Add and remove

My daughters Dell laptop has been acting up so I went to Add and remove program and noticed it is full of windows updates?? There has to be 30 updates there. Should they be in there? Also is there a program I can d/l to do a scan to find problems on the pc.

Its running XP home on a Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop

Thank you for any help.

 

Also, what service pack? What antivirus and other security? Internet problems or just general performance? What browser? How much RAM?
The more details you can provide the better advice you will receive!:wave:wave:wave

 

She has had so many problems in the past from downloading music and junk. Quite a while back she took the windows XP home cd and reinstalled it I guess over everything she has on here. The problem I noticed she has is its slow and I cant defrag because theres a popup from windows saying it wont because it has 6% and will only do 15% or more.

 

That explains it all. She has 6% free space and at least 15% is needed to perform a defrag. How big is the HD.
That isn't all of the problem. You would need to go through the programs and data files and start deleting, deleting, deleting. I'd guess at least 20 gig worth.
Then you'll have to go through the autorun programs, I'll bet she has at least 30 to 50 of these, should only be up to 8.
You didn't answer what the RAM and security software is???
After you've done the above, I'd stronly recommend running the Malware scans from the Malware Removal forum. I'm certain you'll find more that one problem.
Conversely, and the route I would take, would be a complete reformat and reinstall of the OS, giving the 'puter a new lease on life. But all data would be lost, so be sure to save and non-entertainment stuff she's got.
Either way, you'll find plenty of help here, just please answer questions posed.

 

I did run combofix and found there was a rootkit infection detected? I know this isnt all the info you need but im on the run today and thought I would throw this out there for now.. As always I cant thank everyone enough!!

 

Forgot to add the file on the scan

 

Dirtfan,

If you want help with malware removal, please perform "READ AND RUN ME FIRST" in the malware removal forum and start a thread there for help, link below;
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

I am trying to help you with software issues and I have asked several questions that you haven't answered. If you don't know where to get this information off the computer just say so and I or somebody else will help you with that.:confused

That said, the harddrive is loaded to capacity, so you can't deframent. That we can help you with.
The computer has dozens of resource hogging programs, that we can help you with.

You have indications of malware, so that needs to be your first priority. It is unlikely anyone outside of one of the Malware Fighters can do much for you until your system is clean.
:wave:wave:wave

 

512MB ram
Local Disc C says (usage 91%)
Security I have all windows updates and run Avira antivirus
I really dont know what else to look up im sorry..

 

Okay, for starters, goto start - control panel - add remove programs.

This is the list of programs that have been added to the computer. Few, if any, are necessary for the computer to run.

Remove anything that has the following terms in the name;
itunes, google, msn, yahoo, aol, music, quicktime, trial, toolbar, easyshare, photo, picture, norton, mcaffee, avg, super. Remove ALL of these. If a program won't install from her windows uninstall, then enter the safe mode by tapping the F8 key when starting up, then use the arrows to select safe mode and uninstall the programs from there.

This will be a lot of uninstalling and may take some time. Fellow Geeks here, I'm sure many of you know more program names that are likely on here, so chime in. :confusedThe hard drive is 91% full! And A LOT of stuff must be removed.

Also, 512 RAM is very low for this, but that can be saved for later if you can get through the preceding, hopefully with help from other musicphiles.

After this, come back with how full the hard drive is now. We must get it below 80%.

Then another question to fellow Geeks here, because I don't use them, is there a fast and efficient way to erase the likely countless music,video files on this machine? :confusedYes, they will be gone, but this thing is so clogged as to be almost useless, not to mention the likelihood of malware.:wave:wave

 

I guess I will just do a clean install? Its locking up now. Just need to find the cd and go for it I guess..

 

If asked for a quick format or full, pick full.:wave

Then be sure to do the updates from MS. Post back if you need some help with security, drivers, etc.:wave:wave

 

Im at a loss now? It wont let me complete the reinstall. It will go so far and the hang on a file then ask if I want to skip it or try again. I try again and it still stops. I tryed to skip and it just wants to stop again. I see no reason toskip any files ..

 

I couldnt get it to work (ctrl F11 ) but I did get a fresh install of xp sp2. Now im trying to get on the net but no luck?

 

You will now need to install your chipset and network drivers. Go here;

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Enter your service tag, (I believe a 7 digit number, or is it alphanumeric?, found on a label on the bottom of the computer, Dell has instructions there to find it)

This will give you a page for the needed chipset and drivers. Install the chipset, reboot and install the network drivers. This should get you connected.:wave:wave:wave

 

Not sure how to do this? Do I D/L to a cd and try to install on the lap top that way? Thank you all for your patients and help very much..

