Laptop shouting at me.....

HeidiHeidi

My laptop has this morning started shouting at me every five minutes or so.

It happened once recently (in the last few days), it sounded like an ad or something (can't remember what exactly it was), lasted maybe 10 or 15 seconds, but I couldn't find the source of the audio - no pop-up window had appeared, and nothing appeared to have changed.

Now in the last half hour it's happening every five minutes or so. All I can make out is "windows errors". Maybe "repair windows errors"?

Again no pop-up is appearing, and I only have my usual websites open on five different windows.

Anyone recognise this, or can anyone suggest what might be happening?

HeidiHeidi

OK - it does seem to be a pop-up, which appears at the top of the occasional boards thread when I open them. I hadn't seen this before, just heard the audio.

Does everyone get this, or have I some sort of virus/infection???

solomafioso

Are you on facebook? It's set to auto play videos that you need to manually disable.

If you're worried about ads / spyware you can install Adblock Plus and Ghostery to block these in browser.

What browser are you using, you can check for any malicious add ons to see if it's listed there (and uninstall).

HeidiHeidi

solomafioso wrote: »

Are you on facebook? It's set to auto play videos that you need to manually disable.

If you're worried about ads / spyware you can install Adblock Plus and Ghostery to block these in browser.

What browser are you using, you can check for any malicious add ons to see if it's listed there (and uninstall).

No, not FB, I disabled that ages ago.

It's definitely related to the "vibrating" pop-up at the top of a boards thread, and it is "Repair Windows Errors".

Just trying to figure out if it's me or boards that has the problem!

solomafioso

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

No, not FB, I disabled that ages ago.

It's definitely related to the "vibrating" pop-up at the top of a boards thread, and it is "Repair Windows Errors".

Just trying to figure out if it's me or boards that has the problem!

What browser are you using? (IE, Firefox, Chrome).

Sounds like an add on or just ads that are appearing.

Install adblock plus (Firefox link / Chrome link) refresh the page and see if that works.

advertsfox

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

My laptop has this morning started shouting at me every five minutes or so.

It happened once recently (in the last few days), it sounded like an ad or something (can't remember what exactly it was), lasted maybe 10 or 15 seconds, but I couldn't find the source of the audio - no pop-up window had appeared, and nothing appeared to have changed.

Now in the last half hour it's happening every five minutes or so. All I can make out is "windows errors". Maybe "repair windows errors"?

Again no pop-up is appearing, and I only have my usual websites open on five different windows.

Anyone recognise this, or can anyone suggest what might be happening?

Ads on websites can be flash based and make sounds / music etc. Install Adblock in your browser to get rid of them.

For Chrome - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=en

For Firefox - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

For IE - Switch to Chrome or Firefox

HeidiHeidi

solomafioso wrote: »

What browser are you using? (IE, Firefox, Chrome).

Sounds like an add on or just ads that are appearing.

Install adblock plus (Firefox link / Chrome link) refresh the page and see if that works.

Firefox.

It is an ad, one of the banner ones that appear at the top of threads (the current one on this thread is for specsavers). It obviously has an audio attached to it as well.

It hasn't happened for a while now, so I'm guessing that it's something that gets "into" boards before being noticed and deleted (do you like my scientific explanation?!)

Anyway, thanks for help and suggestions

solomafioso

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Firefox.

It is an ad, one of the banner ones that appear at the top of threads (the current one on this thread is for specsavers). It obviously has an audio attached to it as well.

It hasn't happened for a while now, so I'm guessing that it's something that gets "into" boards before being noticed and deleted (do you like my scientific explanation?!)

Anyway, thanks for help and suggestions

Some ads play audio, best thing to do is to install Adblock plus (linked above) to remove these.

Load up the Extension page, click on the green "Add to Firefox" link and refresh the page. Should work.

HeidiHeidi

solomafioso wrote: »

Some ads play audio, best thing to do is to install Adblock plus (linked above) to remove these.

Load up the Extension page, click on the green "Add to Firefox" link and refresh the page. Should work.

Just did exactly that - thank you both VERY much!! How did I not know about that before??

Export

Mine is shouting at me since this morning! Same nonsense. Something about repairing windows or something!

HeidiHeidi

Export wrote: »

Mine is shouting at me since this morning! Same nonsense. Something about repairing windows or something!

Frightened the life out of me the first time it happened

I've installed that ad blocker referred to by posters above, and it's got rid of the banner ads at the top of the threads, which is where the shouting was coming from. Sorted.

(sorry boards, I know advertising is your revenue!!!)

Export

I refuse to install anything further on my laptop.

HeidiHeidi

Export wrote: »

I refuse to install anything further on my laptop.

Start shouting back at it, so

Export

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Start shouting back at it, so

I just took a leap and looked around, ninja style lol........

HeidiHeidi

It's awfully peaceful without those flashy ads up the top of every thread you open.....

Just sayin'!

solomafioso

Export wrote: »

I refuse to install anything further on my laptop.

It's a browser extension. It just 'extends' the functionality of the browser you're using. It's not a separate program.

Just as a warning though, it does use a good bit of memory (if you're on an old-ish system).

Ravenid

Report the ad to the Boards.ie>Feedback forum.

There is a thread in there for reporting fake/flashing/annoying ads. The admins are fairly quick on working on it.

If you want have Ad Blocker installed that fine but consider Whitelisting boards.ie

Remember it costs money to keep Boards.ie up and the ads are there to pay the bills.

Unless you'd rather the site went pay to post

ScumLord

If it's happening on boards I'd guess you've picked up some adware somewhere. You'll need to go through your browser extensions, installed programs and run something like superantispyware to get rid of it.