Odd Mozilla behavior ... do I have a virus?

Yesterday, my PC running Windows 7 spontaneously shut-down and rebooted while I was in the room but no one was using it. When we logged back in, Firefox had lost all recall of previous settings, including my wife's Symbaloo homepage. We also use Thunderbird for our email, it was also wiped clean -- asking us to reenter our provider information to reestablish our email connection.
Seeing all of this, I shut down the computer, thinking it might have a virus?
Can anyone explain what happened, if I should be concerned, and if there is anything I need to do?
If you couldn't tell, I am in no way tech savvy.
Thanks!

You can do a disk check with the chkdsk.exe program.
If you run the chkdsk.exe program from a cmd.exe Command window then you can read the response from the chkdsk.exe program.
Open a cmd.exe window:
Start > Run: cmd.exe <press Enter><br />
At the command prompt (>) type or Copy&Paste: chkdsk.exe /f /r <press Enter> (put a space before /f and /r)
If you get something like: Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? y/n then answer the question with "Y" and close all programs and reboot the computer.

Similar Messages

My computer keeps freezing on me every 15 min do i have a virus I was told when you have mozilla firefox you don't need virus protection is that true and how can I scan if I have a virus and now do i get rid of it?

# Question
My computer keeps freezing on me every 15 min do i have a virus I was told when you have mozilla firefox you don't need virus protection is that true and how can I scan if I have a virus and now do i get rid of it? edit

Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of the add-ons is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
* Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
See:
* [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]
* [[Troubleshooting plugins]]
If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.
* Use "Disable all add-ons" on the [[Safe mode]] start window to disable all extensions.
* Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
There are other things that need attention:
Your above posted system details show outdated plugin(s) with known security and stability risks that you should update.
# Shockwave Flash 10.0 r32
# Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_21 for Mozilla browsers
Update the [[Managing the Flash plugin|Flash]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Update the [[Java]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html (Java Platform: Download JRE)

Is there an anti virus program for mac 9.1? Think I have a virus

I don't use an anti virus - using outlook express I got a strange message with no subject or sender - just a blank line. I tried deleting it but it wouldn't be deleted. Since then every time I try to delete it - it crashes the system. Same with Internet Explorer. And now my main screen icons will just 'disappear' from the screen then it crashes.
I tried looking for an antivirus but all of them seem to be for 9.2 or higher and I don't know what to do - if I upload to 9.2 will I loose any programs or files - new to this from the PC world. Thanks
G4 Mac OS 9.1.x

Hi, debbieM -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
It is doubtful that you have a virus - no virus which can harm OS 9 has been released in well over 10 years.
Getting a message every now and then with no subject and no body is not unusual. There are a couple of ways to get rid of a message without opening it.
Click on an adjacent message which is okay to delete, then hold down the Shift key and select the blank messages - none of them will open. Once you have selected all the ones for deletion, press the Delete key.
Or, click and hold on a message; or press the Control key and click and hold on a message. A contextual menu should appear; one of the choices in that menu shuld be to delete the messge. If you choose that, it should happen without the message ever opening.
Things you can do to make Outlook Express run smoother -
• Increase the Preferred memory allocation for it. Adding 20 or 30 thousand to the original Preferred amount, or even more if you have sufficient RAM, is not excessive.
Article #18278 - Assigning More Memory to an Application
• Compact the databases. To do that - with OE not running, hold down the Option key and start up OE. A splash screen will open, asking if you want to compact the database files - click okay, and follow the prompts.
For Internet Explorer, increase its Preferred memory, a lot. Adding 30 to 50 thousand is not excessive.
And now my main screen icons will just 'disappear' from the screen then it crashes.
That could indicate one or more other problems.
• How full is your hard drive? It is good practice to not allow your hard drive to get more than 85% full. When it does get more full than that, odd behaviors including an unstable OS begin occuring.
• Try rebuilding the desktop file (note that the desktop file has very little to do with the desktop). To rebuild the desktop safely, restart - immediately hold down the Shift key until you get the "Extensions Off" message; then release Shift and hold down the Command and Option keys until you get the splash screen asking if you want to rebuild the desktop; click yes (or okay). Once that's done, restart to turn your extensions back on.
• Boot to your most recent OS 9 Install CD, one valid for that machine - ideally it would be OS 9.1, the same as is on the machine. Once booted to the CD, run Disk First Aid from the Utilities folder on the CD. Let DFA have a look at your hard drive, and allw it to repair what it can - it may take more than one pass to do this, especially if the drive is rather full.
If DFA finds things it just can't fix, post back with the description of the problems found.
if I upload to 9.2 will I loose any programs or files....
Updating the OS from OS 9.1 to OS 9.2.1 should not cause any loss of files.
However, in general updating an OS is not a fix for a damaged or unstable OS. It is better to get the OS now on the drive healthy before updating it.
When the machine goes unstable (icons begin disappearing, etc.) are there any error messages?

