Computer running SOOO SLOW

[Denise]

Hi,
i've been running my computer pretty much without problems. Recently I have
noticed a real slow down in performance. I currently have Spybot S&D, and
the purchased version of AVG installed. Thinking that perhaps one of these
programs may be causing some kind of problem, I disabled both of them, but
to no avail.
I run spyware searches and virus searches daily, which never really show up
any thing of concern. I delete cookies etc on a daily basis too. My
computer doesnt need defragged.
Could anyone give me any ideas as to what could be slowing it down so much.
I tried to access my company site to process some work stuff and it took
forever and a day to load what would normally be a couple of seconds.
My computer is only about 8 months old, Intel Core Duo CPU, Memory 2047MB,
32 Bit O.S, with a Windows experience Index rating of 5.5.
Any help or advice greatly appreciated, P.S, running Vista Professional.

Denise

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Hi,
i've been running my computer pretty much without problems. Recently I
have noticed a real slow down in performance. I currently have Spybot
S&D, and the purchased version of AVG installed.

They can and do miss zero day exploits, meaning that they can't detect
anything 100% of the time, because it's new.

Thinking that perhaps one of these programs may be causing some kind of
problem, I disabled both of them, but to no avail.

They are not the problem.

I run spyware searches and virus searches daily, which never really show
up any thing of concern. I delete cookies etc on a daily basis too. My
computer doesnt need defragged.

See above

Could anyone give me any ideas as to what could be slowing it down so
much.
I tried to access my company site to process some work stuff and it took
forever and a day to load what would normally be a couple of seconds.
My computer is only about 8 months old, Intel Core Duo CPU, Memory 2047MB,
32 Bit O.S, with a Windows experience Index rating of 5.5.
Any help or advice greatly appreciated, P.S, running Vista Professional.

Now, it may not be malware, but your symptoms seem that you have something
running on the computer that you don't know about that could be just that.
That's why you must use the proper tools to help you look, Process Explorer
is one of them.

PE will let you look at running processes. PE will also let you look inside
a running process to see what it is hosting, other processes including
malware.

PE menu Tools/View/Show Lower Pane/Show all DLL(s), which will allow you to
look at what processes running in the upper pane that are hosting processes
in the lower pane.

You can right-click a line in the upper pane and go to Properties to see
more information like what process that a given process in the upper pane is
using the most processing with in the given process.

You can also use CurrPorts to see if there is something connecting to the
Internet that you don't know about, which can be used instead of Active
Ports that doesn't run on Vista.

<http://www.windowsecurity.com/artic...d_Rootkit_Tools_in_a_Windows_Environment.html>
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

Sometimes, you have to go look for yourself and see what is running on the
computer.

 

[Denise]

They can and do miss zero day exploits, meaning that they can't detect
anything 100% of the time, because it's new.


They are not the problem.


See above


Now, it may not be malware, but your symptoms seem that you have something
running on the computer that you don't know about that could be just that.
That's why you must use the proper tools to help you look, Process
Explorer
is one of them.

PE will let you look at running processes. PE will also let you look
inside
a running process to see what it is hosting, other processes including
malware.

PE menu Tools/View/Show Lower Pane/Show all DLL(s), which will allow you
to
look at what processes running in the upper pane that are hosting
processes
in the lower pane.

You can right-click a line in the upper pane and go to Properties to see
more information like what process that a given process in the upper pane
is
using the most processing with in the given process.

You can also use CurrPorts to see if there is something connecting to the
Internet that you don't know about, which can be used instead of Active
Ports that doesn't run on Vista.

<http://www.windowsecurity.com/artic...d_Rootkit_Tools_in_a_Windows_Environment.html>
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

Sometimes, you have to go look for yourself and see what is running on the
computer.

thanks so much for replying so promptly to my problem. Firstly is Process
Explorer easy to interpret? I really am a novice regarding not only
computer performance but the running of the things too. I basically hope to
switch on and access any necessary sites and information required without
hopefully incurring any problems.
Obviously something somewhere is causing things to run slowly, so annoying
after experiencing a computer that ran so fast and efficiently! Is there
any additional info i need prior to accessing Processing Explorer?
Thanks for your time in advance

Kind Regards

Denise

 

[Mr. Arnold]

thanks so much for replying so promptly to my problem. Firstly is Process
Explorer easy to interpret? I really am a novice regarding not only
computer performance but the running of the things too. I basically hope
to switch on and access any necessary sites and information required
without hopefully incurring any problems.
Obviously something somewhere is causing things to run slowly, so annoying
after experiencing a computer that ran so fast and efficiently! Is there
any additional info i need prior to accessing Processing Explorer?
Thanks for your time in advance

If you can understand Task Manager, then PE is basically no different, but
it allows you to look deeper at what's running than Task Manager.

However, it does take a little savvy to find something being hosted by
another process that could be dubious. On the other hand, you just might see
something that is obvious. Look at what is running that is taking up the CPU
processing percentage the most other than the System Idle Process and then
go to Properties and to the Thread tab and look at what is being hosted by
the process that is using the most percentage of the process.

Also use CurrPorts as there too you may see something connecting to a
dubious site that you didn't know about and it's obvious. You can use Arin
and enter the IP into the search box to see who owns the IP that maybe
dubious.

http://www.arin.net/whois/

If nothing stands out to you, then here is my advise to you. You should take
the computer to a professional and let them find out what is slowing the
machine down, which I suspect is malware that your malware detection
software is missing.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Mr. Arnold wrote:

[snip]

You can also use CurrPorts to see if there is something connecting to
the Internet that you don't know about, which can be used instead of
Active Ports that doesn't run on Vista.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

That looks like a handy tool, thanks for the link.

You are welcomed. On this laptop I use while on the road, I have a short-cut
in Vista's Startup so I can see connections at boot and login.