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Possible Virus (?) Help - printer starts printing on it's own
None | Today | Me

Posted on 02/15/2005 9:27:22 PM PST by The Bugler

I'm hoping someone in "Freeper Land" can help with a strange problem that started today. I have a firewall (Zone Alarm Suite) and antivirus (same). I also use GIANT AntiSpyware (paid version) as well as SpyBot Search & Destroy and AdAware SE. This morning, out of the blue my printer decided to fire up and start printing (random stuff), printing was also attempted on my second printer as well as Acrobat PDFWriter. I rebooted sometime later and the same activity occured late this evening.

I'm running Windows ME :-( and I've never been infected with any virus/worm etc (knock on wood) to date.


TOPICS: Technical; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: demonpossessed; iknowwhatyouretyping; mindofitsown; outofyourcontrol; theprinterofdarkness; theselfwilledprinter; whenmachinestakeover
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FreeRepublic is the only place I know where I can find help on this. THANKS
1 posted on 02/15/2005 9:27:23 PM PST by The Bugler
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To: The Bugler

Turn off file and printer sharing. If that fails, unplug your printer.


2 posted on 02/15/2005 9:29:54 PM PST by MediaMole
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To: The Bugler
Oh, are you asking for it.

Just sit back and watch the "wise" comments pour in.

3 posted on 02/15/2005 9:30:04 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Spec.4 Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: The Bugler

Printers truly are the WEAKEST LINK in the computer universe. At my job they are demanding we go to computer generated checks. Oh but they don't realize we'll have to actually print them on printers.

Good luck eh!

but windows ME? That has got to go.


4 posted on 02/15/2005 9:35:56 PM PST by jocon307 (Vote George Washington for the #1 spot)
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To: Graybeard58; The Bugler
"Just sit back and watch the "wise" comments pour in."

I have to perform an exorcism ritual on mine about once a month. Firewalls do not good against alien technology I have found. It is possibly someone from the "other side" trying to make contact.

Did I leave anything out?

5 posted on 02/15/2005 9:37:19 PM PST by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire, but I swear I didn't see it in my rearview mirror.)
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To: The Bugler

Open your Printers folder (in the Control Panel). Double click on each of your printers and be sure there's no cached document that's trying to print.

Then shut down everything, power it all off, check for loose cables, then turn everything back on.

I really doubt this is a virus.


6 posted on 02/15/2005 9:37:42 PM PST by RightOnTheLeftCoast (You're it)
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To: The Bugler

Unplug printer power cable for a few minutes to clear memory


7 posted on 02/15/2005 9:40:42 PM PST by spycatcher
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To: The Bugler
It's probably just a temporary cached or corrupt file glitch but I would hit ctrl-alt-delete and select "Taskmanager" and then select the "Processes" tab and see what's loaded/running in memory. If you can't identify everything on there then you can google the name of the file/program and see if it's okay and if it's not then you can usually find instructions on how to delete it.

Some anti-virus progs are better at picking up stuff than others. I kept having some weird problems and I d/l the AVG Free edition and it found some things nothing else did and I haven't had any problems since (knock wood). Hope this helps and good luck!

AVG Free link

8 posted on 02/15/2005 9:40:52 PM PST by Reagan is King (The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.)
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To: The Bugler

Try doing an R & R on the printer objects. Sometimes they get corrupted and need to be replaced. You also need to seriously considering upgrading. The Win9x platform is not very stable.


9 posted on 02/15/2005 9:42:15 PM PST by Disambiguator
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To: The Bugler
A friend of mine had a similar thing happen on her computer. When she started her computer, a black box showed up on the screen and the printer started running pages through.

I cleaned up her computer with Ad-Aware, SpyBot, and a virus scan. I believe the program that finally got rid of this nuisance was a free download called HijackThis. Exercise caution: it's not an easy program to use, and I recall making a correction in the registry.

Note: always back up your registry before messing with it.

I Googled up some instructions on that particular repair, but I can't remember the search terms off the top of my head.

10 posted on 02/15/2005 9:42:46 PM PST by FoxInSocks ("It's fun to shoot some people." -- James Mattis, Lt. Gen., USMC)
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: The Bugler

Shut down File Sharing and get rid of ME. It is not a great OS.


12 posted on 02/15/2005 9:44:13 PM PST by technomage
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: The Bugler

Your printer is haunted. Your screwed.


14 posted on 02/15/2005 10:08:27 PM PST by TechnicalEcstacy (Ann Coulter - want to touch the heiny - aaoowwwooo!)
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To: technomage

I do appreciate your input. File/print sharing is shut down. I haven't always been happy with ME, but over the years with updates, it has turned out to be somewhat stable. Like I said, this problem just manifested itself today.


15 posted on 02/15/2005 10:13:59 PM PST by The Bugler
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To: The Bugler
Wierd?

I dunno, it does not sound like a virus.

When was the last time you ran scan disk and defrag?

16 posted on 02/15/2005 10:18:59 PM PST by Cold Heat (What are fears but voices awry?Whispering harm where harm is not and deluding the unwary. Wordsworth)
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To: William Creel

LOL. I have had ME for 4 years. I have never had a moments problem with it and I use the hell out of my computer.


17 posted on 02/15/2005 10:22:33 PM PST by Texasforever (It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your butt out all day long.)
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To: Cold Heat

Because of the problems today, I defragged today. I have my computer set up to defrag every 3 days by default.


18 posted on 02/15/2005 10:26:17 PM PST by The Bugler
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To: The Bugler

You don't have a wireless network in your house, do you?


19 posted on 02/15/2005 10:29:44 PM PST by Dont Mention the War (Liberal radio can be summed up in five words: Dead air, um, dead air.)
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To: Texasforever

Same here. At first I had some problems, but with updates over the years, it seems to be pretty stable, and I too stretch it to the max, sometimes


20 posted on 02/15/2005 10:31:20 PM PST by The Bugler
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