<p>For those of you with more knowledge than me, (I am the plug and play type basically), I would like some ideas/input. Our office runs a 7 workstation network with windows, and the workstations are windows xp. Today, when the first employee to arrive tried to go on aol, her workstation crashed (I was not there), and had an error message about something wrong with the config.sys. My assistant who has a computer science degree (unfortunately not the MIT type) thought that this conficker worm got the computer. We called the outside company that we use, and by following their instructions, it seems that our server and other six workstations are ok, (but we are terrified to go on the internet.) The outside company will come in tomorrow am. </p>
<p>When I thought about it, and the error message, and what I could see on the internet, I could not be sure that the computer had this particular worm problem. We always run AVG anti virus, every day on all work stations. I was wondering if the computer just coincidentally decided to die today. This workstation is a work horse among the network. The main coputer work product is produced by one person working there. About 4 yrs ago the same workstation also crashed (and died - lucky our main information was backed up). My most valuable data is backed up, but alot of documents will be lost if it can not be retrieved. </p>
<p>Any thoughts, brainstorming will be appreciated. Not an april fools…:(.</p>
<p>It sounds like a coincidence. Is the PC essentially identical to one of the others in the office? If so, try booting it up in ‘SAFE mode’ by hitting holding the F8 key when Windows comes up. If it comes up in safe mode, see if you can copy the config.sys of an identical system to it or possibly just type in the differences. Also, see if you can copy the important files off of it to a memory stick while in safe mode.</p>
<p>If you end up deciding it might be a virus, which is possible, if it can run somewhat, go to McAfee.com and download and run ‘Stinger.exe’ whcih should find most viruses. You can download to another computer and then move it to this one via a memory stick if need be.</p>
<p>I like the progam MalwareBytes these days. I run Avast, Windows Defender, Ad-Aware, MalWare Bytes and Spybot Search and Destroy on my Windows systems. The patch for Conficker came out in October or November of 2008 so if you’re up-to-date on patches, then you shouldn’t have Conficker.</p>
<p>Update: just a coincidental crash I am told. Perhaps it can be saved. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Thanks - I always like to hear the end (or progress) of the story.</p>
<p>I’m glad your computer crash was not caused by Conficker! While we are on this topic, I do have a question about Conficker. How would I know if my computer has been infected? Are there any obvious symptoms? I use Norton 360 to protect my computer but I don’t always install the Windows updates that become available because I am afraid that the new updates could mess up my computer configurations which is already working just fine. (I know this is probably pretty stupid and irrational on my part, but I guess I’m just one of those people who are resistant to change and prefer not to fix things unless absolutely broken.) Anyway, according to Norton 360, my computer is “safe” ( as indicated by the green check). Does this necessarily mean my computer is free of Conficker worm? If my computer has been infected, can I still get rid of this worm by downloading the anti-worm patch from microsoft.com? Any advice on this matter is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the diagnostic info! According to that chart, my computer is okay!!</p>
<p>^^ I do Windows updates on multiple Windows PCs and multiple versions of the Windows OS (XP, Vista, Server2000, Server2003, Server2008) and for at least the last several years have never had an issue with it messing up a configuration except (I think) on one update once that closed up some ports but that was a few years ago. I think you’re at a greater risk to not do the updates rather than do them.</p>