Troubleshooting a s-l-o-o-o-w system

[J Krugman]

My workstation is practically frozen now. There are several windows
stuck in mid-draw. The system responds to mouse clicks with a lag
time of the order of minutes. This situation has occurred with
increasing frequency over the last couple of weeks.

I have contacted our local IT desk for support, but they can never
get a technician over soon enough. By the time the person shows
up the problem has resolved itself spontaneously (at the expense
of being unable to use my workstation for 1-3 hours).

In other words, I think I'm going to have to troubleshoot this
problem myself.

I have tried inspecting the load on the system using the Windows
Task Manager, but I hardly ever succeed in getting it to open, and
the few times that I do, I have not seen any program responsible
for the slowdown.

What else can I do to isolate the cause of this problem? Are there
logfiles that I could inspect to determine what's going on? Are
there any diagnostic tools besides the Windows Tool Manager that
I could use to troubleshoot this? (FWIW, I have administrator
privileges on this machine.)

TIA!

jill

 

[Chris Barnes]

My workstation is practically frozen now. There are several windows
stuck in mid-draw. The system responds to mouse clicks with a lag
time of the order of minutes.

You have at least one, and maybe both of the following problems:

virus
spyware


1) download Stinger from McAfee's website and run a scan in SAFE MODE

2) download BOTH "Spybot - Search & Destroy" and "Giant" (anti-spyware).
Install & get the updates (w/ Spybot, DO install 'teatimer'). Reboot &
run both in SAFE MODE. Consider paying the $40 registration for Giant.

3) install a quality anti-virus program such as Norton AV (in safe
mode). Set it to do automatic updates DAILY.

4) apply all updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com (not just the
critical ones).


5) understand that protecting your system is YOUR responsibility, not
your IT tech support person's.

--

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Chris Barnes AOL IM: CNBarnes
(e-mail address removed) Yahoo IM: chrisnbarnes
Computer Systems Manager MSN IM: (e-mail address removed)
Department of Physics ph: 979-845-7801
Texas A&M University fax: 979-845-2590

 

[J Krugman]

You have at least one, and maybe both of the following problems:

virus
spyware

I am sorry I didn't mention this in my original message. I have
Norton Anti-Virus, and its virus definitions are up-to-date. I
also run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware everyday.

jill

 

[Guest]

try doing a disk clean up and defragment the drive as well. I find it easier
to format the machine and reinstall the applications then to dink around with
a slow machine. Hope that helps

 

[John Wunderlich]

I have been fighting a really stubborn bug that fits your description
that doesn't show up in Adaware, Spybot, or Norton AV. It is a
randomly named .exe file, varies 700-850K in size, that puts multiple
hidden clones of itself everywhere in the system folder. I found it
using "Hijack This". To get the most help from this group, download
this program from:
<http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip>
Run a scan on your computer and save a log file. Cut and paste the
logfile in a post and you probably will get lots of help. "Hijack
This" is an elephant-gun approach and will show everything that could
even possibly affect computer/browser performance including many things
that are desirable, so be very careful if you choose to delete anything
in the list.

HTH,
John

 

[Chris Barnes]

I am sorry I didn't mention this in my original message. I have
Norton Anti-Virus, and its virus definitions are up-to-date. I
also run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware everyday.

In safe mode?


--

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Chris Barnes AOL IM: CNBarnes
(e-mail address removed) Yahoo IM: chrisnbarnes
Computer Systems Manager MSN IM: (e-mail address removed)
Department of Physics ph: 979-845-7801
Texas A&M University fax: 979-845-2590