Slow, hanging and freezing, Please Help!!

[Guest]

I have been searching these forums for an answer to my problem and have not
found it, I am also impressed at the knowledge and helpfullness of the people
on here, so maybe one of you can help. I have a VPR Matrix that is a couple
of years old, running XP Home with SP2, 2.66Ghz and 512MB(not sure if that is
usefull). I have three user accounts and it seems as though just the admin
account is affected, the others seem to perform somewhat normal. In the past
few months the system is getting slower and slower and has a tendency to
freeze or "hang", in addition I checked my most recent virus scan report and
it took 473 minutes and scanned 1,086,008 files, now I know I have a bunch of
pictures on here, but that is a ridicluos number of files. One of old
employees suspected that my system is being used as a "host", could that be
an issue? I am running Symantic Antivirus Corp. Edition and regularly run
Spybot S&D v1.2. Thank you in advance for your
help...................................

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Remove the viruses and spyware, if possible. If your computer is as
badly infected as it seems from your post, you're probably better off
backing up your data and erasing your hard disk.

 

[Guest]

OH no, is there another solution? Where did all these files come from? I just
ran a complete scan, no viruses found and ran Spybot, all good there too! I
am in the process of running Microsoft Windows Malicous Software Removal
Toll, hopefully that says something. I was just looking at my system and
realized that I have 74.4gb total space and 47.6gb free, does that help in
the diagnosis?

 

[needlove]

A few things you might try. Viruses can hide pretty good sometimes and may
not be detected by your installed anti-virus. This is Symantecs free
on-line security check so you can know for sure:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

Microsoft had this to say about multiple user acounts but I would be
careful about what processes I disabled as you will see in the article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q312058/

Finally there are things you can do to speed up XP and this article can
guide you through some methods:
http://familyinternet.about.com/od/teachingyourkids/a/speedupcomputer.htm

There is an annoying popup in the last one that you just have to wait for
it to close. It was the least annoying spam in four sites I looked at.

You can also use a search engine to look for more tips, just use keywords
like "slow XP", "xp slow", "speed up xp" etc...

If your feeling brave and want to tackle disabling uneeded services this
link is the best I've found for accuracy in description and in the
situations where the service is needed. Writing down the changes you make
to a service and doing a few at a time helps to limit the problems of
remembering what you did if you find out your system need the service
http://www.vernalex.com/tools/services/index.shtml

Just click on the service in the list to find out more about it.

Good luck


| OH no, is there another solution? Where did all these files come from? I
just
| ran a complete scan, no viruses found and ran Spybot, all good there too!
I
| am in the process of running Microsoft Windows Malicous Software Removal
| Toll, hopefully that says something. I was just looking at my system and
| realized that I have 74.4gb total space and 47.6gb free, does that help
in
| the diagnosis?
|
|
| "Ted Zieglar" wrote:
|
| > Remove the viruses and spyware, if possible. If your computer is as
| > badly infected as it seems from your post, you're probably better off
| > backing up your data and erasing your hard disk.
| >
| > ---
| > Ted Zieglar
| > "Backup is a computer user's best friend."
| >
| > Journey wrote:
| > > I have been searching these forums for an answer to my problem and
have not
| > > found it, I am also impressed at the knowledge and helpfullness of
the people
| > > on here, so maybe one of you can help. I have a VPR Matrix that is a
couple
| > > of years old, running XP Home with SP2, 2.66Ghz and 512MB(not sure if
that is
| > > usefull). I have three user accounts and it seems as though just the
admin
| > > account is affected, the others seem to perform somewhat normal. In
the past
| > > few months the system is getting slower and slower and has a tendency
to
| > > freeze or "hang", in addition I checked my most recent virus scan
report and
| > > it took 473 minutes and scanned 1,086,008 files, now I know I have a
bunch of
| > > pictures on here, but that is a ridicluos number of files. One of old
| > > employees suspected that my system is being used as a "host", could
that be
| > > an issue? I am running Symantic Antivirus Corp. Edition and regularly
run
| > > Spybot S&D v1.2. Thank you in advance for your
| > > help...................................
| >