Taskbar/ Notification bar icons

[DD]

Win XP sp3

I have an unknown Icon in my taskbar, there are no indications of what
it represents, mouseover does not give any information.How can I
identify what the Icon represents. It is hard to describe an Icon but I
will try! It is a black circle with a grey fill and what would appear to
be a black four bladed fan inside the circle.
Any ideas?

Dennis

 

[SC Tom]

Win XP sp3
I have an unknown Icon in my taskbar, there are no indications of what it
represents, mouseover does not give any information.How can I identify
what the Icon represents. It is hard to describe an Icon but I will try!
It is a black circle with a grey fill and what would appear to be a black
four bladed fan inside the circle.
Any ideas?

Dennis

Is this in the taskbar (as like a minimized open program), or in the system
tray where your clock is shown? If you right-click on the icon, does a menu
come up?
Look in Start, Programs, Startup and see what's listed there. Or go to
Start, Run, type in msconfig and press enter. Go to the Startup tab and look
at the programs listed there and see if there is something new or something
you don't recognize.

SC Tom

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Win XP sp3

I have an unknown Icon in my taskbar, there are no indications of what
it represents, mouseover does not give any information.How can I
identify what the Icon represents. It is hard to describe an Icon but I
will try! It is a black circle with a grey fill and what would appear to
be a black four bladed fan inside the circle.

*Where* on the task bar? On the task bar itself, in the quick launch
bar, or in the Notification area (aka System Tray)?

Have you right-clicked the icon? That will often tell you what it is.

 

[Jose]

Win XP sp3      

I have an unknown Icon in my taskbar, there are no indications of what
it represents, mouseover does not give any information.How can I
identify what the Icon represents. It is hard to describe an Icon but I
will try! It is a black circle with a grey fill and what would appear to
be a black four bladed fan inside the circle.
        Any ideas?

Dennis

Laptop, notebook, desktop, or other...

 

[Tim Meddick]

Assuming it's what's commonly referred to as a "Tray App" (SystemTray
Application), then there *will* be a corresponding executable (.exe)
running. Open 'Task Manager' (right-click on an empty bit of the
taskbar and select 'Task Manager') and under 'Processes' look for any
..exe s you are not familiar with...

Cross-reference this list with items set to start automatically from the
two registry "Run" keys, under :


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


....also, the nature of the icon itself may give you a clue to help you
along here.


If you cannot locate the item with this method there is a helpful
program that discloses information on all startup items on your system,
available free from Microsoft called "Autoruns"

To download the "Autoruns" program click on the link below :

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Dennis,

I have seen that many times but can't put it to a particular program at the
moment. The one I am speaking of looks like a radioactive symbol.

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

[DD]

Thanks everyone for showing interest in my efforts to find out what
this icon is all about. I guess I had better give some more details. The
computer is a Notebook, actually a Toshiba Netbook running XP sp3.
Msconfig shows a lot of items I am not familiar with but I will
eventually investigate each one I cannot identify from the description
to satisfy myself that they are legitimate. The icon is in the
Notification area of the taskbar and does resemble the radioactive
symbol as Kelly described it.
Nothing happens when the Icon is either R or L clicked. Task Manager
shows a lot of .exe files I do not recognise but that is another job, I
will have to identify them.
I have run Autoruns and the icon is not shown against any of the
programs listed under 'logon' and non of the other tabs.
The Start Programs Startup folder has nothing in it at all. The first
run registry key that Tim mentions has only one entry - an icon with ab
on it and in the first column 'default'. In the Type column it has
REG_SZ and the last column 'no value set'.The second key has only two
..exe programs I cannot recognise, they are RTHDLL.EXE and IGFXTRAY.EXE .
I have since identified these as a RealTech sound card file and an Intel
Graphics accelerator file.
Any further suggestions would be welcome!

DENNIS

 

[Brian A.]

Does it look like this? http://basconotw.mvps.org/inq3.htm

Yours may not be from the same app but that one is on the toolbar in Process
Explorer. It's used to find a windows process when dragged over the open
window.

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[DD]

Sorry, very similar but it has curved lines where your icon has
something resembling springs...

Dennis

 

[Paul]

Sorry, very similar but it has curved lines where your icon has
something resembling springs...

Dennis

The icon is for "HDD Protection" and acceleration sensor. The icon
is a graphic representation of four platters in a hard drive, seen
from an angle.

Apparently, the vibration from clicking the touchpad can set it off.

