PC and Technical Help Forum

There is some good advice here about removing spyware and viruses and stuff, and this should be done regardless, but if you use 5 minutes to open an application, you either have something really vicious on your computer or maybe you have other problems. If you have never run a spyware remover you are bound to find a lot of spyware.

I don't agree with 512 MB RAM being a minimum. Windows XP will run slowly, but not nearly that slow on 256 MB RAM. When I started working at the place I am at now one year ago we had computers running XP SP2 on 128 MB RAM and they were also 5-6 years old. 400 Mhz Pentium II processors. It was incredibly slow but even they could open a browser quicker than what you say.

I would check my event log first. Go to the "Control Panel", press "Administrative Tools" and then "Event Viewer". Espescially look in the system log for Error events (marked red). Some of these messages aren't easy to understand, but for example if you find a bunch of ATAPI error messages marked NTFS(or somesthing like that), then you should double click on them to read if you have a lot of bad blocks(wich was my first thought). This means you have a disk crash and need to start saving your files before replacing it(I hope I'm wrong).

A shot in the dark, but the event viewer is always the first place I look when a computer starts behaving this badly.

A good way of testing if you have processes that slow down your machine is running msconfig (go to run and write "msconfig"). It will start a small utility where you can stop services and program from runnin when you start your computer. Later you can just get your system back to the origional state by enabling them in the same utility.

Well anyways, good luck. If the suggestions you have got in this thread don't help you I think you will have to start answering the questons SXViper asked if anyone is going to be able to help you.

Regards
Popol Vuh

Hi Everyone

I ran Spybot search and destroy and uncovered 23 spyware problems which I subsequently corrected. In addition to this I ran Ad Adware and uncoverd an additional 'Five serious errors' and corrected them. Following Todds advice I defragmented my system and ran scandisk and the system as a whole is certainly a little faster although still too slow.

Todd to answer some of your questions.

I have 256k of Ram and my PC is between four and five years old. I have used Youtube on several occasions tonight and it is running very smoothly so perhaps it was a spyware problem that was interferring with it.

Popol Vuh

I checked the Error events section that you mentioned and I did indeed come across several errors primarily under the heading 'Service Control Manager''. Have you any idea what this mean and if it is possible to correct them?

Thanks again for all the help given.

What anti virus software do you have? Did you run that also? If you do not have anti virus I suggest you use AVG it is free.

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Originally posted by Robbie@Dec 15 2006, 03:09 AM

Popol Vuh

I checked the Error events section that you mentioned and I did indeed come across several errors primarily under the heading 'Service Control Manager''. Have you any idea what this mean and if it is possible to correct them?

Thanks again for all the help given.

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Well if the same ones keep coming back it might be a problem. You can double click the event to see some details and there is also a link where you can see if Microsoft has info on that particular event. Service Control Manager means that some sparticular service either can't start or is terminating. This is either a program or a driver that can't load. Don't bother too much about one time events though since this will often happen when you some other problems (for example if you try to install something that won't). See if you have events that come every time you start up.

You might also want to set your homepage temporarly to blank to check if your browser loads as slowly then.

You said Youtube ran smoothly, but did your browser still use minutes to launch?

I just remembered an experience I had with a hard drive that was going bad.

I had a system that for some reason started to open programs and boot very slowly. I found that it had a ton of spyware on it and a few viruses. I got it all cleaned up and it was better but not perfect. I ran scandisk and it turned up a bad sector which is not that big of deal, unless you have data written to that sector when it goes bad. So I backed up all the data and reformatted the hard drive and reloaded the operating system and everything was fine, for about two weeks. Then it started having the same symptoms again. Again I found a ton of spyware and removed it all, this time the system ran normally so I just stopped there. Then in a week it started again. This time when I ran scandisk it found more bad sectors. I reformatted and ran scandisk and again it found more bad sectors. I replaced the hard drive and it has run fine since.

The spyware did not cause the bad sectors but it helped mask the real problem.

So if there are any other symptoms that you see, like it taking a long time to boot up or shut off, it will help us narrow down the problem.

Just a short note to let you guys know that I will be tackling a computer upgrade in the coming week(Christmas brought some cash to spend). So I might not be around as much while I build my new system and reload my software.

For the techno people, I am upgrading to a Gigabyte SLI system board, 1 GB Patriot dual channel memory, Athlon 3800+ X2 AM2 socket 65W Dual Core Processor, XFX 7600 GS PCIe 16X video card(adding another in a couple months to utilize the SLI on the system board) and a 250 GB Sata hard drive. I am hoping this will help my video editing that I do so I am able to multi-task alittle better.

Any questions or suggestions let me know. Thanks.

Quote from SXViper

Just a short note to let you guys know that I will be tackling a computer upgrade in the coming week(Christmas brought some cash to spend). So I might not be around as much while I build my new system and reload my software.

For the techno people, I am upgrading to a Gigabyte SLI system board, 1 GB Patriot dual channel memory, Athlon 3800+ X2 AM2 socket 65W Dual Core Processor, XFX 7600 GS PCIe 16X video card(adding another in a couple months to utilize the SLI on the system board) and a 250 GB Sata hard drive. I am hoping this will help my video editing that I do so I am able to multi-task alittle better.

Any questions or suggestions let me know. Thanks.

Well, I am back, actually I have been back. It only took me about 45 minutes to take out my old parts and put my new ones in. Then another 1 1/2 hours to reload my operating system and all my applications. This was my most painless upgrades I have ever done. Thank god!!!!

Hi Todd

I'm glad your upgrade went well, incidentally what sort of video editing do you do via your computer.

Quote from Robbie

Hi Todd

I'm glad your upgrade went well, incidentally what sort of video editing do you do via your computer.

