XP Loads Painfully Slowly

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Guest

I have a PC in my home with a pentium 2.8 processor with 512mb ram. Over a
period of a few weeks the time it take to get to the windows user logon
screen seems to get longer and longer. When you do log into windows the
start up music is distorted. I have run all the usual utilities including
defrag and chkdsk and installed new virus scanning software all to no avail.

Has anyone any ideas?

Many thanks
 
Top three reasons for Windows loading slowly:

1. Viruses and spyware
2. Too many programs start with Windows.
3. Software or hardware misconfiguration.

IMHO that accounts for 95% of all instances of slow loading.
 
Thanks for the information. But I have run Norton Anti Virus and that gives
it a clean bill of health, I believe that Norton picks up spyware as well.
So that leaves options to and three. One other piece of info that may be
useful is that on occasions the system will not read a cd in the cd rom,
could there be a hardware problem there that is causing difficulties
elsewhere?

Any further advice would be appreciated.

thanks
 
Neil

Use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall Norton AV.. if that doesn't eliminate
all of Norton, go to the Norton website for more on how to remove it
completely..

OK.. thats one problem out of the way..

Now install AVG or Avast anti-virus.. both are free.. links further down to
their respective websites..

Spyware/Adware/Scumware has become a major player in compromising
computers.. they introduce viruses, trojans and worms.. they attempt to send
out information about you, and they also slow your computer down..

The worst of it is that you probably downloaded the spyware, albeit
inadvertently..

Some basic steps to removing Spyware/Adware..

First step is to run a one shot virus remover.. I have found that McAfee
Stinger works for people.. download and run it..

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

You will also need to download Spyware removal software.. Spybot and Adaware
are available at these websites.. both are free.. download and run them..
don't forget to check for updates after you have started them..

Adaware SE - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

SpyBot S&D - http://www.safer-networking.org/

Spybot has the ability to immunize a system, but there is better for this
function, so download and run Spyware Blaster too.. again, check for
updates..

SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

If you have had your Internet browser hijacked, that is to say, you get
redirected through a search engine NOT of your choosing, you will need
different tools..

Two more excellent programs..

Ewido Suite - http://www.ewido.net/en/ ..

A trial working version is available, and they also allow for an online
scan..

You might also want to try this from Nick Skreptos.. Again, a trial version
is available..

http://www.superadblocker.com/

...and he maintains that it will remove Winfixer 2005.. That can't be a bad
thing..


CWShredder will eliminate CoolWebSearch and variants.. there is a free
download here..

CWShredder.. http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html

For other tools in the fight against spyware, visit this website and
bookmark it..

http://www.pchell.com

You must also run a firewall and anti-virus program.. here are some links
for you..

http://www.zonealarm.com .. http://www.avast.com .. http://www.grisoft.com..


Special notes on SPYAXE (courtesy of bleepingcomputer.com)

Tools Needed for this fix: smitRem.exe

Note: These instructions are a paired down version of the Smitfraud Removal
Instructions. If you feel that you only have the SpyAxe infection, then you
should proceed with these steps. Otherwise, you may want to use the longer
complete Smitfraud Removal Instructions, which will remove SpyAxe as well as
other infections at the same time.

Removal Instructions:

Print out these instructions as we will need to shutdown every window that
is open later in the fix.

Download smitRem.exe and save the file to your desktop. Double click on
smitRem.exe and then click on Start. When it is done, click on the OK
button. You should now have a folder called smitRem on your desktop.
Next, please reboot your computer in SafeMode by doing the following:

Restart your computer

After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows
icon appears, press F8.
Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear. Select the first
option, to run Windows in Safe Mode. When your computer has started in safe
mode and you see the desktop, close all open Windows.
Open the smitRem folder on your desktop and double click the RunThis.bat
file to start the tool.

Follow the prompts on screen and wait for the tool to complete and disk
cleanup to finish.
When the tool is finished, it will will create a log named smitfiles.txt in
the root of your drive, eg; Local Disk C: or the partition where your
operating system is installed. Examining that log should show that the
infection was cleaned.

Reboot your computer back to normal mode.

Pasted from <http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic36868.html>


Please return to this thread and provide feedback.. it is the only way that
helpers here can determine how effective the advice given has been..

Good luck..
 
Neil

Please check Event Viewer for Warning / Error Report in the System and
Application over the last 2 days and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click
on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This
will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report complete with links
into the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
As an update, I have unistalled Norton Internet Securuty, installed Zonalarm,
installed and run Stinger, installed and run Spywareblaster, CWShredder,
Spybot S&D and Superadblocker. Whilst there was some odd viruses or errors
there was nothing significant. So the PC is running just as slow as before.

Any more help would be much appreciated.

thanks
 
Did you also install either Avast or AVG anti-virus?.. if not, do it now..

You might also want to run Ewido online scan..

You may also have a problem with a browser hijacker.. if you find that your
searches are redirected, go to http://www.pchell.com .. bookmark the page
anyway..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


neil said:
As an update, I have unistalled Norton Internet Securuty, installed
Zonalarm,
installed and run Stinger, installed and run Spywareblaster, CWShredder,
Spybot S&D and Superadblocker. Whilst there was some odd viruses or
errors
there was nothing significant. So the PC is running just as slow as
before.

Any more help would be much appreciated.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
"Whilst there was some odd viruses or errors there was nothing significant.
"

Oh no...these are very significant. You must deal with them.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

neil said:
As an update, I have unistalled Norton Internet Securuty, installed Zonalarm,
installed and run Stinger, installed and run Spywareblaster, CWShredder,
Spybot S&D and Superadblocker. Whilst there was some odd viruses or errors
there was nothing significant. So the PC is running just as slow as before.

Any more help would be much appreciated.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
Neil

Please check Event Viewer for Warning / Error Report in the System and
Application over the last 2 days and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click
on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This
will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report complete with links
into the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

neil said:
As an update, I have unistalled Norton Internet Securuty, installed
Zonalarm,
installed and run Stinger, installed and run Spywareblaster, CWShredder,
Spybot S&D and Superadblocker. Whilst there was some odd viruses or
errors
there was nothing significant. So the PC is running just as slow as
before.

Any more help would be much appreciated.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
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