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I think my Macbook Air is haunted
cnbcwatcher
Posts: 56,681
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Right, so I was sitting in the living room trying to cool down and I was surfing the 'net on my Macbook Air, as I do, when I had to put it down and go out. Anyway I left a Youtube video I had been watching on the screen and I went out. When I came back I woke my Mac up from sleep and there was something completely different on the screen! I asked my mum (who stayed in as she couldn't cope with the heat) if she had been near my computer when I was out and she said she hadn't. She doesn't know how to use a Mac. Anyway it turns out that someone or something had opened 5 random websites in the same browser tab while I was gone and nobody was near the machine.
What could cause something like this? Is it possible I've been hacked or there's a ghost in the machine? Should I take it to the Apple Store or call an exorcist? The browser is Firefox and I've had the Macbook Air a year. I've never had this happen to me on my Macbook Pro or various Windows computers (including the Windows side of my MBP). I'm running a virus scan at the moment and I'm typing from my Pro. I took two photos of the screen to prove what happened.
Any ideas?
What could cause something like this? Is it possible I've been hacked or there's a ghost in the machine? Should I take it to the Apple Store or call an exorcist? The browser is Firefox and I've had the Macbook Air a year. I've never had this happen to me on my Macbook Pro or various Windows computers (including the Windows side of my MBP). I'm running a virus scan at the moment and I'm typing from my Pro. I took two photos of the screen to prove what happened.
Any ideas?
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Hate to say it but it may be time to put on a turtle neck or 4 and aim some prayers to Culpertino before the men in the silver cars with turtlenecks come and take you for re-education
The Air tends to still "do stuff" when asleep (lid closed). Mine still does backups, checks email and so on, even when I'm nowhere near it.
It opened a couple of other websites (this forum and another) and then two Youtube pages. It was all in the same tab actually. I have a photo to prove it if anyone's interested. The lid was open all the time.
It could be! I'd better consider upgrading then. The video I was watching was from 2009 if that's anything to do with it?
Unlikely but possible.
I ran a virus check and that found nothing, but how would I know if my Mac had suddenly become a botnet? :eek:
Your mum had a friend visiting or is a secret PC user?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/04/09/apple-snubs-firm-who-discovered-mac-botnet-tries-to-cut-off-its-server-monitoring-infections/
An oldish starter thread with some links.
Someone dialing in to your PC would normally be able hide their use so again it is unlikely.
There was nobody else in the house but my mum and she doesn't know how to use a Mac. She has an iPad and Windows 7 laptop and she went on dad's W7 laptop while I was out. The sites were a few random pages and this forum was one of them! It showed up on my web history so I doubt someone was dialing into my Mac. I wasn't using Windows on it either (my Air doesn't have Windows on it but my Pro does).
No and I wasn't even in the house at the time. That's the whole point. How could Firefox open websites by itself when nobody was using the computer?
I don't know how old you are but My Gran can offer me a biscuit and then offer me a biscuit again 3 minutes later. Having completely forgotten that she had already offered me a biscuit 3 minutes earlier.
Are you haunting yourself?
Or another hypothesis I have, do you have a pet horse (or other talented pet)? I saw a youTube vid of a horse that could paint (paintbrush in teeth and it waggled its head).
Get him chatting over facetime and get some new product ideas to Tim Cook.
I'm using Firefox and I had left a specific Youtube video on the screen that I had been watching before I left. Wheb I came back something else was on the screen.
I've seen safari do this on my own MBP.
I've cleaned the touchpad, and it rarely helps. If I plug an external mouse in for a few days and then unplug it, the touchpad starts behaving itself. I'm going to make a trip to the apple store and insist on them giving me a new touchpad. Been happening for so long now.
It does but I don't think that's what it was. I had just left the computer on when I went out and when I came back it was on something else and nobody was using it. I reckon I have a ghost and the ghost has good taste
Something completely different on the screen! = porn popups