I recently bought a new Dell computer for the house and it has been running great until lately. I added a new stick of memory (256) which made a huge difference but then my wife decided to load some programs on it for the kids. They are simple learning/school programs for young children. Once she did that, the computer slowed wayyyyyy down and now takes forever to load even basic programs, e-mail, web pages, etc. I have removed the learning programs and have run Norton antivirus as well as Ad Aware and Spybot to see if there was any spyware on it since my oldest son loves to play games online. Still the computer is slow. Any ideas?
Thanks, Ken, but you have to remember, I am computer stupid. What the flip is virtual memory? I may have to get you on the phone and go through it with you.
Games online means downloading! Here's a tip, nothing is FREE on the internet. Hijack / spyware creeps know where to sit and wait, right where your kids go. Kids will click on anything to play a game. Do they also download music? When you load software read the intro, those kids prog's are known for loading additional demo's, desktop links, .. etc. Use the "Custom" choice when loading and eliminate the "extras". Your problem sounds like a hijack item with the Registry, BHO or MSIE toolbar. Have you run "HiJackThis"? If not here's the link, it's free. http://www.majorgeeks.com/HijackThis_d3155.html It's not a self loading program. Create a directory in "program files" (call it what you want, I use Hijack) then unzip the download in there. It's only one file called "HijackThis.EXE". Create a shortcut to your desktop for this file. Double click the desktop icon. Once loaded, run the "scan" then click on "save log" (remember what directory it goes in) then open that LOG file in a text program and copy & paste the log file data in here. It's going to be a long file. I'll look at it and give you a fix list. List your Operating System, Virus Checker (the one you "use", some PC's come loaded with more than one loaded as demo's), and your broadband provider. DONT CHECK ANY ITEMS & CLICK "FIX" IF YOU DON"T KNOW WHAT THIS PROGRAM DOES" If you don't understand the above and you want in-home service for a Spyware Checkup, Rom, Com, Ken & I will all give you a quote. It's cheap if you look at the time your going to spend, if your lost at this. Send a PM.
Dude, I am right down the road from you, remember? Call me at the store 662-9911. I am here until 6:00.
Hey Ken, LOL on the partners!! Just trying to give him multiple choices on "who ya gonna call". You guys aren't competion, your fellow geeks :lol: Plus, "Rom Com Ken & I" had a nice ring .. lol PS: .... DDR=Double Data Rate (RAM) A little hidden PC humor in the name.
I liked Hattie Hayridge over Arnold Rimmer. Intelligent 3D Holographic applications? Now that would be cool!
Can I get a second opinion? Hey, I tried that Hijack thing you told me to try and, according to my wife, it fixed the problem, somewhat. It found over 300 problems! GEESH! Some it fixed and others it said I had to buy the full version of the program before I could fix the others. BTW....what is WinFix? I had been getting some pop ups on my work computer from time to time with that window coming up. I ran Ad Aware and it got rid of it so I assume it was nothing but spyware.
More than likely. A buddy of mine sent me a link that shows alot of fake spyware removal tools that are actually just spyware themselves. When I find it I will post it here.
The second opinion was a joke to ther reference of ddrdan being "Dr" Dan. Actually, Ken came over last night and helped me out. It looks as though we fixed the problem. It is running much better now. Still a little slow with simple windows applications but better.
blusdrmr, I can give you a second opinion but they're twice as expensive as my first opinion ....... :lol: :lol: :lol: j/k Hijackthis should not have asked you to upgrade to fix anything? It's totally free with free updates. Here's a good link to the program. http://majorgeeks.com/HijackThis_d3155.html If your still running slow app's I'm going to give you my tool I rarely give out. You probably have a registry that's full of items that are no longer on your PC. This program will clean all the trash out. It should give you a quicker boot and have those app's running better. Put 2 tylanol in the CD tray and call me in the morning ... :lol: :lol: :lol: Seriously, the free program you need is "Regseeker", the link is below. Once loaded start the program. (make sure nothing is running except regseeker) Look in the lower left corner, make sure you have "backup before deletion" checked. Then in the menu on the left click on "Clean the Registry". Click the "OK" and sit back, this may take a while, if your PC is like most I work on. Once it's done click on the "Select All" at the bottom. Now right click your mouse on the area it highlighted and choose "Delete Selected Items". If you had a lot of entries this may take a little time also. Do a restart and see if things are running better. http://majorgeeks.com/RegSeeker_d2579.html If this doesn't do the trick we need to start looking at your system tray items.
Yeah, it did ask but there were some things that it would not fix or delete unless you have the purchased version. No big deal, it seems to be running pretty good now. Ken stopped over and we went through everything. Like I said, the strange thing was that the only things running slow were simple Windows applications afterwards. We got rid of Norton and downloaded AVG (which I have used in the past) and that took the speed up quite a bit. I had a feeling that Norton was trying to overtake the system as it usually does. I hate Norton. AVG is free and works very well. We also built a firewall that I did not have. The two aspirin the CD tray just might work, though! :lol:
Hey, Ken, what does this mean? [.ShellClassInfo] LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21787 Every time I switch to my user name, this comes up in a window. I have to exit it off before I can do anything. Also, It seems, now, that I have to re-start the computer to do anything online (E-mail, web browsing, etc.) after the computer sits all night. Very strange.
:? huh? As for the "switch"...what I mean is that I am in the ADMIN login and then I change to my personal login and that particular window pops up after the settings are loaded and my desktop comes up.
Sounds like you might have a problem with the desktop.ini file. Give this link a look - it describes the steps to take to resolve the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=330132
