G
Guest
Hello. I need the help of an experienced xp user. I have been experiencing some strange behavior from my pc. Here is the chronology of what steps I have taken as a result of the problems I have encountered. The first problem took place after I downloaded Spybot about two weeks ago. After I ran Spybot, it seemed like I actually got more popups than before I dl and ran it, so I did a System Restore to a few days before I dl the program. After I did that, I lost my dsl connection. After a few hours on the phone with Dell and SBC tech support, it was determined to be a socket error. I went into the registry editor, deleted winsock and winsock2. I also changed the tcp/ip, which got the dsl connection back.
The next day, my gf (there are 2 user accounts on the pc- my gf, and I) was copying files into a folder, and I think she either copied about 1000 copies of it, or some kind of copying error occurred. After that, the computer got really slow. I ran Symantec Anti-Virus 2003 (with the latest update), and there were no viruses found. I also ran Spykiller, which found about 60 spyware programs and removed them, but that didn't solve the problem. The slow and sluggish issue is mostly during login, but overall, the computer is very slow.
Over the next two days, I defragmented the hard drive, ran msconfig to see what programs were running in startup, ran the registry editor to clean up any remnants of the removed programs, ran chkdsk, ran Symantec again in safe mode, dl Mcafee Stinger, all which did not help. I also changed the settings on ie to the recommended safe settings. During these attempts at fixing the desktop, I encountered several "Windows is running low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the virtual memory. Several applications may be unable to run as a result", or something to that effect. When I try to login now, I either get that message, or I will get a "Due to a lack of system resources, Windows will log in as a default account".
I tried to get the latest critical updates (the critical update check I did was on 7/1), but since windows logs me on as a default account, and not an administrator account, I can't get the latest updates (I also tried right clicking on Windows Update from the All Programs Start Menu option, but I got the "An Error Occured (IE xxxxx-xxxxx)" (I can get the exact error message if that will help). A lot of those error messages have been popping up as well.
I would appreciate any and all suggestions and help. Thank you for your time.
The next day, my gf (there are 2 user accounts on the pc- my gf, and I) was copying files into a folder, and I think she either copied about 1000 copies of it, or some kind of copying error occurred. After that, the computer got really slow. I ran Symantec Anti-Virus 2003 (with the latest update), and there were no viruses found. I also ran Spykiller, which found about 60 spyware programs and removed them, but that didn't solve the problem. The slow and sluggish issue is mostly during login, but overall, the computer is very slow.
Over the next two days, I defragmented the hard drive, ran msconfig to see what programs were running in startup, ran the registry editor to clean up any remnants of the removed programs, ran chkdsk, ran Symantec again in safe mode, dl Mcafee Stinger, all which did not help. I also changed the settings on ie to the recommended safe settings. During these attempts at fixing the desktop, I encountered several "Windows is running low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the virtual memory. Several applications may be unable to run as a result", or something to that effect. When I try to login now, I either get that message, or I will get a "Due to a lack of system resources, Windows will log in as a default account".
I tried to get the latest critical updates (the critical update check I did was on 7/1), but since windows logs me on as a default account, and not an administrator account, I can't get the latest updates (I also tried right clicking on Windows Update from the All Programs Start Menu option, but I got the "An Error Occured (IE xxxxx-xxxxx)" (I can get the exact error message if that will help). A lot of those error messages have been popping up as well.
I would appreciate any and all suggestions and help. Thank you for your time.