Yesterday, I was casually surfing the Internet, using IE5.0 on my Packard Bell computer (hey, it was a gift!). I had visited several sites when I decided to cruise the SDMB. I checked on GQ and read over several threads. Then I clicked on this thread about Submarine Aircraft Carriers.
In the discussion, Tranquilis posted a link to a Geocities page about the USS Halibut. Curious, I followed the link. A new browser window opened and the Geocities page began to load. It took a very, very long time to load. The little yellow triangle with the ! in the middle appeared in the lower left corner of the browser. The new page wouldn’t let me scroll to read all of the information. In fact, it wouldn’t let me return to the SDMB window without a long wait. I chose to exit the new window, but it didn’t close. I pushed Control-Alt-Del. The stuck window was listed as “Not Responding”. I chose to “End Task”. It asked me to wait. I told it to “End Task” anyway. The computer froze and nothing would work.
So, I pushed the reset button. Everyone who runs Windows 95 knows that sometimes, you have to push the reset button. Sadly, it seems that I shouldn’t have.
The computer began its re-boot normally. Then it said (in all caps): “BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT MASTER DISK AND PRESS ENTER”. After swearing (sorry), I followed instructions. I put the master disk in the A: drive and pressed enter. The computer began it’s boot again and even got to “Starting Windows 95…”. Then it stopped and the Master Recovery Disk started running. It said “Unable to prepare hard drive. Contact technical support.”
The computer is a Packard Bell. There is no technical support.
So my questions:
Could there have been malicious code on the USS Halibut page (or somewhere else) that sank my computer?
Could this be a disaster totally unrelated to web-surfing?
Hi, Opal.
Anyone have any suggestions short of burying the whole thing?
Thank you for your help. Sorry for the lengthy post. I appreciate your reading this far.
From your description, it’s highly unlikely that either SDMB or the internet has caused your system to die. To me it sounds like you should be suspecting your hardware or operating system.
If you can get into the BIOS settings for your system, check to see if the hard drive is listed on the general screen. If not, I presume that the BIOS will have an auto-detection routine for hard drives. Run that and see if your drive is detected with the correct parameters. If that fails, I suggest that your hard drive has crashed and will need to be replaced.
However, if the hard drive settings are intact in the BIOS, and the box still won’t boot, it’s possible that the operating system has become corrupted in some way. The surest fix would be to reformat the drive, then reinstall Windows (and everything else).
Other than that, I need more info before I make any further suggestions.
Ok, I’m at my computer at work, so I was somewhat limited in testing that site.
Anyway, I set IE to the highest security settings (just in case), and loaded that web site. It attempts to run two seperate scripts, but unfortunately the scripts are loaded from a seperate file (rather than being placed directly into the HTML of the page). So I wasn’t able to actually look at the code on that page.
So anyway, the javascript that is running comes from here and here.
Anyway, if you want just the information on the page, just set up IE (Tools - Internet Options - Security) to the highest security level (make sure JavaScripting is disabled), and you should then be able to open up the page without any problems.
The little yellow triangle that came up on the lower left-hand side of IE when you were loading the page means that there was an error in the javascript that ran.
However, I doubt that javascript would have such a dramatic effect on your computer. Did you download any Active-X components (on that page, or any other web page)? That’s usually the easiest way for poorly-written/malicious code to affect your computer.
(looking at this in preview, I see that DVous Means has responded with a more likely scenario for your problems)
This isn’t a murder mystery. The system was re-booted and your hard disk crapped out on the re-boot. It happens all the time as booting or starting is when hard disks often have their final failure mode, especially if the the problem is in the onboard (if IDE ) controller of the hard disk. It has nothing to do with your OS or the web or sunspots etc.
On the off chance it’s a BIOS hiccup, go into your BIOS and see if you can recognize and/or re-initalize the disk. If not get a new one. Staples has a 30 rebate deal for a 15 gig unit you can get for about 60.00 after rebate.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts. This afternoon, I went home for lunch. On a lark, I turned on the computer. It booted normally (after running ScanDisk). I figure this is confirmation that the hard drive is hosed. it runs now, but I figure it can crash any time.
Thanks for your suggestions and concern. Even if it didn’t happen this time, is there a way for a web page by itself to harm my computer? How?
Technically, web pages can crash your PC if there’s nasty bits of JavaScript running (one I’ve seen pops up new windows until your memory can’t cope and the PC crashes). On the other hand, unless you go looking at dodgy webpages (porn, hacker sites) you won’t normally encounter them at all, and I can’t think of any that will do permanent damage to a PC.
This site contains examples of nasty bits of code. I don’t recommend running them unless you’re very curious and prepared to crash your PC (looking at that link itself won’t do anything, though). Mods - the link is from an internet security audit site, not questionable.
I shoulda known better that to post links to a Geocities site. Terribly sorry about that. In my defense, that was one of the more terse pages I know on the subject of the Halibut, yet still has enough information to be entertaining.
No problem. That computer’s been on its last legs for a while, anyway. I’m just hoping to make it through the summer with it.
Mattk, thanks for the information. Of course, I don’t want to actually write pages that would damage other people’s machines – I was just curious if that could happen to me.