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JJ1o87

By JJ1o87
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JJ1o87

JJ1o87

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Hey Mac lovers, need some advice.

 

Every now and then my hotmail account will send out a b.s. email with a link thats obviously a virus. 3/4's of the time I get sent the email as well, but don't click the link obviously. I've also noticed over the past month my mac desktop has been acting a tad bit funny. Sometimes its a little slower on Safari and Safari will crash. Yesterday as I'm typing a term paper my computer prompted me to restart due to an operating system error or something. I was ****ting kittens to say the least because I thought I was going to lose my paper. Anyway, is there any free spyware detector or anything of that sort for Macs? I've heard of CCleaner, but I know thats for windows. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Your detailing buddy,

 

Jeff

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Team Adam's

Team Adam's

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I'm no expert, but heres what I'd do:

 

Start by running your Activity Monitor to check for any funky process's. Thats generally the easiest way to see if there is something malicious running in the background or eating up a lot of memory.

 

I'd also do a clear out of your cache, reboot, and check Activity Monitor to see if you have enough system memory available. Mine recently started to bog down, turns out my RAM was pretty much maxed on this machine for me. $50 and about 15 minutes of my time and I quadrupled my RAM and haven't had a problem since.

 

Again, not an expert... some of the other guys can chime in, but thats whats worked for me.

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JJ1o87

JJ1o87

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I thought that OS was virus proof?

 

Nah, unfortunately not. It's not virus proof, but its rare you come into contact with a virus written for MAC software. I also don't think I have a virus, I think its some spyware crap.

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Kingsford

Kingsford

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No OS is "Virus Proof". Windows, OS X, Linux, Red Hat.... nothing is virus proof.

 

First thing I'd personally do is reimage the computer after backing up my files. That way everything is 100% clean.

 

But for a typical user.... If its hotmail in a web browser and not in Mail or Entourage, I'd just change my password and see if it continues or not. Hotmail isn't the safest email provider out there.

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Joshman

Joshman

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90% of all crashes involving Safari are due to plugins, 89% of the problems with plug ins are flash related. Here are a couple ways to combat the issue.

 

Click-to-Flash - it will stop flash from loading on a website but present you with a masked box over where the flash would be, all you have to do is click the box to load the flash on the page if it's something you want to see.

 

http://clicktoflash.com/

 

If you want to get into a little more nitty gritty with the OS. Of course follow the recomendations to clear cache, and in the Safari Menu there is also "Reset Safari", do a google search for what the options in that selection do. There is this hint which if you notice Safari starting to act sluggish you can do this.

 

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100920113426884

 

One advantage to using the more recent versions of Chrome is it automatically sandboxes the Flash plugin to prevent crashes. Safari does this to some extent sand boxing all plugins trying to prevent it from taking the whole system down and just leaving Safari Vulnerable.

 

I'm a Mac evangelist, and a former Apple Retail Genius (I was the geek behind the bar fixing iPods and Computers). I hope you find this advice helpful.

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Laid GP

Laid GP

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Go to disk utility and repair permissions on your main hard drive. Reboot and during reboot hold command+option+p+r to reset the PRAM. This fixes a lot of bizarre Mac problems in my experience.

 

Also, grab a free application called Onyx, and run through the "automation" section with everything checked, then reboot. Do that every month or so.

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Joshman

Joshman

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Also, grab a free application called Onyx, and run through the "automation" section with everything checked, then reboot. Do that every month or so.

 

Great Tip, especially if you let your Mac go to sleep or power it off every night. Your Mac, like any unix system has a set of tasks it tries to run between 1AM and 4:30AM, and if it doesn't get to run those, things can get gummed up in the works.

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Kingsford

Kingsford

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Go to disk utility and repair permissions on your main hard drive. Reboot and during reboot hold command+option+p+r to reset the PRAM. This fixes a lot of bizarre Mac problems in my experience.

 

Also, grab a free application called Onyx, and run through the "automation" section with everything checked, then reboot. Do that every month or so.

 

 

Remember doing stuff like this will not get rid of any virus or malware....

 

I think people are forgetting you said your email was sending out random stuff.

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Laid GP

Laid GP

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Right, but if its hotmail it's most likely an issue of needing to change his password on the web based email than it is a virus. Sure its possible he caught a Mac targeted virus, but is that the most likely thing?

 

OP, if you seriously feel like you have a virus, best bet is to back up important documents, format hard drive and reinstall your OS.

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Laid GP

Laid GP

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Right, but if its hotmail it's most likely an issue of needing to change his password on the web based email than it is a virus. Sure its possible he caught a Mac targeted virus, but is that the most likely thing?

 

OP, if you seriously feel like you have a virus, best bet is to back up important documents, format hard drive and reinstall your OS.

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Kingsford

Kingsford

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Right, but if its hotmail it's most likely an issue of needing to change his password on the web based email than it is a virus. Sure its possible he caught a Mac targeted virus, but is that the most likely thing?

 

OP, if you seriously feel like you have a virus, best bet is to back up important documents, format hard drive and reinstall your OS.

 

 

:iagree: Totally agree. Thats why I said it in my first reply. :thumbsup:

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JJ1o87

JJ1o87

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Hey guys sorry for the delayed response. Thanks for all the replies! I'm mostly having a hotmail problem, I'm going to reset my password and see what happens. My MAC itself is just delayed on websites every now and then. But the other night scared me when it prompted me to restart due to an operating system error. I have to finish a final exam tonight, but I will definitely try some of the suggestions you guys gave me. I appreciate your input fellas.

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