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virus turns on system voice?

E

ericstjohn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2010
18
0
This is alarming because I always heard that Macs were nearly immune to virus attack. I have that Sophos thing and it didn't see anything...
but oddly my system voice is activated and "Alex" is literally speaking everything that happens from the keyboard/GUI. (By the way whatever it is has a text box outlined on this page that I can see when I use my scroll bar.)
Literally everything I type is 'spoken' to me via my onboard audio system.
Rather, every command or keystroke that happens is 'spoken' to me.
Interestingly, if I curser to a given word anywhere I'm typing- a document, anything, even here in this thread, system voice 'reads' it to me.
The only thing I can think of is that I must've gotten infected somehow.
That or I inadvertently did a keystroke command I'm not familiar with- which is most -and turned on the system voice by accident. How do I turn it off?
I wasn't even aware I had an app that talked to me in the first place.
Believe me it has gotten annoying already.

This is a work station mac. My first mac. I got it last Christmas.
PPC G5 2.3 Ghz. Dual core
OS X 10.5.8
I do music stuff and shoot files back and forth.
I downloaded a file from mediafire, and guess what I think?
Now for some help in finding free effective malware removal for my "legacy" PowerMac.
 
cmd+F5 turns VoiceOver off.

Or System Preferences - Universal Access - VoiceOver (select off)
 
panic before google?

xUKHCx said:
cmd+F5 turns VoiceOver off.

Or System Preferences - Universal Access - VoiceOver (select off)
Click to expand...
Well let's just put this in the "du-uhhhh file".
But thanks!
Consider this resolved and now open for ribbing and roasting.
Woo-hoo!!
 
ericstjohn said:
This is alarming because I always heard that Macs were nearly immune to virus attack. I have that Sophos thing and it didn't see anything...
Click to expand...
No OS, including Mac OS X, is immune to malware. Having said that, no viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:
Sophos is not recommended, as it can actually increase your Mac's vulnerability. Read the link above for more details.
 
GGJstudios said:
No OS, including Mac OS X, is immune to malware. Having said that, no viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:Sophos is not recommended, as it can actually increase your Mac's vulnerability. Read the link above for more details.
Click to expand...


OMG MAC DEFENDER AND WHATEVER THE NEW VERSION IS CALLED!!! ;)

The only way I can honestly see that getting on anyone's computer is by their ignorance or stupidity. Never download programs or files from sites you have never heard of and never run any program that you didn't download. Problem solved. :)
 
For the 3 years that I have been permanently on a Mac, I never had got one. Installed ClamXAV, but I have uninstalled it after a while. There is no use for me after all. With the right attitude and common sense you can prevent malwares or any wares to be installed. And besides I don't frequent those sites that most often wanted to have your credit card number...
 
Nameci said:
For the 3 years that I have been permanently on a Mac, I never had got one. Installed ClamXAV, but I have uninstalled it after a while. There is no use for me after all. With the right attitude and common sense you can prevent malwares or any wares to be installed. And besides I don't frequent those sites that most often wanted to have your credit card number...
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. I had ClamAV installed as well but I found it unnecessary as well.
 
I have seen two hijack type programs on snow leopard machines that were not running the latest updates..... Just in the past week. One of my co-workers even paid the $100 extortion fee to remove it from his personal MacBook. So they are out there.... I'm just not so sure they would effect a PowerPC
 
some anti virus apps can be helpful ....not all, as some are using to many resources , even if its only to protect a windows pc thats running on the same network , or to keep your emails clean ..as the virus might not cause any harm to your Mac , but you can easy spread all forms of malware that exist for windows among your windows using mates
 
robla64 said:
I have seen two hijack type programs on snow leopard machines that were not running the latest updates..... Just in the past week. One of my co-workers even paid the $100 extortion fee to remove it from his personal MacBook. So they are out there.... I'm just not so sure they would effect a PowerPC
Click to expand...
Name one. There is no malware that runs on Mac OS X that doesn't require the user to actively install it. If they had malware, they installed it themselves, or gave someone else access to their computer to install it.
MacHamster68 said:
some anti virus apps can be helpful ....not all, as some are using to many resources , even if its only to protect a windows pc thats running on the same network , or to keep your emails clean ..as the virus might not cause any harm to your Mac , but you can easy spread all forms of malware that exist for windows among your windows using mates
Click to expand...
If your Windows using mates don't have their own antivirus installed, they are exposed to far greater and more numerous threats than simply receiving a file from your Mac. If you really want to help them, make sure they run their own antivirus, rather than depend on you to keep them malware free. Windows users need to protect themselves.
 
GGJstudios said:
If your Windows using mates don't have their own antivirus installed, they are exposed to far greater and more numerous threats than simply receiving a file from your Mac. If you really want to help them, make sure they run their own antivirus, rather than depend on you to keep them malware free. Windows users need to protect themselves.
Click to expand...
This is the single biggest nail in the coffin of current Mac OSX "Anti Virus". In my opinion of course.
 
McNoob Panic Attack

xUKHCx said:
No problem :)

Now you know the trick feel free to use it on co-workers :D
Click to expand...
Hahahaha! Great idea.
Ah, my good Mac comrades! I love how warnings fly telling of common sense in downloading. It is def the best anti-whatever. The only reason I have an AV to begin with is for my rarely used VPC and it doesn't noticeably tax my system. Of course I have a 2.3 ghz dually G5 and at last count 9 gigs of ram. I simply panicked after I'd inadvertently turned on the cmd F5 Voice from Hell and couldn't google up an answer!
 
Power Mac said:
No current Mac virus turns on voices.
Click to expand...

Hi. Welcome. You're late. We already figured that out. Like most issues, it's operator error. But thanks!
If this were a Windows forum, I'd be like a Best Buy employee and ridicule you in public, but since we're civilized Mac users, I'll refrain. We play nice here, huh guys? :D
On that note, I had no idea that Sophos has root privileges. That's not good, right? And while I'm at it, I did once create a "root admin" account whilst trying to fix "that infamous Compressor/Qmaster issue" on a suggestion. It's not a bother so far, but suppose I want to put this thing back to the way it was before I began mucking with it...
How's that for a thread curve? LOL!
 
ericstjohn said:
On that note, I had no idea that Sophos has root privileges. That's not good, right?
Click to expand...
Because of that, Sophos is not recommended. You don't really need any antivirus software, but if you choose to run one, ClamXav is a better choice.
ericstjohn said:
And while I'm at it, I did once create a "root admin" account whilst trying to fix "that infamous Compressor/Qmaster issue" on a suggestion. It's not a bother so far, but suppose I want to put this thing back to the way it was before I began mucking with it...
How's that for a thread curve? LOL!
Click to expand...
It's definitely not recommended to run as root on a regular basis.
 
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