty,
and a list of subscribed newsgroups has also disappeared.

Incidentally, after I rebooted I went back to the mpeg file and, although
the CPU maxed out again, this time I managed to delete it.

Can mpeg files carry viruses?

If anyone can help or tell me what may have caused this, I'd be extremely
grateful.

I am running XP HE SP1, with Norton Internet Security Suite.

Many thanks.

Not that I'm aware of , and those missing settings could be the result of
the bad shutdown. (happened to me with netscape). and if that is the case I
know how to rebuild it. (not easy)

Why aren't you running sp2 ? dialup?

Mich...

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Sam" <[email protected]>

| I decided to delete an MPEG file from my PC. The file had played okay on
| previous occasions.
|
| That's when the problem started : I went to delete the mpeg and as soon as I
| put the cursor on the mpeg the CPU maxed out and there was a time lag on
| everything I did, but when I highlighted the mpeg, that was it, nothing at
| all would work.
|
| I could move the cursor but when I 'clicked' nothing happened, I couldn't
| close anything , I couldn't open anything, I couldn't even open the start
| menu to reboot so I pushed the reset button. At the time this occurred I had
| OE open. When the reboot was complete I tried again to delete the mpeg and
| exactly the same thing happened, so that's when I decided to shut down for
| the night, and had to use the power button in order to do so.
|
| Upon starting the computer the next day, my inbox is now completely empty,
| and a list of subscribed newsgroups has also disappeared.
|
| Incidentally, after I rebooted I went back to the mpeg file and, although
| the CPU maxed out again, this time I managed to delete it.
|
| Can mpeg files carry viruses?
|
| If anyone can help or tell me what may have caused this, I'd be extremely
| grateful.
|
| I am running XP HE SP1, with Norton Internet Security Suite.
|
| Many thanks.
|

It isn't a virus. It is a OS problem that I have seen posted before but I don't remember
the answer for it.

I suggest re-posting your problem in...

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

 

[kurt wismer]

I decided to delete an MPEG file from my PC. The file had played okay on
previous occasions.

That's when the problem started : I went to delete the mpeg and as soon as I
put the cursor on the mpeg the CPU maxed out and there was a time lag on
everything I did, but when I highlighted the mpeg, that was it, nothing at
all would work.

i've seen this before on my own machine... i've heard that it's
attributable to bad combinations of video and/or audio codecs and
windows explorer's attempts to parse the file you selected to get it's
properties...

it's been quite a while since i dealt with it but i seem to recall i
dumped the idea of hunting down and installing the proper codecs every
time i happened upon some media i couldn't read and instead just
switched to using vlc media player (http://www.videolan.org) because
it's got just about everything built in... i haven't had a problem
since... i can't remember, but i may have also applied some registry
hack to disable media previews in windows explorer...

I could move the cursor but when I 'clicked' nothing happened, I couldn't
close anything , I couldn't open anything, I couldn't even open the start
menu to reboot so I pushed the reset button. At the time this occurred I had
OE open. When the reboot was complete I tried again to delete the mpeg and
exactly the same thing happened, so that's when I decided to shut down for
the night, and had to use the power button in order to do so.

Upon starting the computer the next day, my inbox is now completely empty,
and a list of subscribed newsgroups has also disappeared.

as someone else suggested that could have been due to the way you
shutdown your machine...

Incidentally, after I rebooted I went back to the mpeg file and, although
the CPU maxed out again, this time I managed to delete it.

Can mpeg files carry viruses?

anything can 'carry' a virus but only programs (using a suitably general
definition of program) can be infected and/or spread an infection in the
manner you're thinking of... there's also the possibility of
exploiting some weakness in a particular media player to launch some
piece of malware but that's a theoretical possibility - i'm not aware of
any mpeg born malware in the wild (or even just in the lab, come to
think of it - the focus for that sort of thing seems to be more on
pictures and audio files)...