The documentation here, describe is as parking the heads on the disk,
in response to a presumed drop to the floor, or other acceleration
event. A disk can withstand several times more shock, if the heads
are parked. Plus, there is no "dent" in the middle of the platter

(PDF page 117 - Toshiba HDD Protection Utility)

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/con...2346766/GMAD00199011_NB200_Series_09May01.pdf

Paul

 

[DD]

I got quite excited when I saw your message! Unfortunately, my computer
does not seem to have the Protection Utility, it is an NB100 and nothing
about the utility is mentioned in the manual and it does not appear in
the All Programs / Toshiba / Utilities Folder, all I have is the Zooming
utility. I should mention that due to other problems I carried out a
recovery and there are no other programs installed other than those that
are on the recovery partition on the HDD.
The icon was there after the initial recovery so I did another recovery
and it was still there.
I'm not sure you have the right picture of what the icon looks like,
mine looks more like a turbine blade and I cannot see what you are
describing when I look at it.

Any more ideas?

 

[Brian A.]

They're actually plus signs and triangle pointers. +<|

Are these any closer? http://basconotw.mvps.org/inq3.htm

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[DD]

The top image is much closer but still not quite right, the icon I have
is a grey filled circle with an image similar to your bottom image
inside the circle.

Dennis

 

[Brian A.]

I see it hasn't been mentioned to check in Control Panel > Add/Remove
Programs. If whatever the icon is associated with, it may be installed and
hopefully the info about it will be available.

Is/was there any Toshiba or third party monitoring utility for heat,
power, etc. installed?

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Tim Meddick]

The process-list in 'Task Manager' is not infinite.

If you had investigated each running process you would have found the
culprit by now.

The items in the System Tray (Notification Area - to give it's proper
title) have to be running processes - listed in the process-list in
'Task Manager'

If you go down the list and cross off the ones you know it isn't and do
a file-search for the ones you're not sure about - you *will* find it in
the end...

(This is how I always go about detecting an unknown process on my
computer)

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[DD]

Thanks for persisting! The icon is not in the Control Panel / Add Remove
list and no monitoring utilities are installed!
My next move will be to do what Tim suggested but at the moment time is
at a premium.

Dennis

 

[Brian A.]

Are you 100% positive that the file rthdll.exe which you mentioned in a
previous response is legitimate? I find no info that the file is a legit
RealTek audio file everywhere I searched on the net and in installer
packages. I haven't a PC near at the moment to check but I will, in the
meantime perhaps someone else will chime in if they use RealTek audio
drivers/software.

IIRC there is a virus or two that does effect RealTek files, not sure if
it was network drivers only or others.

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Twayne]

Assuming rthdll.exe is the correct spelling, there seems to be no record
anywhere of such a file. It's pretty surely not a windows file, and not
from Real.com.

I would suggest you need to throw your arsenal of AV and spyware
detectors at your system and see what pops up if you haven't already
done so. IF it's a legit file, it's going to be something very new
which hasn't shown up in databases yet, or malware. I'm voting malware
at the moment.
Even if you've already run the suggested tests, you may wish to post
which programs and their versions you've used - others may have
suggestions for other malware detectors for you to try. Run at least
three more before feeling you've done all you can do go be malware free.

Hope you'll post back the final solution.

Twayne

 

[Brian A.]

You responded to the wrong person, I do not have any PC problems nor do I
have any unknown/unidentified files on my systems.

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[DD]

Well, I finally found out what the Icon is all about, and it was
looking me in the face all the time! There is even a description of what
it does (but no explanation of how it should be used)in the manual. I am
embarrassed to say that in my enthusiasm with a new toy, I did not
thoroughly read the manual or even look hard at the keyboard. The 'F8'
key on the keyboard, in combination with the Fn key displays the Icon on
the screen. When I looked at the combination of keystrokes in the
manual, I discovered that this combination of keys is described as
'Silent mode', which is explained as "Pressing Fn + F8 can activate the
intelligent control of the CPU clock and voltage, adjusting fan noise
effectively and extending battery power." There are no hints on using
the 'Silent mode' but I assume that it is just that, a way to reduce
power usage by adjusting the fan speed.

I am concerned about the possibility that RTHDLL may be a virus from
what Brian A and Twayne have said - and the fact that I have been unable
to find the origin of the information which persuaded me that it was a
legitimate file! Since I got the computer I have had a constant run of
errors which was why I wanted to find the origin of the Icon.
I have run the online McAfee virus scan and Ad-Aware, both gave the
computer a clean bill of health. I will need to install more programs to
do more, unless there are more on-line scans I could try.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread...

Dennis