Strange Happenings on MacBook Pro

[ddog66]

Hello all,

I'm look for advice on what may be the problem with my MacBook Pro mid 2012 model running Catalina ver. 10.15.7. The pc was in screen saver mode, when I returned to using the pc several hours later, the attached item (from a screen shot) appeared on the pc screen and the external drive that holds the time machine backups cannot be accessed for reinstalling an earlier session (pre screen item) so as to try to get rid of what appears in the screen shot. Last night there was a word that would scroll across the screen. Don't remember the word but the scroll also had a definition of the word. The scroll happened only once, haven't seen it again thus far. Might the pc be infected with a virus? Any help to rectify the situation would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

Just to be sure, you say it was a MacBook Pro, but then called it a "pc." PC is generally used to refer to Windows machines, where the MacBook Pro is usually called an "MBP."

As a first suggestion, turn off screen saver. Screensavers was an approach to keep the old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) displays from "burning in" an image. These screens couldn't be turned off unless the power was pulled, because the cathode kept emitting the electrons, so screensavers kept moving things on the screen to prevent the phosphors from getting burned out and not responding properly. On a modern laptop like your MBP that is not going to happen, plus, the backlight can be turned off and the screen darkened without needing a screensaver. So turn it off--go to System Preferences, Desktop and Screensaver and set the "Start After:" value to "Never." Then go to System Preferences, Power Saver ad set the "Turn Display off after..." slider to whatever you want. Mine is set to 15 minutes on external power, 5 minutes on battery. Then in the external power section, click on "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." What all that will do is set your MBP up so that if you walk away from it while on power, the screen will go dark after 15 minutes, but all it will take to wake it back up is a press on any key. On battery, the screen will go dark after 5 minutes, and again waken on key press.

OK, that is that one sorted.

There are no viruses for the Mac so you don't have one. But something may have gotten into your system that is what we call malware, or bad software. Download and run DetectX Swift from here: https://sqwarq.com/detectx/ and run it for a quick search for anything that looks suspicious. For a more intense search, get Intego VirusBarrier Scanner from the App Store and run it. You don't need any resident antivirus or malware software, just those two, run maybe once a month or so, or when you see something strange, will do the job.

 

[ddog66]

Welcome to the forum.

Just to be sure, you say it was a MacBook Pro, but then called it a "pc." PC is generally used to refer to Windows machines, where the MacBook Pro is usually called an "MBP."

As a first suggestion, turn off screen saver. Screensavers was an approach to keep the old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) displays from "burning in" an image. These screens couldn't be turned off unless the power was pulled, because the cathode kept emitting the electrons, so screensavers kept moving things on the screen to prevent the phosphors from getting burned out and not responding properly. On a modern laptop like your MBP that is not going to happen, plus, the backlight can be turned off and the screen darkened without needing a screensaver. So turn it off--go to System Preferences, Desktop and Screensaver and set the "Start After:" value to "Never." Then go to System Preferences, Power Saver ad set the "Turn Display off after..." slider to whatever you want. Mine is set to 15 minutes on external power, 5 minutes on battery. Then in the external power section, click on "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." What all that will do is set your MBP up so that if you walk away from it while on power, the screen will go dark after 15 minutes, but all it will take to wake it back up is a press on any key. On battery, the screen will go dark after 5 minutes, and again waken on key press.

OK, that is that one sorted.

There are no viruses for the Mac so you don't have one. But something may have gotten into your system that is what we call malware, or bad software. Download and run DetectX Swift from here: https://sqwarq.com/detectx/ and run it for a quick search for anything that looks suspicious. For a more intense search, get Intego VirusBarrier Scanner from the App Store and run it. You don't need any resident antivirus or malware software, just those two, run maybe once a month or so, or when you see something strange, will do the job.

Thank you very much for your response and suggestions for the "cure". It worked great! Also for the clarification on "pc" and "MBP". Prior to my MBP, I only used "pc's", both at work and home so I was more familiar with that term to cover all computers, I learned something from your answer. Your assistance was very much appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[MacInWin]

Yeah, technically the MBP and the MacBook Air (MBA) are both "personal computers" but as I said, PC is more generally associated with Windows and the MBA/MBP with Macs. Another interesting twist is that Apple never refers to "laptops." The only call them "portables" because they don't really want to encourage them to be used on a lap. The bottom case is used as part of the cooling and it puts out a surprising amount of heat even though it doesn't really get that warm to the touch. So, in reading Apple literature, you'll see "portable" but never "laptop."

 

[IWT]

@Jake,

Actually, I think Apple refers to MacBooks etc as "Notebooks" rather than portables - I checked their UK site. The reason you gave is spot on - but that doesn't stop people resting the Notebook on a cushion, on bedclothes (aggghhh) and so on.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

True, Ian, I've seen that as well. I do know they do NOT use "laptop" at all.