multiple AOL icons in systray...confusing...please help

[sam123]

recently aol icons have begun filling up my systray, about every five or ten minutes anouther icon appears. this is extremely frustrating any help would be nice

[GX1_Man]

Hints about your operating system, spyware/virus scanners and a lot more would be helpful. See below.

[patio]

Not much info to work on here...

[sam123]

heres some more information:
 
recently AOL icons keep appearing in my windows xp home edition systray. about every 5 or 10 minutes anouther aol icon will appear. when i hover over it with my pointer, it reads: "AOL connection available". Its normal for me to have my usual one AOL icon in the systray, but if i leave the computer on for a few hours and come back, the enitire task bar is filled up with at least 50 aol icons. If I slide my pointer across the taskbar, they will disapeer, but they will keep appearing after a time.
           I have tryed reinstalling AOl, but the problem keeps occuring. this is extremely confusing, any help would be nice.

(and hiding inactive icons on the taskbar properties doesn't help.)

[CBMatt]

Hints about your operating system, spyware/virus scanners and a lot more would be helpful. See below.

When was the last time you did a virus scan?
How long have you had this problem?
Can you think of any changes you made prior this problem?

[sam123]

I have been doing virus, spyware, adware scans constantly, no threats have been detected. I have had this problem for about a week. I have made no major changes to my computer or installed any new programs prior to this happening.

[CBMatt]

Have you tried using System Restore and rolling back to a time before this problem started?

Also...exactly which protection programs do you have?  Are all of the definitions up-to-date and are you scanning in Safe Mode?  And make sure you're not scanning with all of these programs at once.

[sam123]

all my virus scan/ spyware programs are on AOL secuity center. But, I will try the system restore idea.

what are the advantages of scanning in safe mode?

[CBMatt]

I would suggest getting AVG Anti-Spyware (it's free), updating it, and running a full scan in Safe Mode.  When in Safe Mode, malware (viruses, spyware, adware, etc.) isn't actively running because your computer is only using the essentials.  This makes malware easier to detect and clean.

[sam123]

i tryed the system restore option and it didnt solve my problem, after many attempts at going back a week, 2 weeks, and eventually 3 months, the problem still persisted. AOL icons continued to fill up my systray. I have run virus scans in  safe mode, nothing turns up.
It may be a porblem with my AOL settings but I doubt it.

[CBMatt]

Have you double-checked your settings, just for the heck of it?
Also, which version are you using and have you tried contacting AOL about your problem?

If you are using 9.0, perhaps you can try the Quick Restore.  I haven't had any need to do this myself, so I don't know if you'll need to back up your e-mail, but I would do so just to be on the safe side.