I disabled McAfee Site Advisor using this forum's instructions and was fine for quite a while. The problem recurred yesterday and I was surprised to see McAfee Site Advisor active again. I have subsequently uninstalled it via the Control Panel. I suspect the Site Advisor was restored during a McAfee software update. Perhaps disabling Site Advisor is not enough.

Is it true that only the McAfee Siteadvisor users have got affected? Because I'm using McAfee Total Protection for four years without any issue like this and moreover I'm not facing any issue regarding McAfee Siteadvisor with other browsers like Chrome, IE 11 etc. So if the issue harmless (?) then we don't have to worry about it but if the issue is related to our privacy & safety then it should be addressed by Mozilla or McAfee.

Hi kaushikb2013, I don't think anyone has identified any other causes other than the SiteAdvisor add-on.

That said, reports on McAfee's forum make it sounds intermittent or related to particular sites: Strange characters (appears Chinese or Japanese... | McAfee Communities

I have the same problem too. Does anyone from Mozilla have a definitive clear and simple answer??

This is an issue with software (extension) created by McAfee, so you need to contact McAfee to get a definitive answer. Mozilla can't fix this as it is the responsibility of the developer of such software to make sure that it work properly in the current release.

Well, I have contacted McAfee about this, but got no response at all. Maybe someone else will have more luck? By the way, I don't have any issues with the site-advisor in IE or Firefox either!

After getting a written response back from Mozilla this was a McAfee issue....I went to McAfee support on this today ( Jan 30, 2015 ) through a chat session. They checked for junk programs, then reset my Mozilla Firefox to default settings. So far all is well.

Here is part of the copied chat session with McAfee support:

Satishkumar B (08:24:45): Is there any additional assistance you need for your McAfee products today?

Customer (08:25:14): Is there a special address I need to go to to get back to your support on this issue?

Satishkumar B (08:26:09): Please be informed that this is not the issue with McAfee and this is browser issue due to visiting re-directing sites. Please contact us back by visiting service.mcafee.com for McAfee support.

Customer (08:26:29): thank you for your help

Satishkumar B (08:27:11): You are welcome, Rick. Satishkumar B (08:27:13): Rick, you came with browser issue and I searched for junk applications and reset mozilla in your computer.

Customer (08:27:32): thank you

Update 1/31/2015: On day two after having McAfee tech support remote into my desktop and make changes for me. I have not had the floating Asian characters return. This is the longest time span I have had without the interruption since it started. Will update again in a few days. Using Mozilla for everything to test things out.

Update 2/3/2015: This has been eliminated since McAfee support remoted into my computer and did what ever they did. I had tried this on my own with no success. They said they reset my Firefox back to default and that was it. I had already tried that but perhaps not in the same way. When McAfee did it I lost all my bookmarks, extra tool bars. etc. I have not added any add-ons or bookmarks since then. I have been clear of the problem now since January 30th. (5 DAYS). I suggest if you can't correct it on your own, call or chat with McAfee. They did mine thru a chat session and remoted into my computer. There was no charge for doing it. They were quick....the whole process took less than 15 minutes. NOTE: My McAfee Total Protection is on and working.

Update 3/2/15: I have been clear of the problem since my original contact and help from McAfee chat support.

I have disabled Site Advisor and it worked fine for a couple of days, now those chinese characters are back and Site Advisor is still turned off, so the problem cannot be caused by McAfee Site Advisor

Visiting re-directing sites? Well, I had thought of that, because I have indeed been visiting some obscure asian sites lately, and the floating characters are asian, aren't they? I am very curious to hear if resetting to default really helps in the long term! I'll wait a while to hear what the result is, cause I'll have to re-install most of my add-ons after resetting.

Disabled the McAfee Site adviser and reset the FF defaults and continue to get the floating characters!

@vabrant & Bfuddled49: in this case, uninstall siteadvisor! http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100162

philipp said

@vabrant & Bfuddled49: in this case, uninstall siteadvisor! http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100162

I rather use another browser, won't go without site advisor, thanks all the same

Try to disable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox. Then re-enable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox another time.

cor-el said

Try to disable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox. Then re-enable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox another time.

Seems to be working, thanks

vabrant said

cor-el said

Try to disable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox. Then re-enable the SiteAdvisor and close and restart Firefox another time.

Seems to be working, thanks

These chinese characters are back again and now even without Site Advisor (it has been uninstalled). Defenitely there is something else.

@vabrant: in this case it's a different issue - please open a new question and include your troubleshooting information. thank you!

philipp said

@vabrant: in this case it's a different issue - please open a new question and include your troubleshooting information. thank you!

Thank you but this whole thing is becoming rather time consuming. Switiching back to IE

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

I doubt that this is a Mcfee issue.

The chinese characters are sex related. I cut some out and processed them with OCR software. Worked so far, that I could see girls were offering what they claimed was marriage. The characters were recognisable as chinese of some sort. So, chinese girls.

Regarding what it is. It is something that relates to the graphic curves that create a tab in Firefox. The one around where you read what is in a tab. Both the upward going and the downward going. Presently I have one tab with the chinese characters. The same set of characters on both ends of the tab. If I choose another tab to be active, the characters moves to that tab. If I point on the active tab, and while holding down the left button on the mouse, move that tab right or left, the characters follows the tab as it exchange place with the other tabs.

I have several times seen that tabs sort of gets stretched across my screen. Incredible annoying, especially if several tabs are infected. But also an indication that this is related to the firefox graphics. The "sick" tabs are transparent, I can see the other tabs behind them, and operate those tabs. The characters change from time to time. Seems some action on some homepages activates an "update" of the chinese characters.

So far as I can see, this has something to do with a tab being active, and is connected to to the graphic parts of the firefox tabs.

This also fits the description above where another user had Firefox reset by Mcfee. They must have replaced some corrupted file with the standard Firefox file.

Does anyone here know what files are used to create Firefox tabs?

Hi Mikedenmark, I'm not sure about that translation!

Anyway, the style rules for the user interface are compressed into a single large archive, so it's not likely that McAfee could replace or tamper with those rules without a great deal of trouble.

If you think your installation could be damaged, though, you can replace the program files without touching your settings files. Important: do NOT uninstall Firefox first. That is not needed.

Clean Reinstall on Windows

(1) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 36 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)

(2) Exit out of Firefox.

(3) Rename the program folder

(64-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

(32-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(4) Run the installer you downloaded in #1. It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

• \OldFirefox\Plugins
• \OldFirefox\browser\plugins