For over a month now, prince.org avatars have not been visible (for me) when I surf the site with Firefox, yet when I surf with Chrome they are intact. Under Firefox, where the avatars should be under each of our names, I only see the word "avatar", instead of the actual picture. Moreover, this is the only discussion board with avatars that I frequent that is experiencing this issue - on all the other boards, the avatars are intact under Firefox.

I've been troubleshooting for a month now; tweaking, updating, optimizing, maintaining, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, and still... no avatars while viewing the org under Firefox. By now, I am wondering if this is a site issue? Could this have something to do with the recent changes Ben has been working on? Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

Because while I've been using Chrome more and more these days, I still find Firefox better in certain instances, and would hate it if there is a problem with it displaying org avatars properly.

they work fine for me on the current release of firefox and the alpha, win7/64 on various computers, and on xp at work on ie9 or whatever. no problems on iphone either. sounds like an issue at your end. have you tried clearing your cache and/or reinstalling firefox?

unique said:

they work fine for me on the current release of firefox and the alpha, win7/64 on various computers, and on xp at work on ie9 or whatever. no problems on iphone either. sounds like an issue at your end. have you tried clearing your cache and/or reinstalling firefox?

Thanks for responding with that helpful information.

If you're seeing the avatars under Firefox on XP on your end, it must be a problem on my system only. I've done everything, including clearing the cache, but then I was about to reinstall Firefox this morning when I noticed there was a new version (21.0) that I upgraded to, but it didn't solve the problem. So now, I'm gonna remove all traces of Firefox and do a fresh install, and hopefully that should do the trick.

Thanks again for that helpful info, I'll report back with the results.

Well, completely uninstalling then reinstalling Firefox didn't work. Neither did completely uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Flash Player (...thought that might have had something to do with it). But I did some more searching, and at least found that several other people on the net have experienced the same problem with avatars not showing up on discussion boards they visit under Firefox, and they remain as puzzled as I am. As I have found, the problem seems have been popping up here and there over the past couple of years, and some have reported the problem "fixing itself".

Alas, the search for a solution continues...

I had this problem years ago, it seemed to occur for no reason...

...I tried every way to solve it...

...Then I changed my security software (I was using Norton at the time)...

...I've haven't had any problems since

Steadwood said:

I had this problem years ago, it seemed to occur for no reason...

...I tried every way to solve it...

...Then I changed my security software (I was using Norton at the time)...

...I've haven't had any problems since

Thanks for your response, it's a comfort to at least know that someone else out there knows what I'm dealing with.

I don't know why I didn't check earlier, but I just used another computer to view the org on Firefox, and all the avatars were visible. So, the problem is definitely with my main system. At this point, I'm looking into the possibility that it has been infected by a rootkit (...or perhaps some other malware). As I have recently learned, rootkits, unlike common viruses, have a sneaky way of hiding out in your system virtually undetected, and don't make themselves as obvious, although their covert operations are no less insidious. Messing with browsers and internet connections & settings is signature rootkit behavior.

For the past 24 hours or so, I've been running all the standard anti-malware programs (Malwarebytes, SpybotSD, SUPERAntiSpyware, and TDSSkiller, GMER), and actually have found & removed some things with SUPERAntiSpyware, but am waiting to hear back from some tech-heads from a technical support forum I visit to help me make sense of the log files that GMER provides after a scan of your system. I suspect, with near certainty, that there is a rootkit at the "root" of my avatar problem. The scary part is; I'm sure that playing hide & seek with my org avatars is the least of what it's doing in my system, lol.

Regarding your experience with Norton, I've been a subscriber of Norton's Systemworks for many years, and have been exceedingly happy with their software. I would hate to think that the problem had anything to do with Norton, but at this point, I welcome all suggestions. I don't even hold the possibility of a rootkit infection against Norton, because I think I may have inadvertently installed the rootkit myself several weeks ago, while toying around with some dubious software, lol.

In any event, back to work. Will keep the updates coming until I resolve this issue. Thanks for everyone's helpful input and suggestions. And uhh... I don't know... this may no longer even be in the right forum, as my problem with the org avatars doesn't seem to be a site issue at this point. Mods?

PDogz said:

Steadwood said:

I had this problem years ago, it seemed to occur for no reason...

...I tried every way to solve it...

...Then I changed my security software (I was using Norton at the time)...

...I've haven't had any problems since

Thanks for your response, it's a comfort to at least know that someone else out there knows what I'm dealing with.

I don't know why I didn't check earlier, but I just used another computer to view the org on Firefox, and all the avatars were visible. So, the problem is definitely with my main system. At this point, I'm looking into the possibility that it has been infected by a rootkit (...or perhaps some other malware). As I have recently learned, rootkits, unlike common viruses, have a sneaky way of hiding out in your system virtually undetected, and don't make themselves as obvious, although their covert operations are no less insidious. Messing with browsers and internet connections & settings is signature rootkit behavior.

For the past 24 hours or so, I've been running all the standard anti-malware programs (Malwarebytes, SpybotSD, SUPERAntiSpyware, and TDSSkiller, GMER), and actually have found & removed some things with SUPERAntiSpyware, but am waiting to hear back from some tech-heads from a technical support forum I visit to help me make sense of the log files that GMER provides after a scan of your system. I suspect, with near certainty, that there is a rootkit at the "root" of my avatar problem. The scary part is; I'm sure that playing hide & seek with my org avatars is the least of what it's doing in my system, lol.

Regarding your experience with Norton, I've been a subscriber of Norton's Systemworks for many years, and have been exceedingly happy with their software. I would hate to think that the problem had anything to do with Norton, but at this point, I welcome all suggestions. I don't even hold the possibility of a rootkit infection against Norton, because I think I may have inadvertently installed the rootkit myself several weeks ago, while toying around with some dubious software, lol.

