Unable to remove/force quit System Preferences from Dock

[PaulaMaureen]

I currently have Mac OS X 10.6.8 on my Macbook. I update it yesterday 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!

 

[DeltaMac]

Is there any change if you restart your Mac?

Check in your System Preferences/accounts pane, then Login Items.
What items are listed there? if you see System Preferences there, click on that item, then drag it out that window, or just press your delete key.
If you still have multiple copies showing in the dock, restart into Safe Boot mode (Restart while holding shift), which will take you to a login screen, so log in to your user. If multiple items appear in the dock, try dragging the extras out. - Then, restart to boot normally.

 

[PaulaMaureen]

There is no change when I restart my Mac. The dock looks completely normal. I checked my System Preferences/accountspane/login items and didn't see system preferences there. I restarted my computer in Safe Boot Mode and the icons are not there anymore. I restarted it normally aswell - still not there. So it did fix the problem of them being there, but I'm not as of why they even get there so I will try to observer as of when/how/why it comes up.

Thank you! If you have any idea as of how and why it comes up please let me know?