Sudden Radio Adverts on my computer?

Hi All, Just sitting at my desktop computer doing some work this morning when out of nowhere my speakers just upped and started playing music and adverts for Domestos, and other stuff. Cannot see anything turned on and it stops for a while then starts again when it feels like it..

Very odd indeed, any thoughts please?

Cheers, Martin

Ahh the wonders of technology; we're all being monitored via our webcams according to computer magazine articles so obviously it thought you looked bored & decided to cheer you up,

FWIW mine did that for a while last year, if you're on W10 then edge starts up with MSN newsfeed page, or similar & there are ads starting up as they please hence you get music/comments etc coming through look on that page for any ads playing & shut them off. IIRC You can go to 'Settings' in your control panel & look through the 'personalisation', & 'notifications' groups there is , somewhere in there, a function to turn off notifications etc.

George

Hi Martin,

It's obviously RFI breakthrough from a local source. Usually this can be cured by wrapping 10 - 15 turns of the speaker cable around a ferrite ring or fitting a 'clip-on' ferrite filter as close to the amplifier as possible.

As a quick-fix though, you could just try and wrap the speaker leads into a coil and zip-tie them, again, as close to the amplifier as possible. The leads are acting as an aerial and will pick up any strong enough signal.

As a matter of interest, does the interference sound like T.V. adverts or Commercial Radio adverts?

Colin.

Martin King 2:

We are all on the road to Domestos!

Frances:

Does not matter what OS you are using, it's the leads/amplifier that is picking up the signal, not the computer.

But I have to agree, Linux is a better system if you can get to grips with it!

Colin.

Hate to disagree with Colin but it's more likely your computer has been infected by malware than it's suffering RFI.

I'm wary of advice offered on the web because quite often it ends up asking you to pay for something when a little research would let you fix it for free. However, have a look at this website, which seems benign. If the site directs you to a commercial product like Malwarebytes, look carefully to see if they have a free download version tucked away: you may not need to cough up for the full product.

One of the reasons I prefer Linux is that it is almost immune from many security problems. Switching operating systems to cure your problem is likely to be overkill, but if you like Windows, you really have to be on the ball when it comes to security.

Please report back. I get asked to fix various family computer infections and am interested in how others get on, and how vicious the infection is. Yesterday I took less than 10 minutes to find and destroy an invader, but that was unusually easy. A couple of years ago it took me 3 working days to clean my daughters machine when she came back from university. It took me 2 days to remove just one nasty from my ex-wife's laptop. That was "fun" because she'd caught something capable of disrupting attempts to download repair software! I had to download the software on to a different computer, copy it to USB stick, and install it on the sick machine manually.

You're unlikely to need all of these but, in addition to the usual AVM, I've used these tools: ccleaner, HitmanPro, Malwarebytes, rkill, tdskiller, and the EmisoftEmergencykit.

Once cleaned up, I can recommend AdBlock+. Apart from that, be aware that when downloading a wanted thing, it may come packaged with muck. For this reason I try to get device drivers and software from the originator, and avoid the general purpose download sites pushed by the search engine.

Good luck,

Dave

Dave et al - the change to Linux is very much to be recommended, BUT, Microsoft have doubled their efforts to avoid you setting up a dual boot Linux/W10 system. Their latest version prevents access to the bios by the usual means, so the Linux installation fails. The answer, of course, is to remove W10 entirely, reformat the HD and install Linux from scratch. Have just put Cinnamon Mint on a W7 machine as dual boot and can highly recommend it.

rgds

Bill

Edited By Cornish Jack on 20/04/2017 11:30:25

This dates back to 2012 ... but is worth a look for starters:

**LINK**

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/45783-63-random-audio-playing

I'm sure the 'Arms-race' will have been ongoing since then.

MichaelG.

I've often had the life frightened out of me with random stuff coming out of the speaker.

In my case it is due to adverts on web pages, in the browser, suddenly coming alive!!!!!!!

Have had radio waves picked up through the speakers from time to time, but usually faint and garbled, and not long lasting.

Steve

I will stand corrected and eat some humble pie with a dollop of cream

I read the post as the computer not being switched on as Martin said he "Cannot see anything turned on".

I have had 'brakthrough' before now when vehicles have passed the house even though the computer was off, but the amp was on, I do not get it any more as, being Radio Amateur all of my leads, including mains leads, are filtered.

My apologies.

Colin.

I grew tired of the constant adverts on my browser. One thing i noticed was the adverts are tailored to you and match your browsing history, eg. if you have been looking at car websites, you get adverts from garages and motor factors and the like, so someone is monitoring your computer.

At the recommendation of someone on another forum, i ditched the browser i was using and switched to opera. Its very good, no adverts what so ever.

Sorry, that should have read: 'Breakthrough'. Not taken my pills yet today.

Colin.

No need to eat Humble Pie Colin, it wasn't a daft suggestion at all. I've got an HIFI amplifier in the loft that used to pick up Radio Moscow after dark.

As an aside, have you tested for problems with your workshop electronics while transmitting? The possibility that RF from a local transmitter might be squirted into your controller is another reason for not disconnecting the EMC filter on a lathe or mill. (Some people do that when earth leakage through the filter pushes a circuit breaker over the edge.)

Dave

Ah well, it's being in the loft that does it, a bit higher up you get a better signal...

Strange things radio waves and atmospherics, in the 1960's when I was stationed in Trucial Oman, if we were on guard duty at night we would take a transistor radio with us on to the airfield and in the hour before sunrise we could listen to Radio Caroline loud and clear, but as the sun began to show the signal rapidly faded. Apparently temperature layers in the atmosphere could cause the signal to skip round the earth's curvature. Not much help in solving the original query raised though.

I find following links on this site can lead to that. I just went to ebay and got an ad agian for those metal toy spinning tops that someone linked to months ago. No wonder they are so expensive the amount of adverts they are paying for.

Meanwhile on sounds from the pc I got puzzled the other day why someone on youtube would record his commentary with other people in the workshop chatting away. Finally realised a previous video in a different window was on that infuriating autoplay they introduced and sucking down a succession of videos behind the one I was watching.

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 20/04/2017 16:04:55:

"As an aside, have you tested for problems with your workshop electronics while transmitting? The possibility that RF from a local transmitter might be squirted into your controller is another reason for not disconnecting the EMC filter on a lathe or mill. (Some people do that when earth leakage through the filter pushes a circuit breaker over the edge.)

Dave"

Dave, As my 'Shack' is on the third floor of my house and the workshop is in the yard I have not been able to check that out. But an interesting test to try if I can get an AR friend to transmit using my equipment while I am in the workshop.

The only problem i have with interference is from a local telecom mast about half a mile away, across a field at the back of my property. And that is only on 137 MHz+ for the weather satellite images as it has a 'pager' transmitter. Nearly everyone I have explained it to has come up with the remark; 'Good grief, do they still use them!' Unfortunately, yes, they do around here. But then again our town is still in the 'dark ages'!!!

By the way, Martin, have you managed to find and solve your problem yet?

73 Colin.

Reminds me of a time way back in my youth when every teen thought he could be playing like Hank Marvin in ten minutes, I suddenly got a radio programme come through the speakers. (PC didn't like programme, is that me being old fashioned?)

Bill D

I experienced another source of computer interference recently, a loud buzzing sound which would appear randomly for a short while then go away. It turned out to be from a Smart meter, which was installed recently, sending information back to the energy provider. How long before every home and workshop has a live in spy?

Doug