The Proxomitron can kill popups and ads and do a lot more. Lots of room to customize so it clears what you don't want and ignores what you do. It rocks.
I've been using Linux/Vim for about 6 years now and have never had this problem. I just changed jobs, and installed RedHat 7.1. I seem to have lost my history in vim. Hitting up or down arrow yields ...