Weird Colored boxes at Bootup....Maybe MBR Virus.

[kevinjhaag]

Got a good one guys! Has anyone ran into this yet. New customer comes in and shows me whats going on with his 2 month old Sony Viao. The laptop boots up saying "Bootmgr is missing" but what is abnormal about it is that there is about a dozen small colored squares with weird characters in them. I'm at home and now have wished I took a picture of what I'm talking about. But anyways, I boot it up again but just get the squares all by themselves. I check the BIOS and everything is normal. I then assume this is a virus; most likely a MBR virus. So I boot the laptop from a UBCD4WIN and it works just fine other than it can't see the local hard drive. So I boot the computer with Kaspersky's Rescue CD and guess what... Can't see the local hard drive; yet in bios its seen just fine. So I proceed to pull the hard drive out and plug it in native (SATA) into my bench computer. It prevented the computer from booting up with the SSD drive. So I hooked up my plain SATA hard drive for my bench computer in because that was originally in their and ready; I've just added the SSD in for testing purposes. This time around my bench computer boots up just fine and it sees the Sony Viao's hard drive too. I then started to back up his data before I left it for the day since I had to copy over 100GB of data. I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow and get a pic if I remember. But if any of you have ran into this and know what I'm talking about. Please do tell me what I have and how to fix it. That way I can save some time. I have already wasted a good amount of time researching for this on the Internet. Its like it doesn't exists yet. Well talk to you later guys and take care and Thanks!

Kevin

 

[phaZed]

NVIDIA chipset needs a reflow/reball or a mobo replacement.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

If it were my client, I would advise him to open an RMA or warranty claim with Sony. I would not attempt this repair on the basis just to make money, but would look out for the clients best interest. If it was out of warranty, then it would probably make sense to perform the repair yourself.

 

[kevinjhaag]

NVIDIA chipset needs a reflow/reball or a mobo replacement.

Thanks phaZed... But it can't be that because the laptop works fine from a Ubuntu Live CD and UBCD4WIN CD. It only happens when its trying to boot from hard drive.

If it were my client, I would advise him to open an RMA or warranty claim with Sony. I would not attempt this repair on the basis just to make money, but would look out for the clients best interest. If it was out of warranty, then it would probably make sense to perform the repair yourself.

I agree with you Cornerstone. But the customer wants to make sure its nothing caused by what he did; and that is maybe accidentally infecting the computer; before he calls Sony for Warranty Repair. Other than scanning the hard drive or N&P it; thats the farthest I'm going with it.

 

[phaZed]

Thanks phaZed... But it can't be that because the laptop works fine from a Ubuntu Live CD and UBCD4WIN CD. It only happens when its trying to boot from hard drive.

I still think it's the NVIDIA chipset. I see this same problem on the HP dv series laptops frequently. The hard drive intermittently working (or not at all), wireless flaky or not working, CD/DVD Drive... all can mostly be attributed to the G84 and G86 NVIDIA chipsets. These are the common problems with certain laptops because their heatsink designs are cheap; it's not really NVIDIA's fault.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

Sony isn't going to care if the guy infected it. Your wasting your time and your clients by tracking down a software issue when hardware is clearly at fault. Backup the guys data and have it sent to Sony.

 

[kevinjhaag]

Not Hardware Problem

Sony isn't going to care if the guy infected it. Your wasting your time and your clients by tracking down a software issue when hardware is clearly at fault. Backup the guys data and have it sent to Sony.

I'm not wasting mine or the customers time. This is what I do for a living. He came in for a expert's opinion and help. He could have just called Sony in the first place himself. All I had done up till yesterday was back up his data (so time not wasted). Any work performed up to this point was to do just that. Unlike others, I do talk to my customers and keep them informed during the whole process. From the beginning I told him if it is under warranty that he should call them instead. But the customer wanted me to diagnose it first & backup his data; and he knew the costs and time in doing so. I couldn't tell him for sure if it was caused from a hardware fault without further diagnostics.

