WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!
I play on my father's computer, and start downloading a map, and it takes a while because it keeps downloading, so as I turn to cancel the download it suddenly blue screen, and reboot my computer, then Windows wont start again!!! A [IMAGE]ING VIRUS
I HATE YOU! my father's computer is now not working with all his [IMAGE]ing work and I'm gonna die
WHY NOT antivirus scanner working on the server this is just reckless!

Yeah i got a similar problem today - I decided to cancel a map download half way through. It came up with some errors, but not a Blue Screen of Death. As for viruses, I don't think they can actually activate when they are in a map form. I mean, the .pms file won't run itself as a program. The virus (if there is one) was probably already there. AS for the computer not working, then you can still find a way to access the files on the hard drive even if the system is stuffed up. I don't think there is a need to scan the map files - and Michal (the creator) is far from reckless, not as reckless as shooting off complaints with profane language to the whole Soldat community.

You'd be surprised how little it takes for a virus to go through these days, and downloading maps is more than enough, as it is already a big problem in Blizzard's Battlenet that they are trying to work on.
Anyway, yes I got carried away, but thats because myfather's comp is not working and you have just no idea what kind of a mess thats goiung to get if I dont fix it before he's back home i'm dead!!!
WHAT THE [IMAGE] AM I GONNA DO!
All I know is I downloaded a map that took way too long to go through, like it kept downloading for over 30 seconds before I decided to cancel and then it was too late, and blue screen, then reboot, then windows not working? sounds like it went through Soldat to me!

If you have the windows installation disk you could try popping that in then selecting 'repair' or something like that. As long as you dont format the hard drive it wont delete the files, I dont think, not if you only repair it.

I'm a littlebit scared to do that, but if nothing else works I will, thanks for the idea.
I already ordered someone to come fix it, I bet gonna cost me all me money!!!

quote:Originally posted by Eyes_Onlysuddenly blue screen, and reboot my computer, then Windows wont start again!!! A [IMAGE]ING VIRUS
I HATE YOU!
It would help a lot if you actually told us what happens when you boot. Maybe the hard disk broke, maybe the file system is corrupt, maybe you played with the BIOS.
Would you please tell us what you see when you boot?
Or maybe you see a big black screen with green letters "OMG HAX U HAV VIRUS"?

move this to bugs?
although the new atuodownload is good now this happeneds....

Replay down 3
Yea backup or system restore is a must... its saved me about 7 times.
+ what map were you dling?

This could have been a number of things other than a virus. Hardware failure, driver conflicts, windows acting up.

First of all, it couldn't have been a virus because the code, or the map, was never executed. Most virii require that their code be executed in some way or form, and since you cancelled the download, I doubt it was a virus.

Secondly, if your PC crashed after hitting cancel, then it may well be a hardware issue. Perhaps your Hard-Drive platters were scratched or they just quit working, who knows, but lets not jump to conclusions on the matter.

To help you, we need to know more about the problem. What happens when you start your PC? How far do you get, past POST or does it stop before the Windows loading screen?

Are there any error messages? Do you remember what the blue-screen said?

Try starting your PC, and after it gets past the BIOS/POST, hold the Control key (ctrl) and you should get a boot menu, if you use Windows 95 up to Windows ME. Otherwise, you'll need to hit F8 when prompted to do so.

Try to choose Safe Mode in either one, and if that doesn't work, choose the Logged-booting mode and save bootlog.txt to a floppy and post it here. Then we'll be able to help you more.

Otherwise, if you can get into Safe Mode, you've won half the battle. Check the Device manager to make sure non of your devices are malfunctioning, run your anti-virus software, and give your PC a thorough scan.

That's all I can help you with until I have more info.

If you do get it into safe mode, remember to back up ur important files incase something dreadful happens.

Map Files Can NOT Transmit Viruses!
End of story.
A virus is a self-replicating section of code.
Map files are plaintext data, nothing more. All viruses require the ability to execute code. Soldat does NOT execute ANY code out of a map file. THERE IS NO WAY TO FEASIBLY ATTACH A VIRUS TO A MAPFILE. Even if you infected an EXE with a virus, and renamed it to .PMS, you'd have to find someone stupid enough to rename it to .exe and execute it for this to work. Plus Soldat would see that the map file is invalid.

