My Computer Screams "Happy Holiday" and I don't know why?
Specifically, we are getting a very curious screen pop up-only sound,
no video or email, or anything else.  We will be working on the
computer, and out of the blue comes the voice message "Happy
Holidays," with the appropriate background noise that makes it sound
like its coming from a New Year's Eve party. We have not observed any
actions on our part that enables the voice message (for example, we
could be looking at the computer and all of a sudden the voice message
screams out of out speakers "Happy Holidays")

We have run Norton anti virus, Ad-Aware, and about every other thing
to get  rid of it, to no avail. Any thoughts about what it could be?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 09 Dec 2004 16:22 PST

Does the computer have an instant messaging program such as AIM on it?
Some instant messaging services permit users to substitute sound
effects of their choice in place of the normal AOL sounds when users
log on or off or send instant messages. This can be rather startling
to those on the "buddy list" who receive the custom sounds
unexpectedly.

---

Clarification of Question by napper77-ga on 09 Dec 2004 20:31 PST

The computer doesn't have any IM software loaded on it ... we deleted
it b/c it is not something we typically use.  However, we do have AOL
that we use to check email.  But, again, we disabled the buddy listing
as we don't use that feature.  This was a great thought, though.  I
love this service:)

Perhaps a little *elf* jumped into your computer ;)

Too Funny ... If he comes bearing gifts ... he is more than welcome! :)

wow!

Where can I get one?

My suggestion:

1. Do a search of the contents of your computer for *.wav files.
2. Sort the results by date.
3. Focus your attention on files with a DATE CREATED or DATE MODIFIED
value that is from around or after the time this started to happen.
4. If you find a .wav file with a name similar to Happy Holiday,
Christma, New Year, etc... then you have found the culprit
5. Right click on it and then choose OPEN CONTAINING FOLDER. You will
find yourself in the belly of the beast and then you can do whatever
you feel like to slay it.

You could delete the offending .wav file and then whichever program is
causing the mischief will become mute.

It may be a stupid question, but did you run the update for adaware? 
How about using Spybot.

You might also want to try HijackThis.  I'm not sure if a browser
add-on could cause this, but if this unwanted program is on there,
there could be stuff that HijackThis can also remove.

Be careful when using these as they can cause your system to become unstable.  

If you do find suspicous files on the computer.  Do a search with them
in Google to see if you can find more info on them.

If you really can't get rid of it, just reformat your HD and reinstall your OS.

When you say 'out of the blue' I assume that means you doubt that
there is any certain trigger.  Does this only happen when you are
working on your computer or when it is idle as well?

You may want to go to the task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and look under
processes for any program you don't recognize (esp one with a festive
name).  While I dont suggest closing anything unfamiliar (it may be
something important) you could list anything you find to be suspicious
here, it may help determine the cause.  A list of what programs you
are running when it goes off would also be helpful.  As I see it, If
you aren't directly triggering it somehow, it must be runnning in the
background.

-Fractl

Fractl et. al -

Once again - Thank You for comments, they are most appreciated.  I
have tried all of them ... save the reformating of the hard disk ...
and am still hearing it periodically.

I did a CTRL-ALT-DLT and am still in the process of looking into what
all these .exe files mean. I have listed the one's that I am still
researching below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Wisp.exe
Ccapp.exe
Aduserman.exe
INSTAN.exe
MMTASK
MMTRAY
QTTASK
ALG
MSPMSPS
HPOST
WMANPSV
SYSMLCSVC
SVCHOST
SCSIAXES
NSMDTR
NYSVC
CCEVTMGR
NAVAPPSCV
SPBBCS
SMDSRV
ISSVC
CCSETGCR
EBEEVSBC
CTSVCCDA
ACSVC
LSASS

Again ... Thank You!

Thanks to http://www.processlibrary.com/ heres what I found.
someone with more experience/time could prolly fill in the blanks.
I should have mentioned earlier...any process that says SYSTEM next to
it can be ruled out.  Only the ones with a username are suspicious for
the most part.

Wisp.exe  [No information]
Ccapp.exe [Norton AntiVirus 2003]
Aduserman [No information]
INSTAN    [No information]
MMTASK    [MusicMatch Jukebox]
MMTRAY    [MusicMatch Jukebox Traybar]
QTTASK    [Apple?s QuickTimeTray Icon]
ALG	  [Application Layer Gateway Service]
MSPMSPS   [No information]
HPOST     [No information]
WMANPSV   [No information]
SYSMLCSVC [No information]
SVCHOST   [Microsoft Service Host Process]
SCSIAXES  [No information]
NSMDTR    [Norton Internet Security Mediator]
NYSVC     [No information]
CCEVTMGR  [Symantec Event Manager Service]
NAVAPPSCV [No information]
SPBBCS    [No information]
SMDSRV    [No information]
ISSVC     [Norton Personal Firewall Assistant]
CCSETGCR  [No information]
EBEEVSBC  [No information]
CTSVCCDA  [Creative CD-ROM Services]
ACSVC     [No information]
LSASS     [Local Security Authority Service]

Perhaps musicmatch is causing the problem...you may try closing it
from the tray and see what happens.  I doubt quicktime is a
suspect...but you may try closing that too.  I'll check into the other
processes when I have a bit more time.

Good luck,
Fractl