Virus that plays music in the background

[Norade]

I have a virus on my computer that plays music that sounds sort of like a mix of radio stations in the background and spybot, AVG, SuperAntispyware, and Malwarebytes all fail to rid me of it. I could just back-up files that I know aren't infected and go from there, but that isn't my preferred option if it can be helped.

[adam_grif]

Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Saving that, format is your safest option.

Saving that, do a whole bunch of google searches to try to find people with similar problems. Go to dedicated tech support websites and see what they say. If worst comes to worst, hire a professional.

[Norade]

It comes and goes so it isn't that annoying because a restart seems to fix it, I am worried that it could be more than just annoying music though. However when I'm not lazy I'll plug in my old hard drive, transfer my music and a few other important files over and nuke my old drive.

As for a solution online google has no answers beside get an antivirus you noob, and people claiming it's peoples speakers picking up radio inference.

[Phantasee]

My old (huge) speakers used to pick up radio interference all the time. It was kind of unsettling when you're home alone, and you've turned the system's sound way down and you hear ghostly music playing.

What kinds of speakers do you have?

[Norade]

No that isn't it, otherwise it wouldn't go away when I restarted my computer. Besides I use my stereo on input mode for my speakers and can mute the random music sound by muting my computer's volume.

[General Zod]

Just off the top of my head I'd say it could be a WMP hijacker, but there's not much to go with here.

[eion]

I've had this before too. If i remember correctly a full reinstall of my web browser seemed to fix it. I seem to also remember Microsfot Security Essentials finding it, can't be sure though.

[Oskuro]

Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic) had a vlog about a similar virus that played the audio to the Ghostbusters movie. He eventually sorted it (didn't specify how) but I always wondered about the viability of such a heavy virus, since it carries around all that audio, it is not a trivial thing to download, one would expect it would be caught more easily.

[eion]

Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic) had a vlog about a similar virus that played the audio to the Ghostbusters movie. He eventually sorted it (didn't specify how) but I always wondered about the viability of such a heavy virus, since it carries around all that audio, it is not a trivial thing to download, one would expect it would be caught more easily.

could easily be streaming it from some public source, IMDB, youtube, asian video sharing site, etc...

[Norade]

Hmm, next time it comes on I'll try disconnecting from the net and see if that stops it. If it does that means it might be harder to find but easier to make a non-issue, if it doesn't then I need to start looking at any large files I've downloaded recently.

[Academia Nut]

I had something like this plague my system for a while, and I figured out something of a work-around until my scan finally caught the bastard. What you can do is hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and go to the processes tab. Hit the alphabetize button and look for all instances of your web browser. If there are more than four things like 'iexplore.exe' or whatever your browser is, start ending them. This bastard virus likes to open up hidden instances of your browser and occasionally tunes them to internet radio stations or adds. This is of course just a temp workaround, but if reinstalling your browser doesn't work and you don't have the time to completely reformat your hard-drive and then reinstall everything, it will at least keep the symptoms down.

[General Zod]

Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic) had a vlog about a similar virus that played the audio to the Ghostbusters movie. He eventually sorted it (didn't specify how) but I always wondered about the viability of such a heavy virus, since it carries around all that audio, it is not a trivial thing to download, one would expect it would be caught more easily.

Five or ten megs can go entirely unnoticed by anyone using DSL or higher (think background updates), especially if they leave their system on all the time; and with the right audio algorithm you can compress several minutes of audio down to 1mb. I've got a moderate cable line at home and I can download a 700mb file without any noticeable slowdown on my internet performance otherwise.

[Norade]

I had something like this plague my system for a while, and I figured out something of a work-around until my scan finally caught the bastard. What you can do is hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and go to the processes tab. Hit the alphabetize button and look for all instances of your web browser. If there are more than four things like 'iexplore.exe' or whatever your browser is, start ending them. This bastard virus likes to open up hidden instances of your browser and occasionally tunes them to internet radio stations or adds. This is of course just a temp workaround, but if reinstalling your browser doesn't work and you don't have the time to completely reformat your hard-drive and then reinstall everything, it will at least keep the symptoms down.

Thanks, assuming my last round of scans didn't catch it and remove it without any input from me, I'll give that a try next time it pops up.