Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!bbn!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!jas From: jas@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Jeffrey A. Sullivan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Virus on the Mac? Message-ID: <1043@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> Date: 3 Mar 88 00:19:42 GMT References: <1056@hubcap.UUCP> Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA. Lines: 27 Keywords: Virus Sumex Summary: No, It's not a virus. In article <1056@hubcap.UUCP>, mmccann@hubcap.UUCP (Mike McCann) writes: > I recently downloaded a file from sumex which after running for a few > seconds, crashed on me. The mouse was frozen, so when I reset the Mac > the hard drive wouldnt come up and it was treated as an non-mac disk. > Was this a freak accident or are there virus programs out there which > attack macs? If so, is there a program that can successfully detect > virus programs? Help........... > > Thanks in advance, > Mike McCann No, this is no virus. It is a feature of the Mac OS. (I assume you are run- ning a Mac II, since it's what I have and what I've heard this problem on, but I don't know if it can happen to other Macs. I think so, though.) What happened was that the program screwed up your parameter RAM (PRAM) and your little ole mac got confused about what to do at startup. Just run a program to ZAP PRAM, or hold down SHIFT-CTRL-OPT when you choose the control panel DA and answer yes to the PRAM ZAP dialog. This blanks PRAM to its default setting and lets you re-set it to your taste. If you are using a Mac II, there is a patchj in the form of an INIT that keeps this from happening. I love it! Can't say how many times I had to ZAP my PRAM before the patch came along, and I've not had to do it since. Well, not for this reason, anyway... -- .......................................................................... Jeffrey Sullivan | University of Pittsburgh jas@cadre.dsl.pittsburgh.edu | Intelligent Systems Studies Program jasper@PittVMS.BITNET, jasst3@cisunx.UUCP | Graduate Student