Random freezing and odd keyboard behaviors on 10.5.8

My random freezing started on 10.5.6. Updated to 10.5.7 and the problem persist. I have decided to upgrade to 10.5.8. Everything seemed fine for a day and a half. Then all of a sudden random freezing when starting, login, wake from sleep, etc.. and now odd keyboard behaviors. function keys randomly work when computer is not frozen.
I have tried every option listed in the discussions here and elsewhere. Does anyone have the same problems?

I have tried so far:
disk permissions repaired from dvd and startup,
disk first aid,cleaned caches, virus checked, zapped the pram, reset power management, ran apple hardware check, ran disk warrior, trashed network prefs, deleted sleep image, replaced directory with techtool pro, tried new user account, re-updated, removed 3rd party software, and nothing works?????

Do I have a virus in my email?

Do I have a virus in my email?
A mail message I forwarded to a friend with a Mac contained a warning that stated: "is a web application which is attached to a mail message. Are you sure you want to open it? ATT53556133.HTM" She didn't open it. The message I forwarded did not have any attachments to it except my logo.
I also sent a regular mail message to another friend (Windows user) where the body of the message was delivered blank. When I checked in my send box, the message I sent did, indeed, have words written in the body of the message so I know I didn't make the mistake of sending a blank email.
Recently, I sent a mail to someone using Hotmail. The message came back to me as undeliverable because Hotmail was showing 'name mining behavior'.
Putting these three things together in the space of two days, makes me wonder if I have a virus. If so, what do I do about it?
Thanks to anyone who can help!

If you compose a message as Rich Text, some receiving email applications will show that text as an HTML attachment rather than showing the text as part of the body. This will always happen if the receiving email app can't handle HTML messages. For best compatibility, set the Mail Composing preferences to compose messages as Plain Text.
And no, you almost certainly don't have a virus. There have to date been no confirmed reports of a true virus or worm infecting Mac OS X other than the Word Macro virus that could infect early versions of Microsoft Word for Mac.
Regards.

Odd display behavior

Happy New Year to All!
I just recently upgraded to Tiger. Since that time, I have noticed some rather odd display behavior on my screen. For example, when I am on web site that has a "fill-in" box, once I highlight that box to fill it in, a black rectangle stays in that position on my screen until I click on the desktop.
Likewise, if I highlight an icon on the desktop, a black rectangle outlines the icon and stays visible until I either highlight something else or click randomly on the screen.
I never noticed this behavior under Panther (10.3.9) and while it's not a huge deal, it does seem odd. It's as if the screen doesn't refresh after moving on. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Brad
P.S. After posting this message, a black rectangle corresponding to the message edit box stayed on my screen. Irritating.

Hi William,
Yes, I tried both and booted / used my Tech Tool Deluxe repair disk. All no help. Don't know if they are related, but also have other odd things going on.
Is it normal to have two Restart selections, two Shutdown selections and two Logout Selections under the Apple menu in Tiger? I do. Didn't in Panther, but can't remember if I've always had them in Tiger. Should I?
Also, can't get my scanner (All-in-one, printer works) to run in Tiger. All of these problems go away when I boot into my 10.3.9 clone on my Firewire drive. I'd really hate to return to Panther, but ...
Basically, I'm getting some very odd behavior, from a system that has always been relatively bullit-proof until now. I do all the req'd housekeeping stuff, have both Macaroni and Cocktail. Don't know what to try.
Brad

Odd usage behavior

iPhone v101: this odd usage behavior just started half a week ago. This is the second time it happened. During standby, the usage time continues to count forward. I leave my phone on my desk not using it, but the usage still goes up. For example, the usage was 1 hour and 20 minutes when I checked like three hours ago, now it says 4 hours and some minutes. WiFi off, not running any apps, great signal and I cannot find anything running. This behavior also appear to drain the battery a little bit. The phone was not being charged or on plugged in anywhere; just sitting still on my desk. Now, the usage is back to normal and not accumulating time when I am not using it. This is strange. Have anyone else seem this happening? I had the phone for over a month now...