 

If you are talking about the chipset and drivers, yes, save to a memory, I like a flash memory stick, and install onto your computer from there.:wave:wave

 

It wont let me D/L the chip set and save? It wants to D/L to my pc..

 

I just went there, I click on download, I get the choice to save or run, I click on save, I get the choice of where to save to.:wave
You don't get the same?

 

No it just wants to dl to my pc? I always dl stuff and it ask me were to save it to but this doesnt?

 

Are you by any chance using firefox? I'm using IE and I have no problems?? Maybe because you found this with the service tag no.?? What if you navigate there by type and model, clear cookies first?:wave

 

Went to IE and it saved it .. Now going to try and send to a stick..

 

got them loaded but the cpu said they were already there? I have went to the network connections and theres only one thing showing (1394 connection )

Went to do a repair and a caution box poped up ( windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed:
Failed to Query TCP/IP settings of the connection. Cannot proceed. )

 

So you must have had the original install disk? Guess I missed that.
I drivers are good, goto control panel, click on internet connections or options, set up new connection wizard, I believe you have broadband always on, correct? Just go throught the steps and you should connect.
If problems, try the tool found here;
http://majorgeeks.com/download4372.html:wave:wave

 

I tryed that and didnt work. The link you posted is no good shows error

 

I think Brandypeppy means this: http://majorgeeks.com/download4372.html and not: http://majorgeeks.com/download4372.html:wave:wave. Hope that's right brandypeppy.

 

I know you guys are getting sick of me. I did the win sockfix no luck.. I have gone to computer management and looked in network adapters and theres only one ( 1394 net adapter ) also just below that in other devices everything has a yellow question mark = ethernet controller = network cont=pci device=video cont=video cont ( vga compatable)

 

From what I've been able to find so far, the 1394 net adapter(Firewire) is used for things like cameras, external hard drives and connecting to another "Firewire" equipped computer. If you don't use it for any of these things, try disabling the "1394 net adapter" and then try another repair attempt if necessary.

Disabling the 1394 adapter shouldn't impair the computer in any way, unless it relies heavily on an external hard drive connected by firewire.

Do remember though, that if the 1394 adapter is used for anything like a camera for instance, the device(s) that use the 1394 will not work until the adapter is re-enabled.

I'm not even sure disabling the adapter will help in any way, but it is something to try, just to see if it is interfering with the process in some way.

 

Plasti,
Thanks, didn't know those waves were attachable! :wave

 

I have noticed when I go to control panel/network connections there is only one connection type in there? That is the 1394 connection? What am I missing ?

 

Im not sure but I may be wasting everyones time. Got fed up and went to do a reinstall of xp and it keeps stopping while loading. So I either hit enter to try again to see if it loads that file ( which it hasn't yet ) or hit esc and skip the file. I have skipped over 10 files already and only at 56% of the down load..

 

Thank you for that info. For some reason I tryed that f11 awhile back and it didnt work. But I have got the internet to work now and ran a test from pcpitstop and this laptop is in bad shape..

One of the problems is the disc space ( Drive C has only 21% of its space available.)
I think on my reinstall of xp it just goes over the existing copy?

defragment files .. Drive C has 3% of it fragmented, a total of 33% is data in fragmented files.

Update drivers it says ? Not sure on how to do that? Always afraid to D/L something wrong..

 

I'm not sure I would trust that site, looks awful commercial to me.

You said before your drivers were okay, done. Your hard drive is terribly full, 81%, near the max allowed to do a defrag, 85%.

I would go to the add/remove programs and start deleting everything that has any of the following verbiage;
msn, aol, yahoo, google, ask, toolbar, quicktime, itunes, center, update, research, kodak, messenger, chat, music, record. And any other program you can pitch, if you highlight them, it will tell you the last date the program was used. Many times, I've seen 2 or 3 years ago for last use. You may have to do some of these in safe mode.

