nofarb

OK, first let me roll out my cred. I'm a Software Engineer/applications programmer/Sr. Statistical Programmer with more than 40 years of programming and pc building experience. I have specialized in software quality control and software validation, so I know how to debug and be methodical. I wish it was just a hardware issue, but the problem only occurs after I've booted into Windows and not when I boot into Linux. I always boot into the bios first to see how it's doing, and the issue affects both the mouse and the keyboard in that I can't access the section of the bios options that allow me to change the boot drive. Like I said, I click the mouse like crazy until I get lucky and then I select the DVD that allows me to boot into Linux, and then I restart the system from Linux (which changes the bios to point to the Linux boot partition), and then the bios is stable as long as keep booting into Linux. As soon as I boot into Windows, it changes the bios and the bios boot selection option becomes unresponsive. Conclusion - 1) Windows booting is causing some sort of bios update (uncommanded by me) 2) Eset Security Software isn't finding the cause in Windows. Any suggestions of what to try? My Eset trial has expired. If I purchase a subscription, will the Eset people take my issue seriously and work on the problem, or just pass the busk like their competitors? Thanks, Michael

Hi folks: Thanks so much for the replies - sorry for the delay, very busy. So, for Marcos. I've captured two videos that show the behavior of the bios when the hack is active, and when it is not. The hack is active once I boot into win10, and the bios becomes stable when I then reboot to a Ubuntu DVD and then restart into Ubuntu on my hard drive. 1) Hacked bios with cursor jumping around in the section to select the boot drive. I have to madly click the mouse until I luck out and can select the DVD as the boot device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWYTUGhec-w 2) After I've selected the Ubuntu DVD as the boot, I do the process in the first paragraph, and the computer bios becomes stable (now with the ubuntu partition selected). As long as I continue to boot into ubuntu, things are fine, but soon after I go back to win10, the hack will appear again in the bios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5L0uHtJiZM for itman - lots to digest, will get back to your post when I have more time. Nobody else had access to my computer in my house. So folks - what do you think of the videos? Is it clear in the videos? I've noticed that the bouncing cursor isn't as clear in just the video, but when I'm madly trying to get the stupid cursor to allow me to select the DVD as a boot option. Thanks for the replies - feeling a bit hopeful at this point, Michael

Please tell me if there is a better sub-forum for this post - thanks! I recently installed ESET Internet Security on two of my desktop pc's running Win10 in hopes that I can salvage these machines from a BIOS based hack that has brought them to their knees: 1) a quad-core i7 with non-UEFI bios running Win10, and 2) a hex-core i7 with UEFI bios running a dual boot between Ubuntu Linux and Win10 (dual-boot set up from Ubuntu) I also have a UEFI-bios i5 laptop that's the virus has killed at this point. The hex-core pc is running only if I boot to Ubuntu. I had installed the trial EIS on the Win10 partition, and things seemed fine for a few days, but then a rogue Windows install started on the machine and I immediately hard shut it down and have not been back into the Win10 boot since. I'm writing this post on the Ubuntu boot of this machine. The quad-core pc also has the trial EIS installed on it, and after a while running it over a few days, the bios showed up compromised again (I've since hard reset this bios on the motherboard and the computer seems to run fine for now disconnected from the internet). I ran EIS on both machined (in Win10 boot) and neither scan for either pc showed a compromised bios. A few days after running that initial scan, both Win10 installations had the hack-related failures I indicated above. ESET is the only security software I've seen that addresses the bios hack issue on my machines, and I'm hopeful that it can be used to reclaim my machines and get them working again. I would gladly subscribe on both machines if that was possible. Can EIS help me get my Win10 machines running again? Thanks, Michael