PC getting really slow

[ajames942]

your serious??

if you get online at all, chances are you have something. maybe not a virus, but something. malware, adware, spyware, something.

Beason, I still have antivius software lol. I was just meant its so slow, i couldnt even download a virus lol. But i still have all the stuff i need to prevent them, and all i go on is RCNT so if i get a virus, i know where it came from lol! jk haha

 

[flm_savage]

I deal with malware, viruses, and botnets on a daily basis for work. I also employ exploit researchers whose job is to look for and write exploit payloads for holes in applications, protocols, etc. I collect "in the wild" viruses as a hobby to analyze the code.

If you have any questions about viruses or malware, please let me know. Earlier recommendations of AVG, Spybot S&D, and CCleaner were spot on. They are some of the best free utilities you can get at this time for home users... though I would suggest AVAST! rather than AVG currently. If you can, install them on a CD-R and run them from there in Safe Mode on Windows. Most malware & viruses are written to bypass anti-virus apps or are AV-aware. Running them from a non-writable source like a CD will prevent an infected machine from disabling or avoiding your detection & cleaning engines.

what about eset nod 32? i switched to it from symantec corporate.

 

[Amoeba]

what about eset nod 32? i switched to it from symantec corporate.

Symantec is a huge bloated steaming pile of crap that sometimes works as an anti-virus solution It is trivial to bypass its protection and most malware/viruses do so out of the box.

Eset is pretty good. Definitely on par with AVG and AVAST!, though I think its heuristics engine still needs some work as it errs on the side of being too nice to keep their false positive rate down. AVAST! currently just has the best balance between protection & overzealous protection/false positives for the home user market at this time.

6 months from now it'll probably be another vendor

 

[abadk9420]

Is MacAfee any good thats what Iam running right now, it was free from Comcast...

 

[qaart]

my computer mother bored went bad i was useing it one day and it just shut off and went to a black screen and all i got was my mouse

 

[Amoeba]

Is MacAfee any good thats what Iam running right now, it was free from Comcast...

Symantec & McAfee both blow goats IMHO. Very large resource footprints and there's no "lite" version. Plus keeping it up to date is difficult as a home user since they release new versions every other week it seems.. and with no backward capability or easy upgrade path. This isn't even touching upon their performance as AV programs which are "meh".

my computer mother bored went bad i was useing it one day and it just shut off and went to a black screen and all i got was my mouse

If you still had your mouse on-screen then the issue wasn't your motherboard (or all of your motherboard if you are using built-in graphics chip). A fried motherboard won't even boot or do POST without errors in most cases. If this is a drop-in graphics card, pull it and reseat it. Also check your vga/dvi connection.

 

[qaart]

its built in

 

[Amoeba]

its built in

A PCI or other drop-in should work then.

 

[beason]

if he can see the mouse, then the video is fine. sounds like a corrupt windows install.

 

[qaart]

i tried the restore cd but windows couldent run it and its not the hardrive

 

[Lessen]

Constantly, or in long bursts of continuous activity. Also, does it continue to hammer the hard drive once an application is fully open?

If you didn't get any install media with the PC then either you need to get some from the vendor or buy a copy of Windows. I'd recommend sticking with XP, even with 2GB of SDRAM that machine will probably have a sicky trying to run Vista. My P4 2.8 didn't like it a lot.

It does hammer the harddrive when I open certain applications. It's pretty bad with my Zune software and with HP Image Zone Plus as well. The harddrive continues to buzz alot for maybe 20 seconds after it seems Zune is fully open. I just opened it and got an idea of how hard it was working. That was after I ran CCleaner.

BTW- I routinely empty my cookies and TIF. I also run Defrag every once in a while. I just did a scan for defrag and it said it wasn't necessary. Of course I don't think it's EVER told me it WAS necessary but I have run defrag before..probably a few months ago was the last time.

I'll be looking into those other pieces of software as well soon.