Robbie,

I mostly take home movies and convert them to DVD. Since I have yet to break down and by a full digital video camera I still have a HI 8 camera. And since I started doing this I know get requests from family members to do there's as well.
It tool me a long time to understand how to do it and I still make a screw up occasionally. But I guess I am still learning and with my faster computer I am able to correct the mistakes and move on allot faster.

I'm just wondering what sort of PC protection software members of this board use on their PC. I use the following

1. AVG antivirus
2. Spybot Search and Destroy
3. Zone Alarm firewall.

Is this enough to ensure that a PC runs smoothly, do any other members recommend any additional software?

Thanks in advance.

I need to do more searching on this board. Didn't know they had my favorite subject on here, after The Duke that is. I had my own computer business for about 8 - 9 years. After I got out of the military, about 20+ years ago I worked with CAD programs for awhile then there was a need for an ISP in my hometown so I started one and a computer business on the side. That's where my ID came from. I'm from South Dakota and I got everyone in my hometown surfing the Internet so I put together DakotaSurfer.

A simple answer to the protection question is, I have the firewall active on my DSL modem, I use PG2 to block unwanted IP's from getting in, I use encryption on what the client software I use and I absolutely stay away from anything in the IE or Outlook family.

I use Firefox and Thunderbird for my browser and email programs. Other than that I have my email program to show all attachments as files and not put them inline with the email. Plus my main email program is a free online account which does a pretty good job of scanning for bugs and spam before I have to read it. Firefox has excellent pop-up blockers and security features. Too much protection will bog your computer down with needless TSR's. (background programs)

I've had a computer since my first Commodore 64 and then an old IBM 8088. So I'll help where I can. Too many people let this box of metal scare them. When I taught adult computer classes, I always told my students, there's nothing you can do to your computer that someone hasn't already done and that isn't repairable or replaceable. My oldest student was an 87 year old retired circuit court judge. Have fun!

Quote from Robbie

I'm just wondering what sort of PC protection software members of this board use on their PC. I use the following

1. AVG antivirus
2. Spybot Search and Destroy
3. Zone Alarm firewall.

Is this enough to ensure that a PC runs smoothly, do any other members recommend any additional software?

Thanks in advance.

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I think all these programs are good even if I only use the same antivirus.

I strongly recommend updating Windows regularely if you are using XP. Best to let Windows update itself. If you have a legal version of Windows and Office you should uprade to Microsoft update to get the patches for Office too.

I use Firefox also, but I wouldn't be surprised if the newest version of Internet Explorer is safer than Firefox. I know that Microsoft has put a lot of work into security in the IE7. I expect I will still be using Firefox at home though.

Regards
Popol Vuh

I don't think I'll ever trust IE. Microsoft keep making it harder on p2p users. They hide updates within updates to mess with my half-open connections and my TCPIP settings. Microsoft doesn't let the consumer think for themselves and force changes we may not want. I'll stick with Firefox. Before that it was Netscape.

Robbie, I concur with what Dakota has stated. To many protecton programs will bog down the computer. And Firefox is a great browser, I have yet to have a issue with it, unlike just about every version of IE that has been released. The only thing I have running on my 2 computers in my house are Spybot and Earthlink's firewall/antivirus protection program. I moniter my email using Earthlinks webmail and filter my email that way. At the very least though I thik you are running 3 good programs and they should keep you relativley safe. But, like auto maintenance, you need to open the hood once in awhile and check things out. Like ensuring your programs are up to date, defrag once in awhile, ect.... This will ensure your computer is running the best that it can.

Quote from Robbie

I'm just wondering what sort of PC protection software members of this board use on their PC. I use the following

1. AVG antivirus
2. Spybot Search and Destroy
3. Zone Alarm firewall.

We use some of the Windows security options (Windows firewall and Windows Defender), Trend PC-cillin (2006 edition), Spy-bot (available as a free download), and Ad-Aware by LavaSoft, also available as a free download (but you can pay a reasonable fee to upgrade).

It seems to be a fairly good combination.

Chester

Quote from DakotaSurfer

I don't think I'll ever trust IE. Microsoft keep making it harder on p2p users. They hide updates within updates to mess with my half-open connections and my TCPIP settings. Microsoft doesn't let the consumer think for themselves and force changes we may not want. I'll stick with Firefox. Before that it was Netscape.

Like I said I also like Firefox, but I really don't think that IE has anything to do with your half-open connections. If I remember this correctly they lowered the number of connections to stop virus infected computers to spread the viruses to other computers too quickly. From what I remember the number of connections were possible to change in NT and maybe Windows 2000/ early XP. My bet is that you have run the hack for this(EvID4226Patch.exe), because I remember running this myself after seeing a bunch of error messages in my event log. Every now and then there will come along an update that will replace the file that this hack "fixes". Wether you use IE or not won't matter. Maybe you can avoid this by uninstalling IE alltogether, but my guess is that you won't because I think these are fixes to XP. Anyway you can just run the hack again after you run an update and you are back in business.

I know you are right about p2p running slower on fast connections because of the limit, but I don't really think Microsoft was targeting file sharing programs. It was just a result of them fixing other problems.

The point I was making however was that it is good practice to run Microsoft updates if you run XP. I am no expert on this, but the guy resposible for security at the place I work keeps stressing how important this has become lately. The reason is that every time Microsoft discovers a security issue they start making a fix. When they release the fix this becomes publicly known. People who want to exploit the security issues will use the fixes as documentation of how to exploit the operating system and within a few days someone has been able to do this.

Okay, a long post based on lacking knowledge, so feel free to correct me, but please don't flame.

Regards
Popol Vuh

Quote from Popol Vuh

The point I was making however was that it is good practice to run Microsoft updates if you run XP.

I have my PC set to automatically update everything. I use IE for a browser and have never had any problems.