PC slow after spyware removal

[Mommio2]

Hi,
We bought our daughter a new PC running Win XP just a year ago for
college. When she brought it home last summer, it had every type of spyware
known to man, as well as, a few other annoyances! It was running like
molasses with a million pop-ups! She had never run her spyware removers or
anti-virus. I was able to remove all the offending items, but afterward,
her PC continued to run VERY slowly! I have already defragged, unloaded
unnecessary items, deleted temp and unused files, etc. Is there anything
else I can try? Thanks in advance for your help!
Mommio

 

[paulmd]

Hi,
We bought our daughter a new PC running Win XP just a year ago for
college. When she brought it home last summer, it had every type of spyware
known to man, as well as, a few other annoyances! It was running like
molasses with a million pop-ups! She had never run her spyware removers or
anti-virus. I was able to remove all the offending items, but afterward,
her PC continued to run VERY slowly! I have already defragged, unloaded
unnecessary items, deleted temp and unused files, etc. Is there anything
else I can try? Thanks in advance for your help!
Mommio

Nuke and pave. That is, Reinstall The OS. It's quicker than hunting
down a VERY elusive culprit. Since system is reasonably functional, you
can back up any important documents before starting. Also, make sure
you have the device drivers you need, before you start.

 

[Menno Hershberger]

Hi,
We bought our daughter a new PC running Win XP just a year ago
for
college. When she brought it home last summer, it had every type of
spyware known to man, as well as, a few other annoyances! It was
running like molasses with a million pop-ups! She had never run her
spyware removers or anti-virus. I was able to remove all the
offending items, but afterward, her PC continued to run VERY slowly!
I have already defragged, unloaded unnecessary items, deleted temp and
unused files, etc. Is there anything else I can try? Thanks in
advance for your help! Mommio

What Paul said. I've had people bring computers to me complaining they're
running slow that had almost no spyware at all. I've disabled everything
in the startup group and they are still slow.
Best way is to clone the drive or back up the data in some fashion and
then reformat and reinstall.

 

[PA Bear]

How have you determined that the machine is 100% clean?

Checking for/Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_Removal_and_Prevention:_Introduction
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

When all else fails, HijackThis v1.99.1
(http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
forums for expert analysis, not here.**

If the procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting this
isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.

 

[Kayman]

Don't re-install just yet and try a less radical approach first. Apart from
spyware your computer may have been infected with viruses/malware.

Download and run David Lipman's MULTI_AV, you'll be glad you did

Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go
through your FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related
files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in
Normal Mode. This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV
vendor's web site. The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit
this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or
you can download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have
downloaded the files needed for each scanner you want to use, you should
reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to
run in Safe Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and
Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more
comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm

Additional Instructions:
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm

Good Luck

 

[Guest]

Hi,

What comes to mind is O/S corruption. If your daughter's computer was a
ridden with spyware as you describe, then the malware and their removal
methods could have very well corrupted system files. Before reformatting, use
MS tools to verify the O/S system files. You may have to reformat in the end
anyway.

Perhaps your daughter should have a limited account, and you could control
spyware scans and anti-virus through a secured administrator account using
scheduled tasks. Spyware WILL happen, but one of the first steps to
preventing it is not to log in using administrative rights to browse the web.

-- Labuiacs