Do I have a virus?

[detz]

My amiga has always done weird things- refusing to boot for weeks, then working straight off after I give it a rest etc. but recently it has developed a problem which i think may be virus related. I use PC formatted zip disks via the MOUNTDOS program, and recently i have requester popping up all the time to say that disk in DF6: is not a DOS disk, even though I am not trying to write anything there. Also happens with PC fromat floppies. I ran virusZ and it came up with a few alerts but I couldn't figure out what to do next. Also now it seems that MOUNTDOS has stopped working, any reccommendations for alternatives? (1200 PPC using powerflyer gold)

[JaXanim]

@detz

Doesn't sound like a virus to me. The Amiga boots from its ROM, which I wouldn't have thought was accessible to a virus (? anyone). If nothing at all happens when you switch it on, check that the two ROM chips are properly seated.

Fitting a PowerFlyer requires the ROMs to be removed from the motherboard and remounted. This is a possible source of booting problems. Several people have commented that remounting the ROMs in the new sockets can be troublesome. Power Computing supply a couple of cable ties with the board to ensure the chips stay firmly in place. A bit of a botch IMO.

Why are you using pc formatted zips? I guess you run both pc and Amiga? If you aren't using a pc to transfer files to your Amiga, why not reformat the Zip with the native ffs or sfs, etc and see how they perform.

Just insert the Zip and format the disk in df6:
It will format just like a floppy.

Cheers,

JaX

[Ilwrath]

I agree-
It sounds more like a hardware fault than a virus.

I'd probably go through and check connections and make sure everything is seated well and such.  

The warnings VirusZ spit out may have just been about the "Capture Vectors", which often are set to values that indicate a virus MAY be present, but also could simply mean you've run a program like PrepEmu, a ROM remapper, or the pre-load patch for Brilliance, just to mention the ones off the top of my head that mess with capture vectors.

I'd probably run a complete file virus check of the files on your HD and a few common floppies, just to make sure, but honestly, I doubt you'd find anything out of the ordinary.  Most likely you're dealing with a hardware issue.

[detz]

Nah, I'm not talking about the not booting problem, that only happens very rarely, just the fact that my amiga is trying to access drive apparently for no reason(if i wanted that i'd run windows,eh?) Another thing I found today is that i get a requester if I take out the disk in df0: 'No disk present in DF0:' even if i'm not trying to read or write from the drive. To be honest I cant wait to get a new computer, hopefully an amigaOne cos mine is just bodged to hell. I have to boot from a floppy for some reason and.............. well you get the idea!

ta guys.

[lempkee]

detz: i know what your prob is , its the doslist mounter, i guess u have mixed old and new in it, infact you should just remove such.

and when devs: #? are started only the ones u really want should be there (ie if u have any decivces u dont use or rarely use , put them in storage under the dir it should , also be sure that storage stuff aint started aswell in the boot (i have seen that on many setups

its not a big problem at all, if you dont know where and what, well i would give you 1 easy solution, install 3.9 and remove your old stuff or have it on another partision.

anyway... yes i am looking forward to using my new machine also but the problem you mention aint a hard nut to remove/fix!..

[sir_inferno]

The Amiga boots from its ROM, which I wouldn't have thought was accessible to a virus (? anyone)

could be, cause of two things, firstly if you have bubble memory, and scondly if you load up a "utility" program i have, on the main screen it says checking rom for viruses

[Cyberus]

no it isn't!!!

You'd need a PIC programmer or smth similar to alter a ROM, and even then it would have to be EEPROM....therefore a virus couldn't do so!!

[voytech]

detz wrote:
 i get a requester if I take out the disk in df0: 'No disk present in DF0:' even if i'm not trying to read or write from the drive. (..) I have to boot from a floppy for some reason and.

I fyou boot from floppy, all assigns are made for floppy, such sys: libs: c: and others (except you made your own startup-sequence to mount those to hdd or ram).. Then if you remove floppy from drive, and you start a proggy, or something else (from hdd, or ram disk ), your miggy will try to acces some libs, fonts, or gdagets,  and if she fail to do this, you got a requester informing that there is no disk in drive df0: ..

[mikeymike]

The Amiga kickstart ROMs are not software editable.  If they were, people wouldn't need to be running ROM patches on startup, and why the heck would suppliers bother to sell new chips as standard if the old ones were flashable :-)

[voytech]

I'm wondering if anybody programmed his own kickstart rom??