I didn't notice it causing any battery drain, but it sounds like I am charging it differently than you are. Here's how mine worked:
I would plug the iPhone into the wall charger at night to charge while I slept. In the morning, it would show a full charge by showing a plug on the small battery icon, but the large green battery would still have a sliver that wasn't green. The usage and standby stats would show something in the 3-4 hour range, presumably the time since it hit full charge.
I would disconnect the phone, check my email, and then take it to my desktop computer and plug it in to sync and update all my podcasts, etc. I would leave it plugged into my desktop while I showered while I got ready for work. By the time I was ready to leave, it would again show a full charge on the small icon, but now my stats would be reset to 0 and would function normally throughout the day. But nothing I did ever stopped the stats from running up during the night after attaining full charge.
1.0.1 got rid of the stats problem (they always stay at 0/0 in the morning with a full charge until I unplug the phone) AND the weird behavior of the large green battery indicator went away. Now both indicators show full charge in the morning.

When i login to yahoo, my first click results in the spinning wheel. Could i have a virus Or why does it only happen when i login to yahoo?

When i login to yahoo, my first click results in the spinning wheel. Could i have a virus? Or why does it only happen when i login to yahoo?

Firefox allows to select part of a word. You can select a word with a double click and use Shift + left click to set the end of the selection, so you need to click at the end of the last word instead of in it.

Do i have a virus, or is it just Mountain Lion teething problems?

Ever since i upgraded to Mountain Lion, it has impressed me, but also shocked me. It has some really useful features, and looks beautiful, but i cant help wondering if Apple is loosing it's touch, when it behaves like Windows Vista. The first problem was that it randomly kept restarting whilst in sleep, whick causes lots of problems. That has stopped now, but the are even worse problems. Web based application ofthen crash and are unresponsive, and it denies the existance of my Air port, which it is connected to, which keeps all the backups. Also, I recently noticed a Java DMG in Disk utility, but it wasn't in finder, when i looked, so i ejected it using disk utility. These are all tell tale signs of a virus, however, it also claims that the bootcamp partition doesn't exist, (yet i can still boot from it, and use windows), and also it told me that it couldn't eject Macintosh HD, because itunes was using it. Why would I ask my best computer to commit suicide? Also, when i connect my portable hard drive to it, it doesnt show up, but if i connect it in Windows or on another Mac, it works fine. So, it's either a virus, a reliability issue in Mountain Lion, Please help.

You don't have a "virus." That's the Windows way of thinking. You have a misconfigured system. What exactly happens when web-based applications crash?

I think I might have a virus or malware

I know that the likelihood is very slim that I have a virus but I have been having some problems lately. Earlier I had my laptop on and then I closed it and when I opened it back up and typed my password in it kept saying it was wrong. I even checked to see if caps lock was on and it was not. I had to restart my laptop for it to work. I also opened firefox today and it said that it was the first time I used it when it was not. The "you have never used this application before." message popped up. My Internet has also been slow. Graphics/images have not been loading on the Internet or they're pixilated and take a long time to become the resolution the image is at. I also have been having trouble with charging. I will leave it unplugged and then I'll charge it but it will say "battery not charging" but it is plugged in and it shows that it is plugged in it is just not charging but it is still not decreasing in battery power. If it is not a virus what is it and how could I stop these glitches from happening? Thank you.

Hi...
Doubtfull it's a virus or malware.
"battery not charging" but it is plugged in and it shows that it is plugged in it is just not charging but it is still not decreasing in battery power
Try troubleshooting the MagSafe adapter
If that didn't help, try Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
And since there are numerous issues, the startup disk may need repairing.
If you have Lion v10.7 insatlled, use Lion Recovery to repair the startup disk or reinstall the Mac OS X.
If you have a prior Mac OS X installed, help here > Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
And make sure there's enough free space on the startup disk. Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop.
Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.

My MacBook Pro keeps on randomly scrolling on webpages, putting several spaces when I don't press the spacebar and only sometimes makes a space when I press the spacebar. Why is it doing this? Do I have a virus?

I am currently struggling to write this due to my very erratic spacebar. When I press it, it only creates a space about two thirds of the time. When I don't press it, it creates spaces, often several, in the middle of words. This is incredibly annoying and time consuming when writing. If I'm on iTunes or DVD player, it means the media is constantly stopping and starting.
When I am on webpages they will often scroll straight to the bottom, and when I try to scroll back up it won't allow me to and the screen will look like it's jumping, like my instruction for it to scroll up is fighting against an external instruction forcing it down. This 'fighting' effect is also seen with the spacebar issue when it makes several spaces and I press backspace to try and delete the spaces.
I have a MacBook Pro bought in July 2012 using Mac OS X 10.7.5. I use ESET Cybersecurity, which hasn't identified any viruses. I have deleted all internet downloads that aren't from well-known websites, yet the problem persists. It has been happening on and off for about a week, during which time I have turned the computer on and off many times, though today it has been far worse than before. I am worried I have a virus, though can't seem to locate one.
Please, if you can shed any light on the situation, please do! I'm not a techy person at all, so there may be a very obvious reason and solution for this, in which case I apologise for this waste of time. Still, any help would be very very appreciated, thank you!

