Win2k slow response on Dell cpi Laptop

[Guest]

I have a 256MB RAM laptop which used to operate normally.
Lately, it has been slow in response time for most
applications like Word, PPT, etc. There are no unnecessary
applications running in the background or foreground. A
recent posting here indicated that it could be due to
malware/worms/trojans.

I run hijackthis and adaware - neither shows anything that
could be suspicious. What could be wrong? Any help/pointer
would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[DL]

Do you have any AV plugins working on the Office Apps?
If so try disabling the AV, see if that cures it.

 

[Guest]

No, I dont have any AV plug-ins other than apps such as
winamp and realplayer. Incidentally, I can really see the
slowness when I shutdown - the background screen paints in
visible, vertical blocks before shutting down (but in
normal shutdown response time).


Appreciate your suggestion - any other help/pointer is
greatly greatly welcome.

Thanks.
-RT

 

[DL]

Assuming slowdown is not intermittent, have you tried running in safemode to
see if its replicated.
If it is it might indicate a driver problem, or an 'invisible' background
app.
I assume also that you have run an AV scan.
Personally I use msconfig, an ms app included with winxp, or from below, to
config startups.
http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/msconfig.html

 

[Andrew Morton]

Do you have any AV plugins working on the Office Apps?

No, I dont have any AV plug-ins other than apps such as
winamp and realplayer...

I think DL meant anti-virus rather than audio-visual when writing "AV".

Andrew

 

[DL]

Yes sorry, missed that

I think DL meant anti-virus rather than audio-visual when writing "AV".

Andrew

 

[Guest]

Hello Andrew and DL,

Thanks for the pointers so far. I also checked for Anti
Virus running in the background but did not find anything
suspicious. Maybe I am not looking for the right
names/programs?

Also, I ran msconfig and stopped "Logical Disk Mgr Admin"
by Veritas and the whole system seems to run normal but
still slower than normal Win2k operations.

Upon shutdown, I still see vertical bars being painted
from left to right before it shuts down. It shows to me
that something is slowing things down ... still.

Any other pointers?

Thx
-RT