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Other => General Topics => Topic started by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 12:34:53 AM

Title: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 12:34:53 AM
I just rebooted my computer and once it started loading there was a big red circle that said " Hi."  Didn't stay there long enough for me to get a screen shot.  It had never shown up before.  Now I'm wondering where it came from.

Anyone else seen this?

Any replies would be appreciated.

Thank you.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: polonus on June 15, 2013, 12:43:56 AM
Hi -midnight,

Wasn't that Hinomaru, the flag of Japan?  ;D
Again then we have to explain that Hi away or was it a positive Hai  8)

polonus
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: Pondus on June 15, 2013, 12:50:06 AM
probably Bill Gates saying hello.   ;D

Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 01:06:17 AM
Hi polonus,

It wasn't a flag and it wasn't a Hai.  Kind of eery though.  :-\


@Pondus..............Maybe so.   :)
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: polonus on June 15, 2013, 01:14:41 AM
Wasn't it facebook's red circle?

polonus
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 01:49:20 AM
As far as I know Facebook doesn't have a red circle.  If it does, I've never seen it.   This circle showed up at the bottom of my screen while my other start up programs were loading.

-midnight
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: Simion on June 15, 2013, 03:45:59 AM
Hi -midnight

Could it have been Opera's red logo "O"?
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 15, 2013, 08:01:10 AM
As far as I know Facebook doesn't have a red circle.  If it does, I've never seen it.   This circle showed up at the bottom of my screen while my other start up programs were loading.

-midnight
Just for the heck of it, let's reboot and see if it shows up again.  If it does, then likely could be some sort of start-up process/program.  Try rebooting again and see if it is consistent in displaying on start-up, after three or four reboots. 

Not in the system tray, is it?

If it is a one-off thing, would not worry about it.  Glitch/computer.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 09:24:53 AM
Hi Simion,

Not the Opera logo.  It was solid red circle with "Hi" in white letters.

@mchain,

No, it wasn't in the system tray.  I rebooted twice last evening and it showed up both times but rebooted this morning and no "Hi."
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 15, 2013, 08:19:31 PM
I know that, in the past, it appeared as if you were downloading and installing various programs quite often. 

Could this be one of those instances?

Personally, I carefully vet all programs I'm considering before they get on my system, unless I'm told to download and run them here at this forum.  Here, at least, I'm under the trusted guidance of whatever malware removal expert, so no worries there.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 15, 2013, 09:40:59 PM
mchain

Haven't downloaded any new programs.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 16, 2013, 07:56:21 AM
Was it just a glitch?
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 16, 2013, 01:10:13 PM
It must have been a glitch because it only showed up twice and I've rebooted several times since.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 16, 2013, 06:06:14 PM
Happens sometimes.

If your system is running normally, then nothing to worry about.

Free sandboxing program here for those instances when you are minding your own business, and a drive-by attack occurs when visiting a trusted site:  http://www.sandboxie.com/ (http://www.sandboxie.com/)

Happened here one time (once is enough) and avast!, in 20 seconds, blocked 576 attempts for the 3 Trojans trying to install, and the sandboxed browser was clean after the browser instance was closed and the sandbox emptied automatically on close.  No changes to the system here or to the browser after the attack.  No need to do a system restore, nothing happened.

Sandboxie is free and can  be used to run other programs as well for protection against unwanted changes to your system.  Internet clutter and accumulated garbage is reduced, for example, when sandbox is set to automatically delete on close.  Helps keep the size of the hard drive from growing to larger sizes as the sandbox clutter never gets written to the hard drive but stays in the sandbox.  When sandbox is deleted, all data inside the sandbox is tossed trivially as if it never was there in the first place.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 21, 2013, 09:46:26 PM
It just showed up again.  It showed the red circle with HI in white letters.  I saved it to my pictures but doesn't show red circle.

Image attached

I wish I knew what this was all about.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: bob3160 on June 21, 2013, 10:30:26 PM
Which program are you using for your email ???
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 21, 2013, 10:45:28 PM
Windows Live Mail.  When I did a screenshot it showed the red circle but when I saved it to my pictures it showed what I attached..
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: polonus on June 21, 2013, 11:00:21 PM
Hi -midnight,

Did you try and search that image here? Go to http://www.tineye.com/search/

polonus
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 21, 2013, 11:10:01 PM
I just did.  It showed the image I attached but I was unable to copy and paste it.  Even though it did show the image it said 0 results found.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 22, 2013, 02:17:38 AM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: polonus on June 22, 2013, 02:22:36 AM
Hi -midnight,

A couple of more postings and you have made us all curious about this mysterious red circle  :o. First we had the mysterious crop circles  :D and now the mysterious red circle that appeared on -midnight's computer  ;D. Twilight zone, it is all out there folks,

polonus
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: Pondus on June 22, 2013, 08:39:54 AM
it could be some Surveillance program planted on Your computer by NSA   ;D
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 22, 2013, 09:28:51 AM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box


It's stored in my pictures and their are also some stored in my documents  I just typed *.gif in google search and it showed umpteen results but I don't know which one to click on.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 22, 2013, 10:05:03 AM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box


It's stored in my pictures and their are also some stored in my documents  I just typed *.gif in google search and it showed umpteen results but I don't know which one to click on.
If you actually did a google search then that is the wrong place.  Google is outside of your computer; it is on the Internet. 

What you are looking for is an internal search of *.gif files inside your computer.  You do not go out on the web to find your .gif file.

Click the Start Orb to begin.

See attached below: 

In the Search box outlined in red in the example, type *.gif   Your Search box will not be outlined in red as this is an example of where you enter the *.gif search term.

