[1][2] By 1989 it had spread widely in New Zealand and Australia,[3] and variants became very common worldwide in the early 1990s.

[4] A computer infected with the original version had a one in eight probability[5][6] that the screen would declare: "Your PC is now Stoned!

On hard disks, the original master boot record is moved to cylinder 0, head 0, sector 7.

The virus will "safely" overwrite the boot sector if the root directory has no more than 96 files.

On the other hand setting a clean computer to boot preferentially from the hard disk would prevent infection in the normal course of events.

The virus image is very easily modified (patched); in particular a person with no knowledge of programming can alter the message displayed.

On hard disks, the original master boot record is moved to cylinder 0, head 0, sector 9.

This caused Microsoft Security Essentials to recognize copies of the blockchain as the virus, prompting it to remove the file in question, and subsequently forcing the node to reload the block chain from that point, continuing the cycle.

[14] The situation was averted shortly thereafter, when Microsoft prevented the blockchain from being recognized as Stoned.

[15] Microsoft Security Essentials did not lose the ability to detect a real instance of Stoned.