It seems our ghost is now having fun starting up one of our computers at midnight. I'll be typing on my own comp and suddenly I hear it start up for no reason behind me, about 5 ft away, then even log into windows (it asks for a password to log in). This happens every night around 11:30pm-4am. I at first assumed it was just a virus, but after a complete reformat the problem persists. My mother got up around 4am a few nights ago because she heard typing and mouse clicks coming from our livingroom. She says she came into the room to find her computer started up and nobody in sight. In the past other strange things have occurred in the same room-lights being turned off, messages left on our answering machine, etc. Which is odd because up until about a year ago the weird stuff only happened in our garage and basement.

Just a quick question and we can get this sorted straight off: Are you using Windows XP?




Seriously though, I checked over your past topics and, well if I had a ghost that was originally confined to one place, I'd be fairly content after a while. But if it's starting to move about, I dunno, I'd probably be outta there in two seconds flat!

Have you tried unplugging it?

Also, if you've got a webcam, try and set it up to record the actions of the computer over the whole night, see what you can see!!

Elvis

are you sure there is no trojan in the computer?

Or a ghost of a trojan in your house. Lol

Bad joke, just had to type it...

why would there be a trojan in a computer
a trojan is a warrior and wouldnt kno wat a computer is
id go with the webcam idea

Windows XP did the same thing to me...not to mention I also had a trojan...*shrugs* I highly doubt it's a ghost doing those things to ur comp...

actually its the one computer we have that *isnt* running xp lol we use it as a server so it's still running windows 2000.

I've thought about trying that, but its so hard to get to the plug that I havent bothered to.

And to the person who suggested the webcam idea-I may just try that

That would be me

Great, please post your findings!

"why would there be a trojan in a computer
a trojan is a warrior and wouldnt kno wat a computer is
id go with the webcam idea" <--ok how do i make that quote italic or bold? (shh im new remember! dont kick me yet) =)

Seriously though a trojan is a program that someone can put into your computer system and pretty much take charge of it. If its opening up windows, opening up the cd rom etc, things of this nature is really sounds like there is a trojan in the computer.

Go to http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default...id=ie&venid=sym

and check your system out. Also you can try ad-aware which tells you if there is spyware in the system which could also screw up the computer.

these are free scans and I use them all the time =) good luck!

Have you ever gotten any pics of it?

I am 100% certain it is not a trojan or any other virus. The computer has been completely reformatted since the occurrances began and they persist. I already use adaware, spybot, kaspersky virus scanner etc and it detects nothing.

I'm not so sure a trojan can turn a computer ON. Also, a trojan is not under the hackers control when your computer is not connected to the internet. Just to see, disconnect the computer from your network, as well as use the webcam. I know you will get definate results.

I also highly doubt that viruses can mysteriously type on the keyboard and use the mouse either. Definitely go with the webcam suggestion!

Stephanie, you mentioned messages on your answering machine? Would you mind going into a bit of detail about those?

I tend to browse these forums rather quietly... but when I saw this I had to say something. Okay, I actually used to have the same problem. A bit of a possessed computer... but what I did was I eventually realized that something was trying to give me a message through the PC... so I left it on all night with Microsoft Word or something along that line open and when I went to check in the morning I had some sorta poetic jibberish on screen. And after that nothing happened to the PC again. Or you never know... could be a trojan... try disconnecting from network and internet so that there is no possible remote connection to anything a hacker can exploit. (That includes Wi-Fi, you never know).

yeah, i think it was the day before halloween or maybe 2 days before-we got home and on our answering machine was a message that was just loud male cackling-really really clear that lasted about 20 seconds if i recall, the number came up as 000-000-0000. I tried to record it with my comp mic but its a bit too far away to get a very clear recording, and before i could get a better one my mother had erased it =/

I've heard about people doing that but its always been in fiction books/movies and stuff, may just try that

Sounds like your mum is behind the whole thing. She uses your computer at night and she makes the evidence dissapear when you have it.

Landon, my friend can you tell us what jiberish was typed in your computer that time. It's kinda interesting.

Just to investigate another possibility of the computer starting by itself, have you checked all the BIOS settings. In case you have Power-On by external device enabled, it is quite possible that a USB device (possibly your modem or printer or anything) could be sending a power-on command to your computer. That obviously doesn't explain why your computer would get past a password promt at login, but it could be a start.

Stephanie, change your password on the computer and see if iut can log it on if it uses the old passowrd you will have a error message come up. and you can check in the morning to see if it has or not


i seriously doubt it is a trojan as i have never heard of one booting up a computer

I know if I had the "power on by external device" enabled my printer would turn on my CPU by itself, it has done it before with my old one. I dont know why it was doing it, all I know is my printer was always making noise when computer was turned on or off. So I decided to unplug the power adapter everytime after shutting off the computer and never had a problem since.

If that dont fix the problem I suggest looking over at daniweb.com its a great forum for troubleshooting, if you find nothing that helps you make a new topic regarding your question they are very nice and informative over there.

But always remember the golden rules! Posting And You

Good luck I hope you can fix your problem!

Justin