A new box will open with More Results at the bottom of the box.  Click More Results and scroll through it until you find your offending .gif file.

Find out where the .gif file is located on your system and report back.  Don't delete anything just yet.

I'm assuming you have Windows 7 on your system.  If not, let us know.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 22, 2013, 10:39:13 AM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box


It's stored in my pictures and their are also some stored in my documents  I just typed *.gif in google search and it showed umpteen results but I don't know which one to click on.
If you actually did a google search then that is the wrong place.  Google is outside of your computer; it is on the Internet. 

What you are looking for is an internal search of *.gif files inside your computer.  You do not go out on the web to find your .gif file.

Click the Start Orb to begin.

See attached below: 

In the Search box outlined in red in the example, type *.gif   Your Search box will not be outlined in red as this is an example of where you enter the *.gif search term.

A new box will open with More Results at the bottom of the box.  Click More Results and scroll through it until you find your offending .gif file.

Find out where the .gif file is located on your system and report back.  Don't delete anything just yet.

I'm assuming you have Windows 7 on your system.  If not, let us know.

I can't find Orb but I found the image.  I do have Windows 7
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 22, 2013, 11:07:54 AM
Great!  Good job!

Do the search one more time exactly as before.  After More Results, find your image and highlight that with your mouse and right-click.

A drop-down box will open and second from the bottom will be and option to click file location or something similar (not on Win 7 atm) and a new box will open where your file is located.

Please attach a screenshot of the file location box and also tell us where it is. 
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 22, 2013, 12:43:48 PM
The location and the red hi..
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But [SOLVED]
Post by: polonus on June 22, 2013, 03:23:34 PM
Hi -midnight, I may have already found it, it came via imagedonkey and it can be found in various places, look here:
http://www.tineye.com/search/dcc179e553c0e5c97223a5ede8319f563744c25c/?pluginver=chrome-1.1
Did you plan a travel to Ohio? This is the official Ohio logo!
Some call polonus  the avast webforum ferret, but at least this "hob"has found it.

polonus

Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But [SOLVED]
Post by: midnight on June 22, 2013, 03:30:02 PM
Hi -midnight, I may have already found it, it came via imagedonkey and it can be found in various places, look here:
http://www.tineye.com/search/dcc179e553c0e5c97223a5ede8319f563744c25c/?pluginver=chrome-1.1
Did you plan a travel to Ohio?
Some call polonus  the avast webforum ferret, but at least this "hob"has found it.

polonus

I've never heard of image donkey.  My husband is going to Ohio next Saturday to see his son who's in a Hospital in Cincinnati.

Don't know what "hob" means but thanks for finding it.  :)
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: polonus on June 22, 2013, 03:39:44 PM
Hob is another name for  the male ferret.

The word ferret is also a verb as in to "ferret out the facts",
and so we did...

polonus
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 22, 2013, 03:44:22 PM
Hob is another name for  the male ferret.

The word ferret is also a verb as in to "ferret out the facts",
and so we did...

polonus

Well, thanks for ferreting out the facts.   ;D
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: Simion on June 22, 2013, 03:52:23 PM
Good find, pol. TU
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: SpeedyPC on June 22, 2013, 03:58:00 PM
Good find, pol. TU

Polonus always thinks like Sherlock Holmes (http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/10404/sherlock-homes-emoticon.gif) because he's always good at searching the web ;) ;D
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 22, 2013, 09:25:25 PM
SUPER Sleuth!!!

-midnight.  Thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: mchain on June 22, 2013, 09:32:44 PM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box


It's stored in my pictures...

Find out where the .gif file is located on your system and report back.  Don't delete anything just yet.

I'm assuming you have Windows 7 on your system.  If not, let us know.

I can't find Orb but I found the image.  I do have Windows 7
Windows Start Orb attached below:
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: schmidthouse on June 23, 2013, 02:07:45 AM
Now there's some entertaining reading.
Love this forum! ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 23, 2013, 02:31:29 AM
Simplest thing to do is to conduct a search of all .gif files on your computer.  Use this for a search parameter:  *.gif   and right-click your found picture to select "more".  Select additional properties to display as needed.   Where is the picture stored?

*.gif in search box


It's stored in my pictures...

Find out where the .gif file is located on your system and report back.  Don't delete anything just yet.

I'm assuming you have Windows 7 on your system.  If not, let us know.

I can't find Orb but I found the image.  I do have Windows 7
Windows Start Orb attached below:

No wonder I couldn't find it. I was looking in my programs list.   :-[
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 25, 2013, 04:06:06 PM
Rebooted my computer a few minutes ago and was greeted with the red HI again.   I have Weatherbug and  there was a red HI with sunflowers around it and it said "Welcome to Ohio."  As I mentioned before we are going to Ohio on Sat. to see my husband's son who's in a Hospital in Cincinnati.  I find this to be a little creepy.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: bob3160 on June 25, 2013, 07:27:09 PM
If you find it creepy, get rid of Weatherbug.
You know where it's coming from. Either except it or get rid of the program that's causing it.
I think this post has run it's course.  :)
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But/The End.
Post by: midnight on June 25, 2013, 08:01:35 PM
I like Weatherbug so I'm not going to get rid of it. 
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But/The End.
Post by: bob3160 on June 25, 2013, 08:57:14 PM
I like Weatherbug so I'm not going to get rid of it.
That's fine but then stop complaining about the pop up.
Title: Re: Nothing To Do With This Board But
Post by: midnight on June 25, 2013, 08:58:46 PM
I wasn't complaining!