Slow internet / mail

[Saintsman]

My wife's laptop has become painfully slow when on the net and downloading mail. I have cleared the temp internet files and cookies, cleaned the spyware, virus scanned and de-fragged to no use.

I did notice that she blocks sender on all the spam so that she doesn't get them again. With the amount of spam comming through the mail these days her list has to be pretty big. Could this be the cause of the problem?

[Tarq57]

Spyware is often a cause of this, what turned up and what program was used to find/clean it?

A list of blocked senders shouldn't make the difference you're noticing, unless that list is huge.

[allthatglitters]

We were having simular problems with the kids machine and my lap top which they used, so I downloaded and regularly use PC Pitstop optimizer and it dosn't just stop with the cache files, temp internet folders, old programme left overs and the like, speeded things up, tunes internet and bowser settings costs a few dollars, but saved hassle and time. Maybe a free version of something simular around.

[FireFoxDown]

What antivirus program are you using? I found Norton was a big system hog - personally using AVG Anti Virus (http://www.grisoft.com) which is free and Ive been very happy with. Also for searching for and removing spyware I recommend a program called Spybot Search and Destroy.

It could be slow for other reasons - there could be programs running in the background that arent needed. If you hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and look at the processes there it will give you an idea of whats running.

[Saintsman]

She runs McAffe and uses Lavasoft adware.

My IT section have advised me to uninstall McAffe and reinstall it.


She got the laptop because every time she used my PC 'nothing worked' because I was always downloading things If she had her own there would be no problems......
When she lets me touch her laptop I'll let you know how I got on.

[FireFoxDown]

I know the feeling! I seem to be the IT expert in the family when they want something fixed - but if something goes wrong in the first place I usually get the blame!

If go to START - RUN and type "msconfig" and click on the "Startup" tab you can see the programs that load when started - there may be some loading that aren't required! Be careful not to deselect something you need . . .

[11K-AVML]

McAfee

Originally Posted by Saintsman

She runs McAffe and uses Lavasoft adware.

My IT section have advised me to uninstall McAffe and reinstall it.


She got the laptop because every time she used my PC 'nothing worked' because I was always downloading things If she had her own there would be no problems......
.

This sounds very much like McAfee, specifically McAfee Spam Killer.
There is a known problem that causes it to hog 100% of your resources, usually when you download email using Outlook or Outlook Express.

Next time it happens, Ctrl+Alt+Delete and if you see 98-100% Cpu usage for MSKSrVr.exe McAfee is the problem! (End that program and you should get your computer back).

I've had/have the same problem and found some articles about it:
http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=80300

Not sure about the best way to resolve it, but I've deleted all the files in
CDocuments and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\SpamKiller\Users\1\Front

Which seems to have done the trip (albeit a temporary measure)

http://www.file.net/process/msksrvr.exe.html

[Saintsman]

Spamkiller is was.

Apparently it keeps all the spam and does not get rid of it. I am getting about 50 spam e-mails a day so it doesn't take long to build up a huge amount.

Maybe its time for a new address.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.