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From: Ray K on 25 Nov 2009 23:39
Several weeks ago I got a virus call MaCatte, which imitates a McAfee
page. I probably picked it up in a program called crack.exe.
Since eliminating it (with a combination of things I can't remember), I
have an unusual problem with occasional monitor blinking.

It's highly predictable with the Windows game called Spider Solitaire.
About five seconds after starting a new game, the screen will "blink"
for a fraction of a second, as though it's refreshing. It will do this
once or twice during the first 10 seconds, then be okay for the
remainder of the game. Once I start a new game, or replay the existing
one, the blinking will predictably occur again.

Other programs do not seem to have this problem. But sometimes I set my
CoolEdit Pro program to record something in the timed mode, with a
start time several hours later. When I get back home, the recording
hasn't started. I believe this is because this mysterious "blink" or
refresh has occurred during that several hour period and messed up the
timed mode.

Otherwise, everything is okay, but startup time since the virus is long:
1:46 to the desktop, with about 65 seconds at the blue "Windows is
starting up" screen.

XP, SP3; Envision LCD monitor. The display adapter is an integrated ATI
Radeon 3000, part of the Asus M3A76-CM mobo and AMD 760G chipset. Screen
refresh rate: 60 Hz (70, 72 and 75 Hz are the other options).

Thanks,

Ray

From: John Doe on 25 Nov 2009 23:57
Ray K <raykosXXX(a)optonline.net> wrote:

> ...the screen will "blink" for a fraction of a second, as though
> it's refreshing.

Probably not the solution, but the only example of that behavior I
know of in Windows XP is corrected like this.

.... open the Windows registry editor

.... search for "PlayOnMyTV"

.... append "-disable" to the Default entrys (about 3/6 times), to
make each PlayOnMyTV Default entry look like this: {...-Disable}

.... close Regedit and restart your computer

That screen blinking happens when opening certain files.
Conceivably, it could happen programmatically.

Good luck and have fun.
From: Dave C. on 25 Nov 2009 16:44
On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:39:05 -0500
Ray K <raykosXXX(a)optonline.net> wrote:

> Several weeks ago I got a virus call MaCatte, which imitates a McAfee
> page. I probably picked it up in a program called crack.exe.
> Since eliminating it (with a combination of things I can't remember),
> I have an unusual problem with occasional monitor blinking.
>
> It's highly predictable with the Windows game called Spider Solitaire.
> About five seconds after starting a new game, the screen will "blink"
> for a fraction of a second, as though it's refreshing. It will do this
> once or twice during the first 10 seconds, then be okay for the
> remainder of the game. Once I start a new game, or replay the existing
> one, the blinking will predictably occur again.
>
> Other programs do not seem to have this problem. But sometimes I set
> my CoolEdit Pro program to record something in the timed mode, with a
> start time several hours later. When I get back home, the recording
> hasn't started. I believe this is because this mysterious "blink" or
> refresh has occurred during that several hour period and messed up
> the timed mode.
>
> Otherwise, everything is okay, but startup time since the virus is
> long: 1:46 to the desktop, with about 65 seconds at the blue "Windows
> is starting up" screen.
>
> XP, SP3; Envision LCD monitor. The display adapter is an integrated
> ATI Radeon 3000, part of the Asus M3A76-CM mobo and AMD 760G chipset.
> Screen refresh rate: 60 Hz (70, 72 and 75 Hz are the other options).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ray
>

You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One of
them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The dead
giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the screen is
blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up the main system
RAM, leaving no room for processing video information. If you had a
dedicated video card, this wouldn't happen, as the virus wouldn't be
using the same RAM that is processing video to send to your monitor.

That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable display,
but then you might not have a symptom to show you that you still have
an infected computer.

Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless bloatware
that claims to be security software while totally ignoring most virus
infections. Then install something useful (and free) like avast! or
similar. -Dave
From: Ray K on 26 Nov 2009 09:30
Dave C. wrote:

>
> You've still got a virus somewhere. Probably dozens of them. One of
> them has most likely infected your spider solitaire game. The dead
> giveaway on this one is the integrated video. The reason the screen is
> blinking is that some virus (or several) have filled up the main system
> RAM, leaving no room for processing video information. If you had a
> dedicated video card, this wouldn't happen, as the virus wouldn't be
> using the same RAM that is processing video to send to your monitor.
>
> That would be both good and bad. You'd have a more reliable display,
> but then you might not have a symptom to show you that you still have
> an infected computer.
>
> Start by uninstalling norton and mcafee and any other useless bloatware
> that claims to be security software while totally ignoring most virus
> infections. Then install something useful (and free) like avast! or
> similar. -Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the comments.

AdAware, Spybot, AVG and Avast all give my system a clean bill of health.

I have never used Norton or McAfee. I've been using AVG as my virus
program since my problem with the MaCatte virus.

FWIW, I recovered from the MaCatte virus without having to format c: or
even do a reinstall or repair of XP.

Ray
From: Ray K on 26 Nov 2009 09:39
John Doe wrote:
> Ray K <raykosXXX(a)optonline.net> wrote:
>
>> ...the screen will "blink" for a fraction of a second, as though
>> it's refreshing.
>
> Probably not the solution, but the only example of that behavior I
> know of in Windows XP is corrected like this.
>
> ... open the Windows registry editor
>
> ... search for "PlayOnMyTV"
>
> ... append "-disable" to the Default entrys (about 3/6 times), to
> make each PlayOnMyTV Default entry look like this: {...-Disable}
>
> ... close Regedit and restart your computer
>
> That screen blinking happens when opening certain files.
> Conceivably, it could happen programmatically.
>
> Good luck and have fun.

John,

The search didn't find any occurrences of PlayOnMyTV.

Thanks, anyway, for the lead.

Ray



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