weird popup when opening browser

[steves85]

Okay i have been strugling with this problem for maybe 2 months now, and had alot of different technical advice from various sites, so I hope someone here can help me.

PROBLEM: I am receiving an EA sports forum popup whenever i open Firefox to browse the web. It randomly pops up while im browsing, usually 20-30min intervals.
This happened after I installed Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 for PC. I didnt like the game so uninstalled it.

THINGS THAT HAVE NOT WORKED:
* full uninstall of game
* full uninstall of all EA games
* deleted remaining EA Sports online files and hidden files
* run malware bytes scan = nothing
* run super-anti spyware = nothing
* Trend Micro virus scan = nothing
* CCleaner delete temp files = nothing
* EA Sports tech support suggested editing the browser properties in notepad, this appeared to work for 5 mins, but no it came back.
* Cleared history and cookies and saved passwords for Firefox
* Uninstalled Firefox all together and reinstalled

Well i dont know what else to do. I havent come across any other reference to this problem on the web.

I have attached a screen shot if it works.
View attachment 4658

 

[KSoD]

You still have Registry Entries of EA stuff. Moved to proper forum.

 

[organic]

Have you tried manually searching through your registry?

I would search for things like "EA" "SPORTS" "TIGER" worth a try I guess just don't start deleting random things though.

 

[KSoD]

I would NEVER suggest for someone to just search their Registry for anything. You can brick an install faster than anything with just 1 wrong move. All it takes is a mistake in deleting 1 wrong entry or changing 1 value to make your system completely useless and have to be reinstalled. Using the Registry Editor is something that should be taken with the utmost precatuion and should only be done with proper backups made and information given on how to restore said backup before they start this process.

When you uninstalled the browser, did you happen to remove all of your profiles as well? From what i gather this is only happening in Firefox. So there is something that EA hooked specifically into Firefox to cause this. Does this happen with IE, Chrome or any other browser? You might have to remove your profile completely and start fresh with Firefox and it might not be a Registry Entry left over at all. After re-reading the post, i am sure that it isnt a Registry Entry but a hook in Firefox that is causing this. Check your Extensions and about:config pages to make sure that the options are set to the way you want.

 

[Baez]

With both the game and Firefox uninstalled, download and run CCleaner and clean your computer and registry that way. It should remove the registry files causing the popup and you can reinstall a clean version of Firefox.

CCleaner should clear any plugins associated with browsers that have been removed as well.

 

[KSoD]

Could just remove the Profile folder and save yourself the hassle.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Just delete everything in that folder and reinstall Firefox. Using a Registry Cleaner is not always the best idea. Even when it is tried and tested software like CCleaner. They dont know what Registry keys are needed for everything done on the machine. They can and will mark at least 1 entry for deletion that is needed causing you further problems. Not to mention the fact that you are fragmenting the Registry by removing these entries. Which will have the exact opposite effect of helping speed up your system. Since you are causing it to search more to find the entries.

 

[steves85]

Thanks for the suggestions. It is only firefox that does this. And no i didnt delete my profile as I was afraid of losing all my bookmarks. I will delete the profile folder now, then reinstall.

Thanks guys

 

[KSoD]

http://www.techist.com/forums/f50/firefox-3-bookmark-information-184122/

There is a topic on how to save your bookmarks. There is also the new Firefox Sync.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-sync/