Help--HD won't stop

for the p;ast hour it;s running, tried to freeze internet by locking zonealarm but didn't matter, cant tell if AVG is hung or what. just typing this is taking forever, hard boot didnt help, nothing shows running othrwise - windows xp, svp2 w/ Firefox, avg, zonealarm, what to do??

 

Have you tried restarting the computer?

 

3 x no help, it is slowing evry keystroke

 

Hold CTRL and Shift and press ESC. This should open the task manager window. Click on the processes tab at the top and scroll through the list and see what is using all the resources. Then post the info back here.

 

idle is using all, nothing else jumps out. I am still having the problem, but since I disabled auto Windows updates it is running a bit faster, but HD still constantly runs. I started an AVG scan but it will run forever, so I thought I might try a spyware scan instead. C-Alt-D just shows what I am aware of running, nothing unusual is found, my neighbor is programmer for school sys also looked, still can't figure what is going on, I usually leave it up /running, so when I got home today I opened Outlook , responded to a few msgs and it was already running at full speed then, so don't know how many hours this has been going on

 

Okay, need a little more background info from you.

How old is the computer?

What make and model is it?

 

dell inspir 9200 4 yr old- i ndto run spyware scan direct fm some site, where?

 

Hi anne, have you tried booting into safemode? [tap F8 as you boot the computer]


Q

 

I tried safe mode several times, ran CCleaner: but everything was hanging, took over 20 minutes to boot/shutdown. I tried to download Spybot but it just took forever so I cancelled it finally just as it finished!! of course. Cntrl alt Delete never showed anything else running, but it seems like processes showed Explorer.exe was running constantly, using the most resources. the system just barely moved. I did a restore for 2 days back unsuccessful. this morn, I did a restore back 10 days successfully. I have run Malware program , removed 19 items, now I still don't know what was wrong, since everything ran much better after the restore this morn.
I am wondering what made explore.exe suck so much resource as it seemed to be the biggest item running. It would have taken me days to type this much last night to respond to my helpers.
I would like to see a program that would evaluate the system further but now that all is running right again, I am hesitant as I need my online bank, etc and don't want to crash deleting something in error.

 

The problems you have described could easily have been a virus. I recommend, just in case anything is still hanging around, that you make a post in the Malware forums to have them help you check over your computer.

 

the problem was restarted when I updated AVG9, had to restore again and Now I am deleting AVG9 for something I can afford to live with that doesnt hang!

 

Make sure you put another antivirus stright back onto the computer after removing AVG. Personally I would recommend Avira: http://www.free-av.de/en/trialpay_download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

It is totally free and I hope it works better than AVG for you.

 

Avira had an error on install, so decided to go with Avast which is running a complete scan, and once AVG was gone, no moe HD constant running.
I wondered initially if it was AVG as it had just downloaded an update, but I was able to work for a few minutes, then the problems almost froze everything.
I stopped ZA and had nothing else running & it didnt fix, but I did see ZA had been continuously accessing internet so think it was AVG just hung in retrospect. After I got a successful restore, stupid me, I asked AVG to update, and then it started all over again.(back to square one! )
Now that it is gone, not a problem, everything is working properly with Avast, ZA and I have Malwarebits ready to go if necessary. I also used a program
called Advanced Systems Care3 which checked, cleaned registry, old files, after deleting AVG so I should be okay now, but before that every keystroke took 5 minutes to execute, so this has been a two day ordeal.
Thanks for hanging in there with me, I definitely felt strangled by the computer issues. With Avast free all works faster, hope it is good protection
Anne

 

No problem, glad I could help.

Avast will provide good protection. I was just recommending Avira because it is the one I use normally.