my new tft flickering badly(i think its a hacker)

stifler · 01-30-2007, 10:02 AM

guys u would not believe this.
but i was on youtube the otherday but i cannot blame it for the problem.
but anyway my screen flickered a bit. and i was suprised.
i was quite paranoid as it started to get worse.
i thought i may be a hacker, so i opened notepad
and wrote
"fu** you"
then all of a sudden my screen started to shake and flicker very badly vertically.
i asked in notepad if the person would type something but i got no reply.
then the shaking stopped everytime i typed a new message.
therefore i have some real suspicion of it being a hacker.
i tried opening norton and the hacker stepped up the flickering pace.
however i manged to check my security and eventually i noticed it said my pc had not been attacked.,
i am really worried as i had some personal info open and i think the hacker must have checked it all.

i also tried to restart my pc and even at the booting the screen was flickering.
its weird because the flickering stops and then continues and the flickering is not at a coonstant speed, sometimes its slow but sometimes it really hard to see what im doing.
and the flickering always seems to get worse when i type notepad or open norton?

please guys any help at all would be appreciated.

**carsey** · 01-30-2007, 10:08 AM

If its flickering at the boot screen, then I seriously doubt its a hacker. Check the setting of your monitor and also try it on another PC to see if it the same.

The monitor may be on its way to death....have you got the cable from the PC to monitor in correctly??

stifler · 01-30-2007, 10:15 AM

yeh ive been using this dell tft for quite a while now, so the wires are correct.
its a pretty new monitor about 6 months old, i dont know why its acting like this.
do u think it may be due to some sort of magnet or some alive bug crawling inside it?
the weird thing is when it started again.
i pulled out my internet wire and the ethernet aswell for my local lan.
and it still continued.
would this still be possible for a hacker to control it without access to my computer currently and still continue to flicker it.
he may have set it to do some random flickering like a time bomb (when i was connected to the internet earlier) because its weird how it is still going on when all my internet wires are pulled out from the pc?
and yeh it happens during boot screen & the windows xp loading screen.

**Kalim** · 01-30-2007, 11:24 AM

A hacker won't try to make your screen flicker as that way they are impairing the use they have from your system (and its unlikely they can do it aswell), and giving away major clues. This seems like a hardware fault. Check with new cables and try a different monitor with the system to see if your monitor is giving up now. Your last post indicates quite clearly that either your graphics card or its your monitor.

cambridge · 01-30-2007, 04:26 PM

I think the chances of this being a hacker are zero. Your monitor may have a bad FL inverter, or your video card may be overheating, or your cables could be deteriorating, or etc, etc, etc. If you're worried about a hacker then get a personal firewall to make you feel better (and you should have one anyway,) but I would bet the house on this being hardware related.

stifler · 01-31-2007, 09:39 AM

yes you could be right.
but the reason i think its a hacker is because. firstly
the flickering thing happened at about the same time 4:30pm GMT on both days.
however later on that day i could use my monitor fine and i had no problem?
this might be because the hacker was busy at this time or asleep.
also when i clicked on norton or opened notepad to type a message the screen started to flicker out of control getting even worse.
it really did look someone was controlling it.
i also later discovered with webroot spy spyweer that it found a trojan on my pc called.
winlogonhook
and it said this trojan usually allows hackers to gain access to unathourised pc's..?
hmm strange isnt it,
do u think im just being paranoid?

dorts · 01-31-2007, 11:54 PM

Doesn't seem to be malware issue to me. But if you want to be sure you may do the following.

Please follow MicroBell's 5 Step process outlined here

After running through all the steps, best thing to do is have one of the HijackThis helpers take a look at a log.

Please download HijackThis - this program will help us determine if there are any spyware/malware on your computer. Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Unzip" button to install. It will by default install to the directory - C:\PROGRAM FILES\HIJACKTHIS\

Double click on HijackThis.exe to run the program.

1. If it gives you an intro screen, just choose 'Do a system scan and save a logfile'.
2. If you don't get the intro screen, just hit Scan and then click on Save log.
3. Post the hijackthis.log file in the HijackThis Log Help forum. Do not fix anything in HijackThis since they may be harmless.

