My computer has begun running ridiculously slow. I have tries running Spybot, Trend Micro virus (I have this as my virus protection), Disk Scan, Defrag, etc. Nothing has found any viruses but nothing has increased my performance either. It takes an extremely long time to power up and running any application seems like I may as well go shopping and come back and maybe by that time it will begin. Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?? Thanks in advance
You may not have any spyware or viruses, but you may have a lot of applications running in the background (Yahoo Chat, Outlook, Quicktime, etc.) Look in your tray (where the clock is) and see how much stuff you're running. You may have to click an arrow on the tray to see the hidden stuff. Decide which one's you don't really need and turn them off from starting when Windows starts.
To eliminate “Sartup” items easily use Spybot. It’s not just a spyware tool. It has about 20 tools built into it. Open Spybot, click on “mode” (up top) click on “advanced”. You should now have tab choices on the bottom left. Click on tools. Then double click “System Startup”. You can now evaluate what software will load at boot by reviewing its directory location and name. Remove the check mark if you don’t want it to boot at startup. Close spybot and reboot. _________________________________________________________ If spyware removers are not helping with a slow PC you may have a "rootkit". A rootkit is a spyware program that hides itself from the operating system so it doesn't show for the spyware software to find it. Some rootkits actually slow down the spyware finder process while it inserts itself as an accepted item. There are many free rootkit eliminators out there. I like the AVG Anti-Rootkit Beta the best. It's user friendly and has a deep seach.
Right Click on MY COMPUTER and select MANAGE. Click on the item in the left pane that says EVENT VIEWER Go the the SYSTEM log. Page through there looking for items of concern. If you lack patience, click on TYPE and scroll down to the red dots with the X in them. While there are several possibilities, I'd look for error code 7 as a starting point (Bad block). If all looks OK, maybe start going through ADD/REMOVE programs and taking out stuff you don't need or don't use. MSCONFIG, on the STARTUP tab is a good place to get a feel for how many background programs you might be running. (Since I started replying, and actually posted DDRDAN hopped in with a better version of this last tip. Go with his.)
Oops sorry I forgot to mention I already went into startup and stopped everything not necessary and it is still slower than dirt. I only have the basics running and my virus (Trend Micro). I have always had these and never had it slow like this before. This came on about 3 months ago
Have you checked in safe mode? Some things stay hidden in standard mode. My other suggestions were msconfig for startups and Add/Remove. You can download a program called "End It All". It will close processes safely and restores on restart. You could see if the computer runs faster after closing or "killing" extras and since it shows you what it closes it may lead you to the culprit.
You need to run Hijackthis and post the scan file here. here's a link for the free program: http://www.majorgeeks.com/HijackThis_d3155.html If you are familiar with "processes" under Task Manager I would suggest you check and see what processes are running right after it boots "completely". Wait for the PC to go silent. Find the memory hogs and evaluate that file name. Just type the file name into a search engine. If it's bad it will get many hits. Or you can go here: http://www.fbmsoftware.com/spyware-net/SearchApplication.html You can always do a print screen of the Task Mgr screen and then paste the pic in here and I can look at it and tell you the bad ones. In the case of rootkits look for strange file names and if "IEXPLORER.EXE" is running. Also look for multiple "SVCHOST" files running. Also, when's the last time you heard of a "named" virus alert? I don't run virus software at boot. Only a good firewall like Zone Alarm. Hackers finally woke up, viruses don't have a payout, spyware does.
