To those of you who have purchased Sony Walkmans with Sonic Stage 3.1 CD and many other Sony product CD's, There is a big question about rootkits messing up computers. Take it from experience, I've already replaced my hard drive since this NW-E505 MP3 Walkman was purchased for Christmas for my son. I've had nothing but trouble with it since we started, because of all the problems with my computer.

Download Rootkit Revealer, make sure you have a zip program to decompress and run it on your computer. So far there is no way to detect rootkits with any other antivirus or spyware, but it's a problem for sure!!!

Spotting the Affected Discs

To know if the CD you're buying includes a rootkit, look on the back for a little box labeled "Compatible with." If that includes the Web address "cp.sonybmg.com/xcp", or check out the EFF's Spotter's Guide.

For a list of XCP affected CDs, click here.

For a list of MediaMax 5 affected CDs, click here.

For a list of MediaMax 3.0 affected CDs, click here.