Comp slowing but not for the obvious reasons.....

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by wiiman5, Jul 20, 2008.

  1. wiiman5

    wiiman5 Private E-2

    hi
    not sure what on earth is going on with my computer but hopefully the description that follows may give someone (a helpful soul!) an idea.

    I have a Dell Dimension 5150 with Pentium 4 running windows vista
    I have not long ago upgraded my RAM from 1gb to 3gb
    I have recently upgraded my hard drive to a 500gb one - from 160gb i think, but the problem was there before when i was running my old hard drive too which makes me think it may be my motherboard/processor - but i'm certainly no expert!
    anyway, my comp generally works OK, but processing things have really slowed eg, un-zipping things, starting movies, re-starting programs that have crashed etc. the problem was occuring quite a lot and my hard drive sounded like it was 'grinding' so i bought a new hard drive and and did a fresh install of everything so i started again from new. problem is it is still the same - slow at processing tasks. general stuff is OK like internet and downloading but it's just, as i say, unpacking things, starting movies etc.
    does it sound simple? any help appreciated.
    thanks:)
     
  2. akhilles

    akhilles First Sergeant

    List your security software & any changes you made to the services/registry. Or you can do this: start, run, enter this line:

    dir "c:\Program Files" > %HOMEPATH%\Desktop\a.txt

    Copy & paste the contents of the file here.

    A quick way to tell what's hogging the cpu is press CTRL ALT DEL keys at the same time for task manager, click CPU header twice. You can post this screenshot here.
     
  3. PC-XT

    PC-XT Master Sergeant

  4. wiiman5

    wiiman5 Private E-2

    hi
    thanks for responding:)


    well i currently run mcafee security centre which comes with my broadband supply from sky tv.
    i have entered the line in run (on vista) and it comes up with an error - is there something else i can try here?
    now when i start the task manager on windows vista there is no CPU header to click twice. i have taken a screen shot of the processes running in task manager if that helps?!?!?!? sorry if this is coming across as though i am thick - apologies:eek:
     

    Attached Files:

  5. akhilles

    akhilles First Sergeant

    Sorry, I missed out a step:

    start, run, cmd, enter this line:

    dir "c:\Program Files" > %HOMEPATH%\Desktop\a.txt

    Webshots.scr shouldn't be running when the desktop isn't idling. If you didn't install this, remove it. itune was known to hog system resources. Update it ASAP. Other that those, the task manager looks ok.

    Can you take a screenshot of task manager WHEN the pc feels slow?
     
  6. wiiman5

    wiiman5 Private E-2

    hi
    thanks again for helping with this
    i have followed what you advised, entering the line into CMD, but nothing is listed when i do this?!?!
    i have updated itunes, and i did put webshots on as i like it changing my picture. but i have only recently put this on - long after my computer has been slowing down.
    the computer is permanently slow - not just occasionally. there is very little on my hard drive - probably only 10% full. it is just noticeably slow everytime i am carrying out tasks like unzipping things, moving things from folders to other locations, where in the past it always used to be quickish at doing these

    i have also just being doing the malware removal guide from this site, but to be honest nothing really has been showing up. i have a combofix text log which i have attached if that helps

    thanks again for taking your time advising with this :)
     

    Attached Files:

  7. wiiman5

    wiiman5 Private E-2

    a ha! found this on my desktop - i'm assuming this is the list you are talking about?
     

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    • a.txt
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  8. akhilles

    akhilles First Sergeant

    CCleaner, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware are useful, but Spybot - Search & Destroy is not very useful compared to MBAM & SAS. Spybot can be uninstalled. Just do regular malware scans.

    I don't know what's hogging your pc unless you take a screenshot of task manager WHEN it's slowing down.

    Ok, looking at your software, I suspect Mcafee. Try disabling virusscan as a test and unzip a large file.
     
  9. wiiman5

    wiiman5 Private E-2


    thanks for your help.
    well i've removed all the antivirus and malware stuff now, having used them.
    i'll give the mcafee thing a try and let you know
    thanks again
     

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