CPAV Reports COMMAND.COM Infected with Unknown Virus (113163)



The information in this article applies to:
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2

This article was previously published under Q113163

SYMPTOMS

When you run Central Point Anti-Virus (CPAV) version 2.1 prior to running MS-DOS 6.2 Step-Up and then run it again after running Step-Up, CPAV reports the following message:

File COMMAND.COM is infected by an unknown virus
The virus size is 1,694 bytes
Infection type is End COM
Clean, Continue or Stop
NOTE: CPAV may also report the above error message for the file TREE.COM. Central Point Anti-Virus version 9.0 has also exhibited this behavior.

CAUSE

According to Central Point Technical Support, this error is not actually caused by a virus. Central Point Anti-Virus detects a change in the file size of COMMAND.COM and reports "unknown virus" based on this change.

The "virus" size is 1,694 bytes, which is exactly the difference in the size of MS-DOS 6.0 COMMAND.COM and MS-DOS 6.2 COMMAND.COM.

WORKAROUND

According to Central Point Technical Support, you can work around this problem by choosing Stop when the above message appears. Next, delete the SMARTCHK.CPS files from the root directory and the DOS directory; or, delete all SMARTCHK.CPS files on the drive (to do that, choose Delete Smartchecks from the Scan menu in CPAV. Then, run CPAV again.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, contact Central Point Technical Support.

Central Point Anti-Virus is manufactured by Central Point Software, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 11/21/1999
Keywords: KB113163