My computer is CRud! / ap! (It's more than VERY slow...help requested, please!)

[Ray Darr]

My machine: P-IV 2 GHz, 512 megs Ram, Win XP SP2 (I have yet to decide if SP3 is worth upgrading to...). The system runs with minimal open programs, and I have set MSConfig to "Selective Startup" with the very minimal start-up programs allowed to...ermm.. start, at start-up. :p

The swapfile (pagefile) space is about 1 GB, and the memory checks have shown the RAM is fine.

I run virus scans regularly, and results show it is a clean machine (virus-wise). I decided to run an on-line check at pandasecurityDOTcom, and was shocked to find it said I DO have viruses! (Kaspersky On-Line Anti-Virus never showed any.)

Programs that are supposed to help prevent some of these issues that I'm running are:
1) AVG (up to date, scans set to "deep" (slow).
2) COMODO DOClean.
3) CCleaner ("Crap" Cleaner) (Run weekly)
4) MS Pop-up stopper (set to stop ALL pop-ups)
5) Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
6) Spybot Search and Destroy
7) A-Squared
8) NetLimiter Pro
9) SUPERAnti-Spyware
10) Spyware Blaster
11) Norton Systemworks Systems Utilities - Disc Doctor and Windows Doctor run regularly. (Note I do not use Norton Anti-Virus as it is resource-heavy).

I have NO "add-ons" running on my fully up-to-date I.E. web browser (no tool bars, etc), and all "service packs" with the OS, up to but NOT including SP3, are all up to date.

Yet the machine takes FOREVER to run, and especially start applications, change from one window to another, etc. Sometimes, the CPU seems to run close to 100%, yet I am not running anything spectacular (no movie-rendering, editing, CADCAM, etc...).

And ONE THING THAT CONFUSES ME, is the Internet activity icon shows activity each and every time I run ANYthing. It's like something "needs" to check on-line whenever ANYthing runs! Yet AVG, and previously NOD32 and Norton Anti-Virus, never show any viruses.

I am at a loss why this machine is sooooo slow, and now why these "latent" "Low Level Danger" viruses: Bck/VB.XB, JS/Kak.Worm, plus a number of "Tracking Application", "Dialer", "Joke", and "Adware" all showed up when I ran an on-line virus-scan at Panda Security.

Two issues: 1) Why is this machine so bl**dy SLOW, and 2) What's the deal with these "viruses"?

HELP!! (and thanks in advance!)
~R.D.

[green granite]

First of all, if you had Norton antivirus on the mc did you use the norton remove tool? If not download it from norton and run it to remove all the crud left behind.

[Keef]

It would be useful to know what's slowing it down.

Press Ctrl-Alt-Del (once), and select Processes. Then click on the "CPU" column so that the heaviest user is at the top, and note what's running and how much processor it's using.

Mine, when I do that, has "System Idle Process" (ie nothing happening) at 91 to 99%, Taskmgr.exe (the bit displaying processes) at 1%, and a few other processes flicking in and out at the odd percent or two.
There are 48 processes in total. The machine's speed is fine.

How does yours compare?

[Parapunter]

I would say you're overdoing it on the protection front. Are you expecting a knock at the door? :)

Anyway, the above is all vailid, but if you want a good look, download process explorer ( google for procexp.exe) and run it - it is a comprehensive tool for seeing what's cooking on the sustem.

[Temet_Nosce]

Google CRUCIAL MEMORY and buy some extra RAM!

[P.Pilcher]

Your RAM is a little low, but the problem is more likely to be the enormous number of anti spyware programmes you are running. Use MSCONFIG to temporarily knock them out of the startup sequence and see what difference it makes. Most of these programmes get on the internet to check for updates each time you start your computer hence the internet accessing you have observed. Just knock them all out except AVG which protects against spyware as well and see what difference it makes. You can always update or run any of these programmes if you wish in the usual way.

P.P.

[Ray Darr]

First of all, if you had Norton antivirus on the mc did you use the norton remove tool? If not download it from norton and run it to remove all the crud left behind.

Short answer? Yes. Longer answer: Norton's removal tool was used, as was the comprehensive step-by-step registry-removal steps, since the tools doesn't get EVERYthing.

Thanks though.

It would be useful to know what's slowing it down.

Press Ctrl-Alt-Del (once), and select Processes. Then click on the "CPU" column so that the heaviest user is at the top, and note what's running and how much processor it's using.

Mine, when I do that, has "System Idle Process" (ie nothing happening) at 91 to 99%, Taskmgr.exe (the bit displaying processes) at 1%, and a few other processes flicking in and out at the odd percent or two.
There are 48 processes in total. The machine's speed is fine.

How does yours compare?


I've checked the Processes many times, and it shows "System Idle Process" (right now) 64-78%. Taskmgr 2%. 63 processes running in total. CPU use 31% (as of right now...).

Incidentally, I run a P2P program (for swapping legit files :p ) that uses about 19% of the CPU and 127 k of memory. When I am NOT running that, the same issues occur.

I would say you're overdoing it on the protection front. Are you expecting a knock at the door?

Anyway, the above is all vailid, but if you want a good look, download process explorer ( google for procexp.exe) and run it - it is a comprehensive tool for seeing what's cooking on the sustem.

I disagree with overdoing it, and it's not just my humble opinion. I read about using all of these programs together in PC World or PC Magazine or PC Extreme or something along those lines. The article was something like "How best to clean your computer of crud". I had an increase protection but no change in performance. These issues were what prompted me to seek out protection thinking some virus was bogging this system to its knees. I HAVE reduced a number of the programs, and run them only periodically. AVG and COMODO BOClean are the only "live" 24/7 programs. I only run the other programs manually.