Anyways, I figured it out today and it was just what I thought it was. But I guess you don't really want to know what the problem was because you just assumed its hardware and a waste of time. And you would have wasted money (Sony's), polluted the air getting this laptop shipped back & forth, and the customer would have been without their computer for a good amount of time in the process. And a clue: It wasn't hardware. The reason I didn't assume it was hardware from the beginning was because it ran perfect with a Ubuntu Live Cd, a UBCD4WIN Cd, and a windows 7 pe live Cd. Anyways, in my diagnostic process I found out it wasn't hardware and in turn already fixed it temporarily.

So you are saying as a warranty provider for the custom computers you sell that you cover all problems as part of your warranty? I don't know about you but my warranties are hardware only. What a customer puts on his/her computer and screws up windows is not covered and will be charged to repair it. And I would think most companies that sell computers only cover hardware in their warranties too.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

So you are saying as a warranty provider for the custom computers you sell that you cover all problems as part of your warranty? I don't know about you but my warranties are hardware only. What a customer puts on his/her computer and screws up windows is not covered and will be charged to repair it. And I would think most companies that sell computers only cover hardware in their warranties too.

Pretty sure I never even implied that I cover software issues as part of any warranty. This was never about what I do, specifically. My issue was simply that I believed, given the information YOU provided, that the issue you were seeing was a hardware fault. The fact that you found a software issue, that's great. I applaud your efforts.

You asked for opinions of others that have seen what you described. Myself and another member gave our opinions to you. I will be the first to admit I am wrong on something, so you don't have to be smug about the whole idea with your 'gotcha' comments. The moral high ground of you not wanting to waste Sonys money and the stance on pollution is ridiculous and almost in the realm of absurd.

The lesson(s) here:
1. Don't second guess your abilities. Even science has proven that a persons first instinctual decision is often the correct choice.
2. Don't ask for advice and then try to hammer a person because you disagree with it. At the very least, its rude.

 

[kevinjhaag]

@Cornerstone

I'll say that I'm sorry for my comments because its just not me and that I respect you and everyone on Technibble. But it was my reaction to your comment that started it really about me wasting the clients time and the last comment you just made. Its all really unnecessary. All I asked was if anyone has ran into this type of problem, what it is, and how you fixed it. Maybe you should treat people that you talk to as tho they are on the same level as you and with respect. I would have given you the same level of respect. I'm not no pizza tech or beginner here. How I process and handle things in my business is not a waste.
You could have just said that every time you ran into this sort of problem that you diagnosed the problem to be a hardware fault with the gpu and since it was under warranty that you sent it in for repair. Or that you don't waste your time on computers that are under warranty still and just tell the customer to call Tech Support and get it repaired under the warranty.

 

[jay007]

Can you post a picture of problem.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

Or that you don't waste your time on computers that are under warranty still and just tell the customer to call Tech Support and get it repaired under the warranty.

To be clear, I don't waste my time on a computer that is under warranty that has a hardware issue. I also have a clear policy of not voiding my clients warranty just to make a dollar. I will, however, offer to make the appropriate arrangements and make a warranty claim on behalf of the client.

Like I said, you had a software issue, I disagreed based on the information provided. I was wrong and you were correct in pursuing the issue. If you felt slighted by my comments, I apologize. That was not my intention.

 

[kevinjhaag]

NEW MBR Virus!

For anyone that wants to know what this was... It was a 0-Day MBR Virus that I ran into. None of the Anti-Virus companies that I used have it in their definitions yet. I have sent the virus that I have found to some of the AntiVirus companies. This virus reminded me of a old MBR virus back in the Windows 95 times that had about the same symptoms. All I did with this one was create a image for myself to analyse later and Installed a fresh install of Windows after backing up the customers data and wiping out hard drive completely.

 

[kevinjhaag]

@Jay,

I'll try to find the photo I took of it before I rebuilt the computer and post it for your reference and anyone else. This was a good little MBR virus. Have a good day!

Kevin