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Weird Phantom ad sounds on my Mac (virus?)

E

ephunit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
8
0
Hello,

I have recently been receiving a lot of phantom ad sounds on my computer. The ads will be long (30 secs or so) and then stop. They happen when I have no browsers open, or when i kill all my browser in Activity monitor they still continue....

This is one of the ad messages:

"ohh my sinuses...when mucus causes sinus pressure..."

Then it goes on to talk about:
Maximum strength Mucinex-D. There is some dialogue between a mucus-man and someone struggling with mucus.

I also get ones from Lysol sometimes.



Has this ever happened to anyone else? Can I kill this in my activity monitor--if so what process name is it? If it is virus/malware, what kind of program should I run for defense? What kind of browser add-ons might stop this from occuring in the future?
 
First, you don't have a virus, since none exist that run on current Mac OS X.

Mac Virus/Malware Info

Check Activity Monitor to see what's running. Be sure to select "All Processes" instead of "My Processes". You may find a browser running in the background, even if you can't see the window. You can sort by process name and post a screenshot here.

For ad-blocking, I use:
 
more info:

Here is a list of the total processes running on the computer right now:

windowserver
usereventagent
usbmuxd
textedit
systemuiserver
syslogd
stickies
securityd
preview
pboard
notifyd
midiserver
mdworker
mds
mDNSResponder
loginwindow
locationd
launchd
launchd
kextd
kerneleventagent
kernel_task
hidd
hdiejectd
garageband
finder
dynamic_pager
dock
distnoted
diskimages-helper (listed 5 times)
diskarbitrationd
directoryservice
dashboardclient
cvmsserv
ct_loader_agent
coreservicesd
coreaudiod
configd
blued
autofsd
applespell.service
airport base station agent
activitymonitord
activity monitor

Thats it! Which one is the culprit? Also, where might it have come from?

Resolve Stainbusters ad just blared through my speakers....sooo pissed off right now! thanks for the help!
 
Do you use AirTunes?

Any sort of special audio setups in your network?
 
Tried killing midiserver while ad was playing

...No effect.

I use audacity, not air tunes though.

Another ad for lysol.

I also tried killing the diskimages one...no effect.

Any other ideas?
 
Switch Activity Monitor to "All Processes, Hierarchical."

Post some screen shots.

Garageband?
 
Yes, list All Processes. If it is something running on your computer it has to be listed there. Unless you are streaming a mucus and pinesol ad station or something.
 
Tried closing garageband, did not work (seemed unlikely)

Here are some screenshots. Keep in mind I have tried killing Google Chrome/Opera/Firefox (I don't use safari) and all of its subs, but that did not work.

Any ideas?

(attached is screenshots of my activity monitor sorted hierarchically)
 

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Flux is not it either. What exactly do you mean by the widget dashboard?

no speakers attached, so I guess it means internal?
 
ephunit said:
Yea- I had tried closing all my web browsers (that was my first thought--maybe it was a plugin gone awry) but the problem persists....
Click to expand...
Start by closing all apps, including all browsers and dashboard widgets. Then launch Activity Monitor and start killing processes that show you as the user, until the sound stops. Make note of each one before you kill it, so you know which one it stops on. It's absolutely one of those. It's just a matter of the process of elimination until you find the right one. The worst that can happen if you kill the wrong process is you'd have to restart.
 
GGJstudios said:
Start by closing all apps, including all browsers and dashboard widgets. Then launch Activity Monitor and start killing processes that show you as the user, until the sound stops. Make note of each one before you kill it, so you know which one it stops on. It's absolutely one of those. It's just a matter of the process of elimination until you find the right one. The worst that can happen if you kill the wrong process is you'd have to restart.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan. how exactly do i know which processes are dashboard widgets?
 
ephunit said:
Sounds like a good plan. how exactly do i know which processes are dashboard widgets?
Click to expand...
Just go to your Dashboard (F4 key) and hold the Option key down. An X will appear in a circle in the top left corner of each widget that you mouse over. Click those to close each one.
 
Last edited:
In activity monitor, Dashboard widgets are labelled as "DashboardClient."

You may have fewer listed in Activity Monitor than are actually running as I do believe the default widgets are run within the Dock process as suggested by the hierarchy in Activity Monitor.

You can force quit/relaunch the Dock using Activity Monitor to cycle the state of all the DashboardClients.
 
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