on wifi connection, hearing AD voices in background

[Sher]

Visiting at someone else's home that has F.I.O.S. wifi. Have used this connection several times in past year using same laptops with no problems. Both laptops have about the same configuration and are just a little over a year old. Running both laptops here next to each other same as we always have in the past, but just one is having the problem mentioned below (other one works fine).

When Sony Vaio laptop (Win7 Ultimate 64-bit) boots up, within a minute or two, voices like from a radio or TV ads start up, sometimes you hear multiple stations at same time. Even when I play a movie, I will hear the voices right along with the movie voice.

Anyone ever experienced this? I have been searching my system for hours but found nothing. I downloaded hijackthis and ran it to remove some browser helpers like SweetIm and sweetpacks. It's as if internet radio or tv is playing on the laptop but I find that no place on my system. I have just been muting my sound as this is very annoying.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Disconnect the Sony laptop from the network* (but leave it in the same physical location) and see if you still hear stuff.

*you can turn off the Wi-Fi switch (if the laptop has one)
...or disable the network adapter
...or have it forget the connection
...or some other way

 

[Sher]

We have done that several times (we turn the wifi off with wifi switch on laptop) and when we turn the wifi switch back on, the voices start up again in about 30 seconds or so. As I said before, the 2 laptops are running right here next to each other and it's only the one laptop doing this. Thanx for responding.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Face it, the Sony laptop is possessed

If RF (Radio Frequency) emissions are getting into the final analog audio amp circuits, then only one laptop would most likely have this susceptibility. I would not expect both laptops to have the issue. Let's test this again, but this time, leave the Wi-Fi switch on and tell the Operating System to forget the connection to the SSID.

Having the wireless radio broadcasting can cause a "poor man's BFO" (you can Google that). This is not the best way to test because having the wireless network adapter sending/receiving data is different that just having it looking for SSIDs to connect to.

If you do not hear the voices with the wireless radio broadcasting (but disconnected), see if you can keep the laptop in the same physical location, but connect it to another SSID. Perhaps there is a neighbor that would help you out with this exorcism

All of the above is unlikely to be the cause - but possible. You might want to skip all of the above and go back to looking for a data stream. Use the W7 Resource Manager:
Go ahead and reconnect to the original SSID that was causing this issue and see if you can see some sort of data streaming on the Network tab of the Resource Manager. In the section named Processes with Network Activity, right click on one process and select Suspend Process. Give it a few seconds and if the voices do not stop, right click on that same process and select Resume Process. Repeat this for each process.

 

[ickymay]

sounds like it could be a local radio ham broadcasting at the same frequency as your friends laptop.

If you can get access to the wireless access point you could try changing the broadcast range.

 

[Sher]

To UsernameIssues-- I'm not sure at all what the voices are we are hearing. I said they were LIKE radio or TV with voice and music. In fact at one point we could hear "Family Guy", like an ad for an upcoming show or whatever.

We are house sitting for a family member, while at home we only have crappy dialup SO I really know nothing much about wifi at all and am not familiar with the term SSID. All we do when we visit here is turn on our laptops and instantly have internet through their F.I.O.S. A year ago, he gave us the pass for it but I sure don't remember it as we've never needed to enter it again.

We are fooling with the processes in the Resource Monitor as you suggested but may have messed up as the first one we suspended, the noises stopped so we ended that scvhost process and then found Internet Explorer would not open.

SCRAP THAT...rebooted and IE is ok now. BUT Music and voices started up too. Going to just run it mute for the week until they get back home and maybe shed some light on this I guess. Thanx for responding.


To ickymay-- Thanks for responding. I wouldn't want to play around with their F.I.O.S. setup, especially as we know nothing about it at all. Thanx for the suggestion though.

 

[UsernameIssues]

I totally understand about not knowing the terms. There is so many terms that only those of us who do this as a hobby and/or profession have a shot at knowing half of them. I've had to look up a few today.

See this post...
http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/296455-wifi-troubleshoot.html#post2456798
...for a screenshot showing an SSID (but don't mess with it since you do not know the key)
HSUWireless is the SSID in that image.

You probably have something streaming data into your computer at all times. If this stream continues when you get back on dial-up, then it will consume most of your bandwidth (speed). You should try to fix the issue while you have this nice connection to the internet.

If you restart the computer - but do not open a browser and exit any apps like Skype or an instant messenger app - do the voices still occur?

 

[Sher]

""If you restart the computer - but do not open a browser and exit any apps like Skype or an instant messenger app - do the voices still occur?""

He boots up the computer and opens nothing, just waits a minute and the sounds start.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Please run a scan with Malwarebytes.
If you do not have it, you can install it from here:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

Uncheck the option for the trail pro version.

Let it quarantine whatever it finds.

 

[Sher]

We ran the Malwarebytes when this very first happened and have run it a few times since, including the FULL system scan. We've done several full system scans with the antivirus as well as other apps. Methinks you prolly hit the nail on the head with your very first thought... the machine is possessed!!!

 

[UsernameIssues]

Yep, possessed sound like a good diagnosis.

You can try a clean boot:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html
If the voices stop after STEP ONE, sub-step 6 (a restart), then you know to work thru STEP TWO; otherwise, jump to STEP THREE to put things back as they were.