01-30-2007, 10:02 AM	#1 (permalink)
stifler Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 113 OS: XP	my new tft flickering badly(i think its a hacker) guys u would not believe this. but i was on youtube the otherday but i cannot blame it for the problem. but anyway my screen flickered a bit. and i was suprised. i was quite paranoid as it started to get worse. i thought i may be a hacker, so i opened notepad and wrote "fu** you" then all of a sudden my screen started to shake and flicker very badly vertically. i asked in notepad if the person would type something but i got no reply. then the shaking stopped everytime i typed a new message. therefore i have some real suspicion of it being a hacker. i tried opening norton and the hacker stepped up the flickering pace. however i manged to check my security and eventually i noticed it said my pc had not been attacked., i am really worried as i had some personal info open and i think the hacker must have checked it all. i also tried to restart my pc and even at the booting the screen was flickering. its weird because the flickering stops and then continues and the flickering is not at a coonstant speed, sometimes its slow but sometimes it really hard to see what im doing. and the flickering always seems to get worse when i type notepad or open norton? please guys any help at all would be appreciated.

01-30-2007, 10:08 AM	#2 (permalink)
carsey Moderator, TSF Articles Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Hunwick, Co. Durham England Posts: 9,673 OS: XP Pro SP3 My System	If its flickering at the boot screen, then I seriously doubt its a hacker. Check the setting of your monitor and also try it on another PC to see if it the same. The monitor may be on its way to death....have you got the cable from the PC to monitor in correctly?? __________________ Submit New Articles Here

01-30-2007, 10:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
stifler Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 113 OS: XP	yeh ive been using this dell tft for quite a while now, so the wires are correct. its a pretty new monitor about 6 months old, i dont know why its acting like this. do u think it may be due to some sort of magnet or some alive bug crawling inside it? the weird thing is when it started again. i pulled out my internet wire and the ethernet aswell for my local lan. and it still continued. would this still be possible for a hacker to control it without access to my computer currently and still continue to flicker it. he may have set it to do some random flickering like a time bomb (when i was connected to the internet earlier) because its weird how it is still going on when all my internet wires are pulled out from the pc? and yeh it happens during boot screen & the windows xp loading screen. Last edited by stifler : 01-30-2007 at 10:17 AM.

01-31-2007, 11:54 PM	#7 (permalink)
dorts Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,603 OS: Windows XP SP2 My System	Doesn't seem to be malware issue to me. But if you want to be sure you may do the following. Please follow MicroBell's 5 Step process outlined here After running through all the steps, best thing to do is have one of the HijackThis helpers take a look at a log. Please download HijackThis - this program will help us determine if there are any spyware/malware on your computer. Double-click on the file you just downloaded. Click on the "Unzip" button to install. It will by default install to the directory - C:\PROGRAM FILES\HIJACKTHIS\ Double click on HijackThis.exe to run the program. 1. If it gives you an intro screen, just choose 'Do a system scan and save a logfile'. 2. If you don't get the intro screen, just hit Scan and then click on Save log. 3. Post the hijackthis.log file in the HijackThis Log Help forum. Do not fix anything in HijackThis since they may be harmless. __________________ If you think TSF have helped you, please kindly donate to TSF and help keep this site free to all.

01-30-2007, 11:24 AM	#4 (permalink)
Kalim Roaming To Help Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 5,609 OS: Many	A hacker won't try to make your screen flicker as that way they are impairing the use they have from your system (and its unlikely they can do it aswell), and giving away major clues. This seems like a hardware fault. Check with new cables and try a different monitor with the system to see if your monitor is giving up now. Your last post indicates quite clearly that either your graphics card or its your monitor.

01-30-2007, 04:26 PM	#5 (permalink)
cambridge Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1 OS: Vista	I think the chances of this being a hacker are zero. Your monitor may have a bad FL inverter, or your video card may be overheating, or your cables could be deteriorating, or etc, etc, etc. If you're worried about a hacker then get a personal firewall to make you feel better (and you should have one anyway,) but I would bet the house on this being hardware related.

01-31-2007, 09:39 AM	#6 (permalink)
stifler Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 113 OS: XP	yes you could be right. but the reason i think its a hacker is because. firstly the flickering thing happened at about the same time 4:30pm GMT on both days. however later on that day i could use my monitor fine and i had no problem? this might be because the hacker was busy at this time or asleep. also when i clicked on norton or opened notepad to type a message the screen started to flicker out of control getting even worse. it really did look someone was controlling it. i also later discovered with webroot spy spyweer that it found a trojan on my pc called. winlogonhook and it said this trojan usually allows hackers to gain access to unathourised pc's..? hmm strange isnt it, do u think im just being paranoid?