Re: Is there a 1024 virus? (PC)

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Article #4523

#4523

From: Chris Maslyar
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1991 17:28

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>> Can anyone suggest an explanation of our observation on several
>> computers (various IBM pc types) of a result from chkdsk of 654336
>> bytes of total memory?

>A number of viral programs would fit this bill, the most obvious being
>the ubiquitous "Stoned".  Check the boot sectors of your boot disks with
>your Norton utilities.

I noticed this 654336 anomaly as well.  Unfortunately (fortunately?)
SCAN V7.2V77 didn't find a culprit, and Norton utilities came up blank
when I searched for "Stoned".  I'll spare you the details of the painful
steps taken to arrive at my solution to say that:

    Some PC/AT computers give the user an option to place 1K of BIOS
    into base memory subsequently reducing the size of memory to:

    (you guessed it)  654336

You may want to look for this option BEFORE you format your disks :)

Good Luck

Chris
chris@attain.teradyne.com

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From: chris@renoir.teradyne.com (Chris Maslyar)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Is there a 1024 virus? (PC)
Message-ID: <0006.9106131515.AA13504@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 12 Jun 91 17:28:33 GMT
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