Pop Ups that won't go

[Carolanne]

Hi Guys,
Help please.
My pride and joy iMac has just been turned off in disgrace in case it has managed to catch a virus on its travels. I was looking up the lyrics of a song, and when I went to come out of the site a pop up appeared telling me I may have won an iPhone. The only option on the pop up was a continue button, no traffic lights to close it, and behind the pop up the traffic lights on the web page have greyed out.
I closed Safari on Force Quit, website and pop up still there when I re-opened Safari.
I did a Restart and also a Shut Down - website and pop up still there as before.

I can't type anything in the Google Search bar to get on to another site either.
Is my iMac likely to be infected?
I suspect the answer is yes, but if it is, what should I do?
I don't have another Browser installed, silly of me as I have both Safari and Opera on the laptop, and without another browser I can't download AV. Any suggestions please?
Many thanks.
C.

 

[searay345]

Hello Carolanne and welcome to Mac-Help!

I hate those popups! I get those all the time and I have to force quit Safari to get rid of it. But upon force quitting Safari and opening it up again, it fixes itself.

Let's see if this helps. Turn your iMac on. Up in the menu bar, click Go. Then click Utilities, and then double click on Disk Utility. On the left hand side of the window, select your Macintosh HD from the list. Then down near the bottom of the window, click on Repair Disk Permissions. Once that's completed (might take 20-30minutes), restart your iMac and try safari again. Let's see if this helps. Let us know how it goes. Let us know how this works!

Cheers
Searay

 

[Carolanne]

Hello Searay
Thank you for the welcome and your quick response, which I have now tried.
Unfortunately it did not work.
When I clicked on Repair Disk Permissions I got a message to say Library/Java should be set to 0, set to 80, and then the computer rattled off to do its thing, so in my ignorance I thought that might be the fix.
I did a Restart, crossed my fingers, opened Safari - OH NO, there was the same website and same Pop Up.
Thank you for your help anyway, Searay, you clearly helped me to fix something else that I was unaware of and don't really understand.

I will phone our local Apple Genius Bar in the morning, and post again with their response, as this may help someone else with the same problem in the future. Meanwhile, my iMac is grounded again.

Thanks again.
C.

 

[searay345]

No problem! I do have one more idea though before you take your computer to the Genius Bar.

Open up safari again and once it's loaded, quit safari by going up to the upper left corner and clicking safari and select quit safari. But before you click quit safari, hold down the option key on the keyboard THEN click quite safari. Once Safari quits, count to 10, then open up safari again! Let's see if this works.

Good luck!
Searay

*EDIT*

You can't quit Safari the traditional way, you need to force quit correct?

*EDIT 2*

If you cannot quit Safari the traditional way like I originally said above, then use this method:

Restart your computer. Once your computer is restarted, Hold down the shift button while you are opening Safari. This should force Safari to open your default homepage!

 

[Carolanne]

Hi Searay
You are a STAR, thank you.
Holding down the Option key did not work, but holding down the Shift key did.
My Macbook is snoozing again and I am happily typing this post on my iMac.

I have just been reading a discussion on CNet about Pop Ups in response to some suggestions from their readers that this is a recent problem for Mac users who have upgraded to OSX 10.3.8, but CNet say their findings are showing that there has been a rapid increase in complaints about pop ups which are not limited to OSX 10.3.8, nor Macs in general and that it is being reported by Safari, Firefox, Camino and OmniWeb users across all operating systems. The article goes on to say that it is thought that Advertisers have found a way of getting past pop up and under blockers.

My Safari Pop Up Blocker is always turned on, but I too have noticed an increase in pop ups recently, although I have never encountered one that I could not close before. I was really starting to think my iMac had become infected.

What I would now like, if anyone can recommend a good one, please, is a pop up blocker that works, and while I'm at it, I think it is about time I stop telling myself that no-one writes viruses for Macs, and obtain some good AV software too.

Thanks again Searay, you have put a smile back on this silver surfer's face.
Now that I have found your forum I will continue to drop by.

C.

 

[searay345]

I'm so glad that worked for you! You're very welcome!

I know you were trying to look up song lyrics. May I suggest using www.songmeanings.net. I've never had a problem with that website with stupid popups. I've used that site for a long time.

What OS X version are you using again? I noticed you wrote 10.3.8. Is that correct? I'm just making sure that's not a typo. If you are running 10.3.8, I'm not sure of any good anti popup / AV software for your iMac running that version of OS X.

If you're running a newer OS X version, such as 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, then there's this software. CyberSecurity you could try using. I don't know anything about this piece of software though.

Anyway, I'm glad we've fixed your problem. Feel free to let us know how we can assist your future Mac needs

Cheers
Searay

 

[Carolanne]

Hi Searay
I'm running version 10.7.2 (Lion), I was up late last night, fretting about fixing the freeze, and typed the resume of the article I had been reading from memory. My first Mac was 10.3.8, and these numbers have always stuck in my head, and I think they must have just popped into my head as I was typing.
I am sure I checked the date of the article, I routinely do, but I suppose I could have misread it. I will have to find the article again, but on balance I think it was me typing the wrong version number.
Oh - The joys of getting older! Too much pointless information stored in the brain, its all very well having computers and now clouds too, to transfer brain data to, freeing up computer memory, but I'm still waiting for someone to invent a means of reformatting brains to make room in my head for the next 30 years worth of useless information.

Many thanks for the heads up on Cyber Security, I will look into it, and thanks again for your help last night.
C.

 

[Kaveman]

The best bit of security is to NOT be an Admin User. Most AV software is worse than getting a Trojan, and as difficult to get rid of.

There are no virus', so if you an not Admin and ensure you know what you are installing when you do enter your Admin Name and Password, you're safe.

If a Web Window won't close, just force quit Safari under the Apple Menu, no problem.

 

[Carolanne]

Thanks Kaveman,
Any and all advice gratefully received.
Carol

 

[searay345]

Actually to echo Kaveman, in my almost 7 years of Mac ownership, I've never installed any anti popup/AV software. And I've had no problems ever with trojans or any malicious programs.

Also, as a former Apple employee, I've never sold AV software to any of my customers.

And again you're welcome Glad to assist.

Cheers
Searay

 

[jennifer richards]

I have a similar (but not the same) problem!
Whenever a system pop up appears on my mac (i.e. "it looks like you're not finished on this page, are you sure you want to exit?" and you can click stay on page or leave, or "x program has encountered an error and closed" and other pop ups from the system like that, but no matter which option you click (and you can't click to minimize or close it with the tiny red and orange buttons) and no matter how many times you click either option it instantly pops up again, like a millisecond after. The only way I could get it to go away was to hard shut it down, as when I tried to shut it down properly a google chrome has crashed error message appeared and cancelled the shut down, every time.
I need my mac to upload some work that I can't transfer onto any other system. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[honestone]

You need to download two excellent freeware products. The first is AdwareMedic. It will get rid of just about all those annoying pop ups. You can get it from here:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/52105/adwaremedic

The other one is the virus checker/removal program ClamXav. You can get it from here:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15850/clamxav