Soldat's map format is much much different from Blizzard's. I would be surprised even so if they decided to have a format capable of executing code, because thats not very responsible.


Any viruses you might have are proably from prior infections that haven't been cleaned, not from Soldat.

If your computer crashes, then you proably just have errors on your hard drive. Its surprising how fast Windows goes down the tube when you have ruined sectors hanging around on your hard drive. Specially if these errors result in corrupting an important windows system file.

All of Lapis' advice is really good so I won't bother to repeat it

Do you still have your Windows CD or a boot disk? Try booting off them and seeing if you can enter windows. If you can do that successfully then you might be able to run scandisk and disk defragmenter to attempt to repair bad sectors on your drive, then I suggest looking to see if there was a previous Windows back up (or restore point, something like that). Whatever you do, be extra careful because if you use a back up/restore point and its from awhile back, you could potentially erase all your dad's work anyway. Infact I recommend avoiding it, but it's a possibility incase nothing else works.

Oh and another thing, it's your fault for playing games on your dad's work computer. Don't try and lay the blame on the Soldat community. :)

Well, that sorts that out, it wasnt the map carrying the virus, if it was a virus. What happened anyway? presumably ur dads come back by now?

The key thing to remember is that you are still using Microsoft Windows.
It can easily be corrupted by a forced restart.

If you don't have a firewall then the first thing you should look into is a trojan horse and little kid who thought it would be funny to delete some of the files you require for loading windows.

If all the above is not the case, then maybe you just hurt its feelings...

Wasn't there some problem a while ago with image files being loaded into various windows programs and executing virus code? They used a buffer overflow technique to run code over the end of the file and place it into memory, which was then excecuted, even though the image data should never be excecuted. I might have the details wrong, but there was definetly a big fuss over it, and it shows that you don't need to run a .exe to have unwanted code excecuted on your system.

But I highly doubt this was the case in this situation, as some serious knowledge and ability would be needed to apply the technique to a Soldat map, if it's even possible at all (as long as Soldat's code has error checking and so forth it should be fine).

quote:Originally posted by bb_vbWasn't there some problem a while ago with image files being loaded into various windows programs and executing virus code? They used a buffer overflow technique to run code over the end of the file and place it into memory, which was then excecuted, even though the image data should never be excecuted. I might have the details wrong, but there was definetly a big fuss over it, and it shows that you don't need to run a .exe to have unwanted code excecuted on your system.

But I highly doubt this was the case in this situation, as some serious knowledge and ability would be needed to apply the technique to a Soldat map, if it's even possible at all (as long as Soldat's code has error checking and so forth it should be fine).


Certain exploits in windows programs can be used for this, but who do you think in their right mind would bother spending hours and hours of their time to look for that kind of exploit in Soldat which most likely does NOT exist, to infect people running a polish made 2d shooter using the map file format. Its way easier to make a standard IRC botnet trojan and spread that then go through all the trouble.

What map did you download?!?!?!!?? Anyways try going to http://computing.net/forums/ and posting your problem there.

Yeah, read digital fortress. I don't really download maps, i only get em when i go to servers. Get a new firewall or go to the link that liquid metal suggested. I don't think a map can contain a virus, unless he got a rar that had a virus. Or it could just be a hardware issue. if only we could see inside your computer.....

quote:Originally posted by bb_vbWasn't there some problem a while ago with image files being loaded into various windows programs and executing virus code? They used a buffer overflow technique to run code over the end of the file and place it into memory, which was then excecuted, even though the image data should never be excecuted.
Yes, it was about "prepared" JPEG files. Every application that used a certain DLL (GDIplus.dll afaik) to open/process JPEG files was vulnerable to a buffer overflow.

I might have the details wrong, but there was definetly a big fuss over it, and it shows that you don't need to run a .exe to have unwanted code excecuted on your system.
Buffer overflows aren't exactly a new thing, but you're right.

But I highly doubt this was the case in this situation, as some serious knowledge and ability would be needed to apply the technique to a Soldat map, if it's even possible at all (as long as Soldat's code has error checking and so forth it should be fine).
Yep.

Since Eyes Only doesn't seem to respond, his father either got mad, his other computer won't work too or he simply doesn't care anymore :)

very strange >_<
i had a map that replaced all my scenery grafix once. VERY annoying

it would not be very hard to make it that soldat thinks they are .pms when they are actually sumthing else...cracks do that all the time...