Laptop Extremely Slow

Unlike the last thread I made, this time it's MY laptop that's running slow. Explorer.exe seems to spike CPU usage every five minutes or so. Overall, the system is very laggy. SUPERAntiSpyware took over five hours to run, and SpyBot's scan took at least four hours on a machine that used to do it in under one. I manually updated SUPERAntiSpyware's definitions, though it doesn't seem to realize this. Also, I only deleted the three CoolWedSearch entries in its results. I'm pretty certain that the Final Fantasy XI entry is NOT a trojan, and that made me unsure enough to leave the registry entries alone unless someone here can give me a reason otherwise. SpyBot did not find anything. Malware Bytes did not find anything.

Norton (despite me disabling it beforehand) interrupted ComboFix's as it was preparing its log, and in doing so, it almost locked up my computer. I had to open Task Manager to End Task Norton's security popups, after which ComboFix completed and closed itself. I glanced at ComboFix's log, and it seems that it found some items worthy of deletion, but I don't know exactly what they were.

I'm going to be replacing my antivirus and firewall software after this. I'm considering trying out AVG8 (without the link scanner) and Comodo Firewall. If AVG8 disappoints, then I will switch to AntiVir or Avast, but any of those is better than my current solution (NIS 2005).

Logs are attached.

 

Last log attached.

 

Neither of those files were there when I browsed to their locations.

I feel that my desktop icons are organized enough that I would notice something being added, though I will clean it up a bit after this is over.

I had kept JDK 5.0 around because my university had their feet stuck in the mud about whether or not to upgrade to 6.0 until just recently. I hadn't gotten around to removing it. I am removing it now, but I will stick with the stable 6.0u7 instead of the beta update 10.

Also, on closer examination, it appears to be Msmsgs.exe that spikes in CPU usage every minute or so, not explorer.exe.

I've just finished removing the old Java installations and installing the new one. I haven't used the computer enough to make any assertions about whether or not it has improved.

 

Removed Windows Messenger. The system seems to be running better, but still a little sluggish at times. I left SUPERAntiSpyware installed for now, but disabled its "startup with Windows" option. I removed ComboFix - it also seems to have generated a "Bug.txt" file on the C Drive which was not previously mentioned. I deleted the MGTools files and folders. I will uninstall HijackThis later (I simply forgot to since I have been moving locations all day). I toggled System Restore (disable, reboot, enable) and I created a new restore point.

Currently, I am running the Norton Removal Tool to remove Norton Internet Security 2005. After reading up more about AVG8's detection of SpyBot's and SpywareBlaster's protections as malware, I've become less confident in choosing it, but I'm not sure what to choose over it. I saw chaslang mention once that Avast detects more false positives than AVG7.5, so that didn't help convince me that Avast would be the route to go. I don't usually hear much about AntiVir, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. AV-Comparatives judged AntiVir's premium version to be on par with their previous "best", Eset's NOD32, but that doesn't tell me how their free version holds up. Comodo AntiVirus is still in beta. I think, if I recall correctly, you prefer Avast. Do you have any opinions regarding any of the other free AntiVirus software that I have mentioned?

I will be sticking with Comodo v3 for my firewall for now, since it currently outranks Online Armor on Matousec's Firewall Challenge.

 

Since I cannot edit the previous post, I must make a new reply! This is an update to my earlier musings on antivirus software.

I have done some searching on currently available free antivirus solutions. It appears to me that AVG8, coming from a line of reliable scanners, has unfortunately become rather bloated as of late. While it is possible to remove or disable some of its bloatware features (Link Scanner, Safe Surf, Safe Search), it now detects many protections by other anti-malware products as dangerous items.

Avast seems to have its own issues with false positives, but they aren't anywhere like what AVG is doing. I haven't heard anything particularly horrible about Avast. However, I have read that AntiVir generally does a better job at detecting viruses, in less time, with less false positives than Avast. Unfortunately, AntiVir's free edition does not offer e-mail scanning, but I do not recall Norton ever catching a virus in the 6 years that I have been using it, so I think that as long as I pay attention to what I'm opening, then I should be able to live without this feature. If I find AntiVir to my disliking, then I can always uninstall and switch to Avast or something else later. For now, it's definitely better than no antivirus.

Interestingly, I've also read that Norton AntiVirus has astonishingly high detection rates. It's a shame that it's so bloated. Any opinions on Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.1.7? My university provides it to us for free, so perhaps it is something to consider if I don't like AntiVir.

Some links to information that I found helpful are below for the benefit of others.


