System Preferences Load on Dock By itself?? Is this a Virus?

[PaulaMaureen]

I currently have Mac OS X 10.6.8 on my Macbook. I updated it last week and suddenly I've noticed that the System Preferences Icon shows up on my dock. Not only does it show up once, but multiple times (currently 3 System Preferences Icons - but I have seen more of it before I tried restarting my computer). I have tried right-clicking on the icon and selecting "force quit" but it wont work. Also, when I try to simply click on the icon, it DOES NOT pull up the Systems Preferences screen. I try to drag it to the trash can or out of my dock and that doesn't do anything. Also, I see the blue dot below the icon.

I'm really scared that my computer is hacked? But clearly somethings not working properly. I'm interested in updating to OS X Lion but I would like to fix this problem first. Please help me out!! Thank YOU so much! ALso, I've tried restarting and it causes it to go away but after a while it will come back.

 

[Satcomer]

Then take all out off the multiple System Preferences icons out of the dock (leaving just one). Then go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences and find the files com.apple.dock.plist & com.apple.dock.db and move them to the Trash can. Also find the file com.apple.systempreferences.plist and move that to the Trash can, then restart.

This should reset your Dock to see if it will help your situation. Lastly open /Applications/Utilities/Console and see what is causing the problem in the first place. Launch Console as so as you see the problem and you can trace down if an old program is causing the problem.

Good Luck.