BEGPAN8.CVP  931104
 
                     2.1  Assume You're Wrong
 
These days, almost every computer problem has people yelling,
"Virus!"  In fact, while viral programs are a constant and growing
risk, computers have the most marvelous array of bugs, glitches,
failures and just plain bizarre happenings.  There is every chance
that you *don't* have a virus.
 
So, it is probably time to start looking at the possibility.  Go to
various people and describe the problem.  What may be a completely
new quirk to you may be old hat to someone else.  Some (very few)
examples from a (very long) list of possibilities:
 
- a power surge or spike can make the monitor flash and/or go blank. 
Depending upon how the computer fails, various noises may result. 
This is very common in buildings with older electrical wiring and
elevators, or other large electric motors.  Computers vary greatly
in their tolerance for this.  One may fry, while the next in line
doesn't notice.
 
- BIOS machines (usually those running MS-DOS), can sometimes not
"notice" the fact that a Shift, Control or Alt key has been
released.  This may seem to make the keyboard, and computer, act in
a very strange manner.  Susceptibility to this varies by computer,
keyboard and program.
 
- we frequently receive queries about the "blem wit" virus, which
appears in memory on computers running on a Novell LAN.  The Novell
driver has text reading, "problem with" in the location that DOS
expects to find an identifying name.
 
- floppy disks can go bad. Suddenly, and without warning.  For
various reasons.  You need not have done anything wrong.  There are
also factors such as the infamous "critical error handler bug,"
which means that very innocent actions on your part can be damaging. 
Funny, they've never fixed that.
 
These examples are by no means meant as a troubleshooting guide. 
They are merely to show that some very odd things can happen around
computers.  Unfortunately, a book of telephone directory size would
likely be insufficient to cover all the bases.  Still, try to find
out what you can.
 
Swap out keyboards and monitors to check hardware.  Note any changes
or upgrades recently to the system or programs.  Check other
machines that have the same history.  If you can call in someone to
check, it's probably a good idea.  If you are pretty sure that it is
*not* a normal bug or hardware failure, then go on.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993   BEGPAN8.CVP  931104

==============
Vancouver      ROBERTS@decus.ca         | "virtual information"
Institute for  Robert_Slade@sfu.ca      |   - technical description of
Research into  rslade@cue.bc.ca         |     marketing info disguised
User           p1@CyberStore.ca         |     as technical description
Security       Canada V7K 2G6           |            - Greg Rose