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Vintage computer virus!!!

D

dongfeng

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Joined
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I seem to have a problem with a computer virus on my newly aquired Amstrad PC1640 (XT clone running an Amstrad version of MS-DOS 3.2 and GEM).

The computer seems fine, until I try to copy some files from my desktop PC to the Amstrad using a known clean diskette. The disk I used was one of my own, so I know it is fine. The message that AVG antivirus brings up when I have put the floppy back in to my computer is that it has detected a virus called Stoned.D.2. and another called Stoned.Standard.

Any idea on how I can run a virus scan on the Amstrad? :(
 
I also had virus on vintage computer, but it was on IBM XT.
There are anti-virus programs from early 90s avaiable somewhere on the net.
 
Virus

Virus

You could search at the C prompt Dir Stoned*.*/a/s then delete the exe, bat and com extensions found with stoned,
 
Haven't you got a more modern PC you could try the hard-card in? I don't know, but maybe it's possible to configure it as a second controller - Although if you've just low level formatted, then you should be safe, there wasn't anything that could re-flash the bios in those days, as flash wasn't really invented (although I did find a little 8 pin (100 x 14bit with a 35 volt supply???) EAROM on a board from an old multimeter!!!). and low level format meant that it was FORMATTED, then all you need to do is scan the floppies in another machine. Once you're clean, you're clean.
 
And.... Stoned was a boot sector virus, if I recall correctly. You will need to redo your "master boot record" after cleaning. Stoned is MEAN, it picks it up and moves it. So, once cleaned, you have no master boot record. And, BEFORE CLEANING, make sure you figure out the partition info (total size, tracks, sectors, sides, all that stuff). I think Stoned moved that info also. Like I said, it's a MEAN one. If you have to put any floppy in there while it's still infected, write protect the floppy or just figure it's infected after use because it will be.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did manage to find a rather good information page (http://www.textfiles.com/virus/stoned_d.law) about the Stoned virus, which explains how it operates and how to remove it. It appears you can only pass it on by BOOTING from an infected disk. I must have booted from a dodgy disk, but I did LL the drive with DEBUG and restore from the original Amstrad floppies which appear to be clean once scanned in my desktop PC.

I can't transfer the hard card to a newer machine to transfer files or to run a scan since the Amstrad is an XT! The drive would need to be reconfigured and re-formatted to AT to work!

I think I will LL the drive and start again, but I now have a BIG pile of floppies to check now...
 
I looked at F-Prot, but it appears it needs a 386 or newer to work... I did look at several DOS virus scanners, but none seem to have system specifications old enough for an 8MHz 8086 with 640kB!

But I think I will put F-Prot on my 486, it seems quite good :)
 
You may be able to find an old version of Norton AV on 360 disks. It hopefully will have the "stoned monk" and related stoned family anti-virus programming included. Any Norton AV version that was shipped originally on 360K disks should do. I don't know if I have it on file, but you may be able to find this on the web someplace.
 
for an old version of anti-virus software that will run on a 8088 or 286, search in google for version 2.28b of F-prot. This was the last 2x version of f-prot, the 3x version needs a 386.

Version 2.28b was from about 1998 or so. I don't know if the newer virus definitions file from the 3x version of f-prot for DOS will update the 2x version.
 
dongfeng said:
I seem to have a problem with a computer virus on my newly aquired Amstrad PC1640 (XT clone running an Amstrad version of MS-DOS 3.2 and GEM).

The computer seems fine, until I try to copy some files from my desktop PC to the Amstrad using a known clean diskette. The disk I used was one of my own, so I know it is fine. The message that AVG antivirus brings up when I have put the floppy back in to my computer is that it has detected a virus called Stoned.D.2. and another called Stoned.Standard.

Any idea on how I can run a virus scan on the Amstrad? :(
Click to expand...

Cool, no, really... way back when, when I was still "new" to computers, my IBM whatever with an 8088 and my mothers 10MHz Packard Bell XT both got infected with keypress 2E I think it was, a real PITA to get rid of. Mearly accessing a disc, if I recall, infected it. It also liked to corrupt data files that you opened. Good luck with that! I think I used MSAV...
 
I've managed to get rid of the virus a while back. What the virus does is to copy itself to the boot sector after moving the the original data elsewhere. I made a batch file to read the boot sector, and another to move the original boot sector back to where it should be. It worked! Took a while to go through the 100 or so disks though, but about half of them were infected.

Quite interesting, but a real pain!
 
Wow - stoned virus - remember it like yesterday.
"You PC is now stoned." hehehehe

I remember, I guess about '88 or '89, I was working for a Seagate distributor in Miami, US Computer, and a HUGE batch of Seagate ST-251's came in, with the Ontrack DiskManager diskettes infected with the Stoned virus - from manufacture!!!

I remember Seagate going through hoops to fix the problem!

I think it gave the stoned message like every 5th boot or so? When it did, it locked up, but the other 4 boots, it ran like normal, and infected every diskette you inserted.
If you booted from an infected disk, a ctrl-alt-del wouldn't make it go away, as I recall. You actually had to power off!


T
 
Good old stoned virus... I remember it like yesterday.

Man, that virus was infectious. And this was in the days before the Internet!

People did swap disks around alot though.

Tez
 
tezza said:
Good old stoned virus... I remember it like yesterday.

Man, that virus was infectious. And this was in the days before the Internet!

People did swap disks around alot though.

Tez
Click to expand...

luckily it was only MBR-infecting, otherwise with BBSes as popular as they were it might have infected every computer ever.

:)
 
Hehe This virus was the first one I experienced on my 486 as well. Variant was named Stoned.NoINT.
If I dig around enough I won't be suprised if I still find an infected floppy or two.

I remember that this variant messed up the MBR with a lot of random junk directories, so that the infected floppy seemed to contain a few TB's of data, and of course it could not be deleted unless you formatted the diskette.
 
check this link out, http://1drv.ms/1qLbsQ6. download VCheck.exe, it's a DOS AV i created back in 1999, this last version was an unreleased beta in 2005. it can handle most of the Stoned variants, NYB, Ping-pong, Junkie, Anti-EXE, and many other common boot sector viruses. it runs on 286 up machine though...
 
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