You are still under warranty. Call Apple Care. Make sure you get a case number as all repairs have an additional 90 days of warranty.
#1 - You have 14 days from the date of purchase to return your computer with no questions asked.
#2 - You have 90 days of FREE phone tech support.
#3 - You have the standard one year Apple warranty.
#4 - If you've purchased an AppleCare Protection Plan, your warranty last for 3 years. You can obtain AppleCare anytime up to the first year of the purchase of your computer.
Take FULL advantage of your warranty. Posting on a message board should be done as a last resort and if you are out of warranty or Apple Care has expired.

After shutdown I have to log in twice. The first time it starts to load, then goes black, then gives me login page again. Do you think I have a virus? Or is this Yosemite bug?

Just updated to Yosemite on my MBP. After shutdown now when I login, it starts the process (the bar starts to move), then the screen goes black, then it asks me to login again and this time it is a successful startup. Is this a Yosemite bug or do I have a virus? I also have some funny tiling on the screen at youtube and some other websites. Another bug?

Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Also see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

My internet connection works in parallels, but not in chrome in mac os10.7.2. Also, Safari won't open - it just bounces in the launch bar. Do I have a virus? I've used my laptop in 2 hotels and an airport this week.

I

You probably don't have a virus. Viruses are a ubiquitous PC thing but a rare mac thing.
Here are a few things to try to fix the situation:
1. Restart your mac. Fixes most problems.
2. Delete the preferences files for Chrome and Safari, then restart. Note, you will have to reenter your preferences. The preferences are found in Users/your user account/Library/Preferences. Lion hides the Library. You can get to it by holding down the option key and going to the Go menu in the Finder.
3. If that doesn't work, I'd delete Safari and Chrome and reinstall them.

I have a virus on my iPad that sends out bogus emails to everyone in my contact list. I don't know where it came from (email, apps not from iTunes, etc) but it sits somewhere on my iPad. Does anyone know of a scanning app that will find and eliminate it?

I have a virus on my iPad that sends out bogus emails (no subj and an URL that goes nowhere) to everyone in my contact list. I don't know how it got on my machine (email, non-iTunes apps, etc.) Does any one know of a scanning app that can find this virus and eliminate it? I have an iPad version 3 (WIFI) with 6.0.2 IOS. This scanner should be capable of running on my iPhone as well -- just in case it made it to to my other IOS machine. Thanks for your help! Steve

The chances that it's a virus on your iPad or iPhone is very slim. Who is your mail provider? it's far more likely that your address has been spoofed and it's your mail service that has been compromised not your iDevice. I know my Yahoo mail was hacked and people in my address book received spam mails that I didn't send.
have you changed the address on your e-mail account?

Does my mac have a virus?

Occasssionally over the last couple months while on the internet I notice this alert box that shows up it usually reads "about/blank.." followed by different combinations of numbers. It doesn't remain there long (i've tried to screen shot it) then dissapears. It will reappear and dissapear a couple more times and if I don't turn off my Airport controls and sever the internet connection it will eventually freeze my computer and I will have to power it off manually. I was told when purchasing the MacBook Pro that it did not need any virus protection software, however, now-a-days I realize Macs are more popular, therefore having a greater possiblity to be suseptable to newly developing viruses. My friend said I should download some AVG for Macs, which sounds good, but he's a PC man and I just wanted to check with you Mac professionals first!
Thank you, Tasha6797

You probably don't have a virus - what you may have are 'browser redirects' and you can read about them and how to prevent them at -> http://www.reedcorner.net/eliminating-browser-redirects-and-advertisements/.
Just in case you want to give your drive aa 'one-over' virus scan, I would recommend Sophos for Mac. It's good, free and comes with an uninstaller that actually works. Stay away from any commercial AV software as it tends to batter your system and can actually cause damage.
After you've done a one-time scan of your hard drive you can keep Sophos running or uninstall it - it's your call. I keep it installed just to scan my Downloads and email folders.
Good luck,
Clinton

Odd Mozilla behavior ... do I have a virus?

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