In any event, back to work. Will keep the updates coming until I resolve this issue. Thanks for everyone's helpful input and suggestions. And uhh... I don't know... this may no longer even be in the right forum, as my problem with the org avatars doesn't seem to be a site issue at this point. Mods?

Well I'm no expert ba a long chalk...

... I just know that changing the software solved the problem...

...My system is probably crawling with bugs

...Good luck with resolving the issue

Steadwood said:

PDogz said:

Thanks for your response, it's a comfort to at least know that someone else out there knows what I'm dealing with.

I don't know why I didn't check earlier, but I just used another computer to view the org on Firefox, and all the avatars were visible. So, the problem is definitely with my main system. At this point, I'm looking into the possibility that it has been infected by a rootkit (...or perhaps some other malware). As I have recently learned, rootkits, unlike common viruses, have a sneaky way of hiding out in your system virtually undetected, and don't make themselves as obvious, although their covert operations are no less insidious. Messing with browsers and internet connections & settings is signature rootkit behavior.

For the past 24 hours or so, I've been running all the standard anti-malware programs (Malwarebytes, SpybotSD, SUPERAntiSpyware, and TDSSkiller, GMER), and actually have found & removed some things with SUPERAntiSpyware, but am waiting to hear back from some tech-heads from a technical support forum I visit to help me make sense of the log files that GMER provides after a scan of your system. I suspect, with near certainty, that there is a rootkit at the "root" of my avatar problem. The scary part is; I'm sure that playing hide & seek with my org avatars is the least of what it's doing in my system, lol.

Regarding your experience with Norton, I've been a subscriber of Norton's Systemworks for many years, and have been exceedingly happy with their software. I would hate to think that the problem had anything to do with Norton, but at this point, I welcome all suggestions. I don't even hold the possibility of a rootkit infection against Norton, because I think I may have inadvertently installed the rootkit myself several weeks ago, while toying around with some dubious software, lol.

In any event, back to work. Will keep the updates coming until I resolve this issue. Thanks for everyone's helpful input and suggestions. And uhh... I don't know... this may no longer even be in the right forum, as my problem with the org avatars doesn't seem to be a site issue at this point. Mods?

Well I'm no expert ba a long chalk...

... I just know that changing the software solved the problem...

...My system is probably crawling with bugs

...Good luck with resolving the issue

Maybe you're no expert (...neither am I, obviously), but your response and suggestions are greatly appreciated. So, thanks.

Just an update: It apparently seems that I inadvertently stepped in a hot steaming pile of MALICIOUS CODE (bunndleoffermanager.dll, anyone?), which had targeted Firefox in particular, causing the problem of the disappearing avatars, among other things.



I am currently still working on resolving the issue, but at least for now have determined what the problem was exactly. I will continue to update my progress as long as this thread remains open, in case anyone else should ever run into this same issue, so that they may use this information as a reference.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

i suggest download and running a full scan with that, and then if you don't have anti virus software install something like AVG free and run a full scan with that, and keep it runnin. run the malwarebytes one a week or so as it can pick up on stuff that anti virus software misses

unique said:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

i suggest download and running a full scan with that, and then if you don't have anti virus software install something like AVG free and run a full scan with that, and keep it runnin. run the malwarebytes one a week or so as it can pick up on stuff that anti virus software misses

That is some really sound advice, thank you for your response and willingness to help. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a piece of software that no Windows system should be without, I've been a solid user of it for about 3 or 4 years now, and it's also highly respected by most every technical support person I've ever spoken with since it's release.

Thankfully, the case of "THE MISSING ORG AVATARS" has been resolved. To make a long story short, "somehow" a conflict/issue developed between Firefox and my firewall (...I was using COMODO Internet Security). I believe I had indeed contracted some sort of malware (...I suspect bunndleoffermanager.dll was the culprit). And although my systems had dealt with the threat itself, I don't believe it did so prior to the malware making some readjustments to my default browser, causing it to display certain websites I visit (...mainly prince.org, YouTube, and Tumblr) in an unusual manner (...among other issues), possibly in an attempt to make my system less secure against further attacks.

The problem with a lot of the most insidious code being written today is that once it slips into your system, it can disguise itself so that it becomes extremely difficult to identify and remove once it begins its dirtywork. In many cases, people (...myself included) just reinstall their entire operating system to get around the complicated task of fixing these difficult problems, but I was sooooo not trying to go through all that, lol. Not today, lol.

The solution finally came down to me having to completely remove Firefox and COMODO from the machine, and doing a fresh installation of both. And THAT is what finally worked, after weeks of trying everything to get that thing figured out (...while missing everyone's lovely avatars). Now I can finally get some rest.

Thanks again to everyone who responded, your input was greatly appreciated!

unique said:

...have you tried clearing your cache and/or reinstalling firefox?

I actually HAD tried that, several times in fact, early on in my search for a solution.

One of the additional steps that I was advised to try, which I think helped to make the difference, is not merely reinstalling it after you uninstall it, but doing what they call a "clean install", which involves putting Firefox back into a different folder altogether than the one it was in when the problem occurred.

Apparently, if some sort of malicious code has targeted Firefox (...or any program, for that matter), even if you uninstall it and reinstall it back into the same location, that malicious code still knows where to find it... it's in the registry by that point. Once Firefox is reinstalled in a different location altogether, that malicious code (as evil as it is, is not all that bright) can't find that target it was written to affect. At that point, that code just becomes a piece of pointless garbage.