Discussion on how to leave Link Scanner out of AVG8's install and disable the "upgrade to pro" nag screens:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=634374&pid=589374906&st=0&#entry589374906
(included in discussion is the following link to AVG's official instructions on "How to install AVG without LinkScanner"):
http://free.grisoft.com/ww.faq.num-1338#faq_1338

More forum discussion on AVG8:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=212306

List of AntiVirus software on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antivirus_software

Lightspeed Systems' AV comparison:
http://www.lightspeedsystems.com/Compare/AntivirusComparison.aspx

Mega Antivirus Test (old, but insightful):
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1260/

Anti-Virus Comparison 2008:
http://boards.msn.com/Techboards/thread.aspx?threadid=716513

AntiVirus Comparison - CastleCopsWiki:
http://wiki.castlecops.com/AntiVirus_Comparison

I also referred to the user ratings for AVG, Avast, and AntiVir here on MajorGeeks.

 

It's a shame that adding a new post to provide an information update bumps my thread down in the queue. Alas, c'est la vie.

I installed Comodo Firewall with Defense+ and Avira AntiVir. I manually updated Avast, and ran a complete system scan which took about 5 hours to scan 600,000+ files. It detected five infected files, all of which were successfully quarantined. Afterward, I hooked it up to the Internet for a test run, hoping that everything was gravy. I was so very wrong.

My system has slowed to a crawl. It takes at least 15 seconds for any mouse click to register, and that is after the 10+ seconds it takes for my system to acknowledge that the mouse has, indeed, moved. I tried disabling Defense+ and AntiVir's "Guard", but neither action helped my system recover.

I've shut the laptop down currently to give it a rest, and hope that a full restart will help things. I'm not sure if this huge slowdown is Comodo's fault, or AntiVir's, or something else, or a some unforeseen combination, but it's rottenly unfair. *grumble* I have to attend class now, or I would continue trying to see if this reboot will help. I will be able to continue this sometime after 2:00PM.

Tim, I hope that you have some magical words of wisdom for me, because I could really use some good news. :cry


** EDIT **
Tim, I just saw your previous post. I hope that you can get to this new one of mine soon. As for the not getting infected and such, I have a pretty good track record for avoiding serious infection, and I usually only have to run the whole shebang of scans when something feels seriously wrong with my machine. Most other maintenance I come here for is for other computers that are not my own, and I've had Norton Internet Security 2005 with outdated definitions for about two years now. However, my reason for not updating was that my subscription had ended. I didn't feel like paying to renew, and I never felt like committing the time to uninstalling, researching for a new AV and firewall, installing and updating that, and dealing with all of the system integration again (which apps should it let run whenever, e-mail scans, spam configuration, app/net access, etc. etc. etc.). I just finally figured that it was time, and now I'm honestly a little upset that I bothered, given all the trouble it's giving me. :cry


** EDIT 2 **
I forgot to mention that Task Manager showed nothing suspicious while my computer acted like molasses. Nothing was repeatedly hogging CPU, and my RAM usage was at 399MB/1800MB (I have one gigabyte of physical RAM sticks and the rest is virtual memory). Hence why I cannot figure out exactly what is causing my massive slowdown.

 

No, I am not silly enough to run multiple antivirus programs at once. Unless Comodo Firewall's Defense+ feature IS an antivirus software, in which case they should really mention that and call it Comodo Firewall + Antivirus. To be clear, I:

1. Used the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall Norton Internet Security 2005
2. Rebooted
3. Installed Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.25.378 with Defense+ (sometimes referred to as Comodo Personal Firewall, but the official name is as I have typed; I assumed that Defense+ was just an additional set of firewall functions since it didn't say otherwise)
4. Installed Avira AntiVir Personal Edition 8.1.0.326 and manually updated with definitions file obtained from MajorGeeks.com
5. Ran a complete system scan with AntiVir
6. Quarantined the 5 results that it found

Everything SEEMED okay, but then when I tried to use the computer it was just completely bogged down, even though Task Manager did not indicate this. In an attempt to alleviate the problem, I then:

1. Disabled Comodo's Defense+
2. Deactivated AntiVir's Guard

However, this did not seem to affect my computer's sluggishness. I shutdown the machine, and I have been out of the building since then, so I have not powered it back on yet. My current solution, unless you provide an alternative one, is to uninstall the either Comodo, AntiVir, or both, and simply leave the machine offline untill I can correctly resolve the problem. Analysis? Advice?

 

Yes, the part with Avast was a typo; I was just extremely tired at the time. I will see if I can get any insight from the Software forum.

Thanks for all your help!

 

This may be worth noting, though I don't think it's the sole cause of my problems. My system time is still set at 24-hour time from when I ran ComboFix. This implies that ComboFix did not run, or at least clean up, correctly (it DID have an interruption courtesy of Norton). I don't know if that would have created a problem in other places on my computer, but I wanted to check and see if there was a suggestion for what to do about this. Fixing the system time format is easy, but I was more concerned about making sure that ComboFix didn't leave behind any other loose ends.

Currently, I'm off to the Hardware forum to ask about determining if overheating is my problem or not. Not my ideal problem to have, but it's progress towards figuring something out, I suppose.