So I started to do a little snooping. I discovered many of my PHP files had a large string of characters at the start of every file. I also notice server not found errors in my log. I googled the error and server and discovered that this is a known WordPress virus. The solution was to eradicate it from every PHP file. I did, it was present in several dozen files including some plugins. But, things were no better, maybe worse! Now, my admin pages were all OK, editing worked, etc. But my blog’s pages came up empty, nata, nothing. No code at all in the pages. I spent some time on the WP forums and had some things to try but none worked.

I finally did a complete removal of my entire wordpress directory – except my wp-config and my uploads directory in wp-content. I did a manual reinstall of WP 2.9.1 and logged in. Same thing, no blog pages. Frustrated I went back to WP forums but found nothing helpful. Then I had an idea, I went to the Themes admin page and changed my theme to the Classic 1.5 theme. Reloaded, and voila, everything worked fine! I reinstalled my favorite theme – Vesper – and plugins and all is good on the EclecticGuy blog again. What a pain that was though. I changed all my passwords and admin login just to be safe.

Did anyone figure out what that drawing above is? It’s the common cold virus!