 

[Amoeba]

It does hammer the harddrive when I open certain applications. It's pretty bad with my Zune software and with HP Image Zone Plus as well. The harddrive continues to buzz alot for maybe 20 seconds after it seems Zune is fully open. I just opened it and got an idea of how hard it was working. That was after I ran CCleaner.

Your best bang for the buck would be to increase your RAM to 1gig or greater. 512m is what i would call barely runnable for the modern Windows kernel. PM me with your motherboard make/model & current # of memory slots and how many DIMMs you have in there currently. I may have a couple of gigs for your mobo laying around I could ship you for free.

 

[Lessen]

motherboard make/model & current # of memory slots and how many DIMMs you have in there currently.

I appreciate the offer but.....


I have no idea WTF you're talking about. :shrug: LMAO!

I swear to you, I have no idea where to even look.. :shrug:

 

[Amoeba]

I appreciate the offer but.....


I have no idea WTF you're talking about. :shrug: LMAO!

I swear to you, I have no idea where to even look.. :shrug:

Oh. Uh.. what model & brand is your computer? Like a Dell Inspiron 518 or something. Or is this a non-name/brand box?

Reason I ask is there are different speeds of RAM (DIMMs) as well as different pin counts fot each type. Not that you will be tested on this later or anything but:

EDO = 72 pin

SD ram = 168 pins

DDR = 184 pins

DDR2 = 240 pins

 

[Lessen]

Oh... It's an HP pavilion a564n

 

[Amoeba]

Oh... It's an HP pavilion a564n

Cool. 4 184-pin DIMM slots on your motherboard and can support speeds of PC2100, PC2700, PC3200. I think I have some extra DIMMs around that would work for you. Let me check my lab and get back to ya.

 

[Lessen]

yeah yeah... it says 512mb PC3200 DDR SDRAM memory. I posted that up in #5 but you might not have seen it.

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

I swear to you, I have no idea where to even look.

I have almost the same computer as you. I have the a844n, but they should have the same shell. With the power button facing you, there should be two Phillips screws on the left rear plate. Remove those, and pull the left plate off. Then you will find where the motherboard is. I'll try to take a picture where the memory slot is.

 

[Lessen]

O.K.

I've done CCleaner, Spybot, and ADAware. I cannot do AVG probably because have Norton and it won't install unless I uninstall Noryon.

Anyways.. the only problem I've run into is that there are some items that ADAware is showing which it won't delete or quarantine. I check 'em, hit remove and nothing happens. Still on the list. There were other items that it removed just fine. The items (9) are under "redirected hostfile entry".

 

[olds97_lss]

I have actually bought this: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

They have a free version that you can run manually. The "paid" version constantly watches your computer, which the free version does not. It has brought my computer back to life 2 times in the past 3 months. I got nailed by some sort of malware 3 months ago that basically shut my computer down from the world (killed internet access) and installed animal porn icons/wall paper on my computer for my wifes user... not real sure what she was looking at, but my user was ok was tons of fun to get rid of. I downloaded malwarebyte's on my backup computer and transferred it to the infected PC then installed it. It took a while to scan, but it found and disinfected everything and gave me back my computer. Then I had something similar happen again about a month later. I immediately just ran the malwarebytes program and cleaned it up. I then purchased malwarebytes license for $30 just to avoid having it happen again.

So, avast is better than the McAffee anti virus and firewall? I also have the version comcast gives you and I have auto-update on along with the constant monitor with nightly full scans. It didn't catch whatever it was that malwarebytes removed either time.

All that said, my PC runs pretty good now. My old "back up" pc is an old 2Ghz P4 dell. The hard drive crapped out on it (4 month old 250G western digital). I put the original 30G drive back in it, reformatted and reinstalled windows. It's odd how fast it still seems with a clean install and 3G of ram.

My current PC is a acer something... got it from work when my old one crapped out. It was my PC at my desk. 3ghz hyper threaded P4 w/3G ram and 500G drive partitioned into 2 250G drives. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem a whole lot faster than my old PC that is 4 years older.