Process Explorer (and Google) (and WAY too much time!) was used to sift through each and every "process" and also each and every "Services" under "Computer Management" was checked, and those not required, I changed the Start-Up Type to either Manual, Automatic or Disabled, depending what the service was. I also methodically went through the MS Config Start-Up and Services there to ensure what wasn't needed was disabled.

As for the idea of increasing RAM on the machine, I tried that (borrowed the same RAM of a tech-friend. Nominal difference and not worth paying for new RAM for this old machine.

It'll work properly again, and I'll be damnned if I am stumped to the point of reformatting this!!

Once again, I will re-iterate that the Internet access I see (with the little icon in the taskbar flashing away) happens REGARDLESS of what program I use. I could be starting NERO to burn something on a CD, or opening the basic Paint program, or simply opening Windows Explorer. Frustrating?? YES Arrrrrrg!!! :ugh:

All and every idea welcomed, please. :ok:

[John Marsh]

Check how much of your hard drive is free. XP will slow down if less than approx. 20% is free.
Check via Start->My Computer->right-click on drive->Properties. See what Disk Cleanup suggests.

Do you regularly defragment the hard drive? Files are routinely chopped up and spread out on the disk(s), whenever the PC is in use. This slows things down. XP has its in-built defragmenter, but the free one from Auslogics is faster. Details at:
Disk Defrag - Reclaim the Speed Of Your Disks (http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag)
For optimum results, I would suggest that you boot into Safe Mode, then defragment. Windows accesses less files in Safe Mode, so more are available to the defragmenter.

[Keef]

Something's using CPU time - idle should be around 98%.

You have 512 meg of RAM, which is sort-of the knee of the performance curve - more will make a small difference, but not a lot.

Do you have ZoneAlarm? With that, you can stop stuff accessing the internet the whole time. It's a pain when you're first setting it up, but once that's done and you've told it what may and may not use your internet connection, it saves a lot of churning.

I've blocked several auto-updaters that love connecting to mummy, and that helped.

[jimtherev]

I switched to AVG 8 some months ago - got fed up with the nag screen in 7.5 - and immediately noticed a degradation of performance. So I googled and played with AVG.

On the basis that I have two other firewalls covering each other - and the SP2-or-later firewall really is quite good in XP - I went into AVG control panel and disabled linkscan. Result: an immediate increase in speed almost everywhere :ok:. BTW, before someone else posts, I know that linkscan isn't a firewall as such, but it shares some of the firewalls protective qualities & AFAIK is redundant.

Why not give this a try. If it's successful, you'll get your very own new nag-screen, but again this can be disabled in the control panel somewhere - forget how I did it, but it didn't take too long to find.

Hope this helps,
Jim

[Gertrude the Wombat]

What is the internet access?

Well, we know what it is, it is some virus spewing out spam, which is also where the CPU is going (once you've uninstalled all the antivirus and antispyware crap). But we're after a little more detail than that.

What do you see when you run a network sniffer? Does your machine run faster when you physically disconnect the internet?

[x213a]

I helped a mate out with a similar problem not long ago. He was running way to many anti - this that and the other apps. One of his main system hogs was Spybot search & destroy. Its realtime protection was very resource heavy.

Look and see what teatimer.exe is using up in cpu. Thats the spybot real time protection.

Also svchost.exe, have you got automatic updates selected?

Did this occur shortly after a windows update?

[Bushfiva]

Ray Darr, are you using Windows Firewall? I don't see a firewall in your list. Also, consider disabling BOClean: it has issues on some machines. But if you genuinely have all that stuff installed, I think the realtime components are fighting each other, and every bit you load into memory is being processed, what, 5 times?? Teatimer and Superantispyware don't play nicely, for example. I understand you say you only run the other components manually, but they're not very good at telling you the realtime component is installed.

First, fix the viruses (clearly your mass of competing products isn't helping. Then, you should go for one firewall, one antivirus, uninstall everything else (one at a time, including reboots where prompted), and pick a single anti-trojan product.

[Parapunter]

You are top heavy on anti spware/virus protection. Irrespective of how much runs automatically - don't take magazine articles for gospel old son.

[BOAC]

I would also fully endorse running 'hijack this' (see forum sticky). It may surprise you how many things that may be set to run on your machine that you did not intend/had 'forgotten' about.

[Guest 112233]

Are your device drivers Upto date. Is there an unexpected interaction going on ? - start with this idea to begin with. Also are all the cooling fans working

I did have a prob with the 1st main drive on my main PC. (A fujitsu MHT20AH PATA 80 GB ) - The PC manufacturer installed an out of date driver. It buggered things for 18 months untill I twigged as to what was happening. Ineffective data I/O - drive got hot and slowed down.

Start here.

How to manage devices in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283658)

CAT III

[Saab Dastard]

CATIII-NDB's post reminded me of a problem I encountered where a hard disk controller had fallen back to PIO mode instead of using DMA - VERY VERY slow disk access and VERY VERY HIGH CPU utilisation!

Check in Device manager, IDE controllers, primary / secondary channel, Properties / Advanced Settings.

SD

[Ray Darr]

I'm on the road for a few more days, everyone. Thanks very much indeed for the vectors to help sort this mess out. I'll sift through them all once I've got a few days off and hopefully right this severely toppled gyro. :uhoh:

Further tips appreciated! :ok:

~ R.D.