Computer slow problem

Pinkchick03

Hi I'm having trouble fixing my boyfriends PC. It's very slow - I mean when it boots up it takes ages (1-3 mins) to be able to click anything. The egg timer is on when you try to click START. I checked and there is 256 MB of RAM would that contribute to the slowness. There is 37 GB of space and only 7GB used, I think its' a 1.9 GB processor (not too sure about that!) and I ran the defrag tool and the disk check tool and still it's not very responsive. Could there be virus's on it? It had been used for the internet but at the moment it's not. He is looking to sell it and i'm trying to fix it so it'll work a bit better. I've re-moved files and programs to reduce the disk space used with no luck. It's also slow when you try to open any program or even slow to open the control panel!! Should I try to run the System Restore Tool or what should I do?

Any advice to what I can do next? Any advice would be great

Thanks
Pinkchick

7aken

you could be weighed down with adware/spyware. check your processes for 'dodgy' goings on. get startup control panel, a free utility which will show you all processes and applications which run when you startup. you can get it at http://www.mlin.net/ it could be handy for trying to wittle down your prob

Pinkchick03

7aken wrote:

you could be weighed down with adware/spyware. check your processes for 'dodgy' goings on. get startup control panel, a free utility which will show you all processes and applications which run when you startup. you can get it at http://www.mlin.net/ it could be handy for trying to wittle down your prob

Cheers - I'll try that - it does seem like there is some sort of virus or something on it.

Sparky

Firstly run a virus scan and a spyware scan, i find spyware doctor to be good, but find the free version on the net.
Secondly if your startup is slow go to run and type msconfig in the command line then go to the startup tag, from there you can uncheck boxes of startup programs you dont need and startup items from folders c:/windows/system32 be carefull of, those can be important at startup.
Do a few at a time then restart and see if it improves.

Also if you happen to have yahoo mesenger, ive noticed on my sisters laptop that this slows the whole startup to 2 mins, because i think it checks for a net connection at startup, which holds everthing up.

And do the usual things like
defrag
disk cleanup

Sparky.

humaxf1

a lil tip...

scandisk (error check for 2000/XP) first, then do defrag.

scanning the HD verifies links between the clusters/fragments for any one file.

once the links are verified, it then knows where the fragments for a particluar are. now is the time to re-organise them with defrag.

formatman

if you are selling on the PC , better off wiping the drive and reinstalling , less chance of come back and winge moan buyers if you miss any viruses or spyware


www.enigmasoftwaregroup.com , has a great tool called spyhunter if you don't want to wipe it , the trial won't remove the viruses or spyware but will tell you their there and give the registry locations of spyware etc

Neuro

Sounds like the PC is riddled with spyware and/or virii. I'd recommend that you download and run the following to rid it of spyware:

Ad-Aware
Spybot - Search & Destroy
Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

You should really download and run all of the above as no single program will get rid of all spyware.

To get rid of virii use this free anti-virus program:

AVG Anti-virus

If this all seems like to much hastle and you're planning on selling the PC anyway you could just format the hard-drive and reinstall Windows; this would emiminate all spyware and virii.

Pinkchick03

Thanks for all the responses - not sure if I want to re-format the hard drive - but I will if it comes down to it. It's such a pain

Oh Humaxf1 where can I find that scandisk or error check in XP?

Thanks!

davie_b

can't say much more then what was said above about spyware and system 32
a good clean install generally good 2
you can always tell whats wrong by using the task manager
that will tell if your cpu is being raped by spyware etc.

jayneemac

Pinkchick03 wrote:

Oh Humaxf1 where can I find that scandisk or error check in XP?

QUOTE]

Open a Dos box:

Start - Run - type CMD & click OK

type chkdsk c: /f


you really would be better off formatting the drive & reinstalling xp (especially seeing as you are trying to sell it on).

davie_b

i second that motion re-instal!!!!!

pickarooney

Pinkchick03 wrote:

Thanks for all the responses - not sure if I want to re-format the hard drive - but I will if it comes down to it. It's such a pain

Oh Humaxf1 where can I find that scandisk or error check in XP?

Thanks!

Reisntalling takes about half an hour and only requires a couple of clicks, whereas trying to locate the problem could take a lot longer, and it's hard to be 100% sure of fixing it.

Khannie

Steady on with the reinstall advice people! Reinstalls require new video drivers, printer drivers, etc. etc. etc.

All very well and good if you know what you're looking for.

Pinkchick, would you know what to do after you'd done the clean install to get the machine back up to scratch? (Just trying to work out your level of knowledge....you sound about the mid point of computer geekiness )

Edit: If you think you can get the machine back up and running properly, then I heartily endorse the idea of a reinstall.

stevenmu

An XP machine with 256Mb ram is cutting it kind of fine. If it's loaded up with a lot of junk this could be leading to slow startup times. Try going into Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs and removing anything you recognise and know you don't need, if you have lots of icons in the system tray after this try right clicking them to get a menu, many of them will let you disable them here. If you have Symantec/Norton anti virus strongly consider removing it an installing one of the free alternatives like AVG, at least as a test to see if this helps. Also go into Control Panel->Administrative tools->Services, this'll give you a list of services running in the background, many of which can be disabled freeing up resources (right-click on an item and choose properties to disable it). Off the top of my head, some that can be disabled are:
Automatic Updates (you should manually update windows regularly though)
FTP Publishing
IIS Admin
Indexing
Print Spooler (only if you don't print anything)
Server
World Wide Web Publishing

For a more in depth list and other performance tips see Tweak XP

Pinkchick03

thanks for all the replies

I think i'll re-install - i have all the discs I need I think. I should be able to do it without help - i hope!

Might need more help! thanks again

krz7e

yeah, reinstalling should be the last thing you do if all else fails.

Run all those spyware programs neuro has posted. I have found spybot to be the best but if you run all 3, your guaranteed to get rid of everything. Be careful using any other programs you find knocking around because many of these contain spyware in themselves!!! Its true!

also, ctrl+alt+del and check to see what processes are running in the background. you will also be able to see how much of the memory they are using. if you notice anything unusual - check it out on google to see what it is. alot of the things in here can be switched off through msconfig and then select the startup tab. Be careful in here, dont switch off anything that could be critical. Try one thing at a time and keep your patience.

Not everything that starts up when windwos loads is in this startup tab though. Stuff can also be starting up from the registry. dont mess with the registry though unless you really know what your doing. most of the stuff that starts from the registry like this is spyware etc. anyway so hopefully spybot etc. will get rid of this.

When you have solved this problem, make sure to go into internet explorer settings and configure some of your security settings to try and prevent stuff like this from getting in again. Also, if your using windows xp, you should have a firewall installed. If its not xp get something like zone alarm. This will alert you when malicious programs are trying to access your internet connection.