Windows Vista Yo Yo ( Y∞Y∞ ) Virus?

si_edgey

Hi there guys,

Well today I was happily plodding along in Vista Business Edition when all of a sudden my running processes started to cause errors and close. On clicking restart my comp blue screened and restarted itself.

After restart I was getting a "Windows Boot Manager" screen saying that there was a problem with the information in my boot file. It suggested inserting my Vista DVD and repairing from there.

Well, I have done this several times - repair startup - which it keeps saying has completed successfully. However, when the computer is restarted after this, after my BIOS splash screen this message is displayed:

Y∞Y∞

If I leave the Vista DVD in but not press enter to enter setup this happens:

Press any key to boot from Windows CD....Y∞Y∞

And it hangs there. Any suggestions?! I have reset BIOS to default settings, unplugged all other hard drives.

Many thanks in advance,

Si ps it kinda looks like "YoYo" - trying to search for a resolution using that

si_edgey

Anyone?! I've tried everything from multiple startup repairs, checkdisks, BIOS resets etc but from what I read on the internet there is actually no way to fix this.

It would appear that it is an unfixable boot virus - although just how I caught it is a mystery - previous to my BSOD I hasd downloaded and installed ATi Vista Catalyst drivers and AtiTool from Softpedia (maybe this site gave it to me?).

Be warned, if you see Y∞Y∞ on your screen, it's highly likely that you will never see your existing Windows Installation again!

primesuspect

what? I haven't heard anything about this. Do you have any antivirus software installed?

si_edgey

As I had only recently installed Vista I hadnt yet got any compatible anti virus software on it, although I assumed Windows Defender would do something - perhaps that is just for random malware.

I have got into a DOS prompt using the Vista repair console and copied all my valuable files, and after reading several posts from people with far more experience than I have being driven to their wits end...I'm gonna try a happy clappy format now.

Please, lets all cross our fingers and hope that Y∞Y∞ doesnt appear on the screen during install reboots!

si_edgey

Problem solved...would have liked to have got to the bottom of the problem without formatting but researching it just pointed towards it being a nightmare of a bug, if in fact it is a bug.

Hope none of you get this!

Missileman

Just for your info both Avast and NOD32 work perfectly under Vista. Avast is free, NOD32 is cheap. Both are excellent AV products.

Tmoney6000

I'm having the same getting the same thing when starting up my Windows XP machine.
Verfying DMI Pool Data......
Y∞Y∞
I've never seen this before. Anyone have any more info on this? Thanks!

si_edgey

Hi Tmoney6000,

I'm afraid it is looking rather bleak for your XP machine at the moment. I spent a good 5 or 6 hours fiddling with everything I could possibly think of to no avail. The good news is that the data on your drive should still be in tact - you should be able to copy anything you require using a DOS command prompt at install of XP.

However, unfortunately I haven't found anyone that was able to fix this without a reformat/fresh install of Windows. Hope you get it sorted, let us know if there is another way.

Cheers,

S

profdlp

I'm going to move this to another forum where our resident Short-Media virus pros can have a look.

si_edgey

Thanks for the move, would be interesting to see if any of you talented virus types have come across this before..