Then download and run cCleaner, both clean and registry clean, making backup to the registry when prompted, though I have NEVER had to use that;

http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_No_Yahoo_Toolbar_English_d4191.html

NOW, defrag, how's it run? :wave:wave

 

Add & remove has 11 programs in it.
avast
Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem
Dell resource CD
Dell Wireless WLAN card
Digital Line detect
Easeus Partition master 5.0.1 Home edition ( i instlled that )
Hi Def audio driver package
Microsoft Visual C ++2008 redistributable - x86 9.0.30729.4148
Synaptics pointing device driver
Windows driver package - Ricoh company(rimsptsk) hdc
xp service pack 3

Just ran cc cleaner and removed 74.1 mb
Registry scan 14 problems fixed

I just did a defrag and it is complete for C:
Says ( some files on this volume could not be defragmented. please check the defragmentation report for a list of these files.)

 

Does it run any better?
Your hard drive is full, only 18% free, the max it should ever be is 85% full, you're at 82%. Over 85% you can't even defrag. You need more storage or fewer programs, this does degrade performance. :wave:wave

 

seems to but is still slow? Im not sure if its the Avast antivirus (not setup correctly ) or what it is?

My internet speed is really down ( slow ) for some reason..

Im not sure but wonder how to see if all my drivers are up to date..

I did get rid of the movies and limewire on here to.

I go to windows and programs to look for things to delete on here because add and remove doesnt show anything anymore.

Also Thank you sooooo much for the help you've given me..

 

Slow with IE. Try goto start - accessories - system tools - internet explorer, no add-ons. Is this better.

Could you also post a list of your autoruns from the "tools" then "startup" tab in cCleaner? Go there, press crtl along with prt sc. Then open Paint, edit tab, then paste. Save as "Startup" file to your desktop, then attach to a post here. :wave:wave

Also, what security software are you using now?

 

Couldnt get to IE from system tools ( not there )

CC cleaner under startup only has Avast showing thats running.

Security software is Avast ( I updated it today )

I also was wondering why when I reboot it goes to the black screen to where I have to scroll up to start windows? The other says recorvery and setup.

 

Me thinks we need a little more info here. Let's take a look at "Task Manager"(see attachments). Right click on a blank area of the "Task Bar" and select "Task Manager" from the context menu. When "Task Manager" pops up, click on the "Processes" tab near the top of the window. Look near the bottom of the window for:

"Show processes from all users" and make sure the box is checkmarked/ticked.

Just below that will be listed "Processes: xx", "CPU Usage: x%" and "Commit Charge: xxxM / xxxxM".
We need to know what's in the place of those x's (i.e. Processes: 35, CPU Usage: 5%, Commite Charge: 464M / 3684M)

Once you have that information, look near the top of the window, click on the "CPU Time" column header. What process(other than System Idle Process) has the highest number in the "CPU Time" column (i.e. firefox.exe 0:09:48)?

Lastly, for the time being, lets take a look at memory usage.

Click on the "Mem Usage" column header and see what five processes are using the most memory (i.e. explorer.exe 43,048K and so on).

We also need to find out what is using all the drive space. WinDirStat is pretty good for this. This is a direct download for WindirStat which is a 630KB setup file.

I probably missed it somewhere, but what is the "Capacity:" of drive C:? Click on "My Computer" > right click on "Local Disk (C)" > select "Properties".

Until some information can be put together that makes a little more sense, that's a little hard to answer. However, some one may have that answer. We need to stick with solving one problem at a time.

Indeed... some attached pic(s) of the pertinent information would be helpful. An attached pic can only be 97.7KB or less in size so make them small enough and save them as either jpeg (i.e. .jpeg / .jpg) or ping (i.e. .png) file types. Might want to take a look at these three "sticky's":
Taking Screenshots
How To Cut (Copy) And Paste
HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post

Brandypeppy, I didn't either.

You must have special abilities

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processes :24 CPU Usage 1% to 11% commit charge 198M/1227M
Foxfire is 78,000K



svchost SYSTEM 27.164K

The next highest one is 7000K from antivirus..

Will get more info and post soon ..
Thank you for all the help

 

Screen shotsNot sure if they loaded?

 

Having trouble loading them

 

Trying again with no luck ?
Here is a copy of my defrag this I just finished again.

 

59% that's quite an improvement :celebrate Is it running any better now? You should try to keep the amount of free space above 50%. Once it gets much below 50% free, system performance will start to degrade.

Your numbers from "Task Manager" look decent although it would be nice to get the number of "Processes" a little lower.

Brandypeppy wanted to know what was starting up with Windows because this is usually where some major improvements can be made in system performance.

The first place to look is in the "task tray" by the clock. Any thing sitting in that tray is running and using resources, some you need some you don't. From what cCleaner showed, the orange avast! icon should be the only non-Microsoft icon sitting there and you need that one. If there is anything else in the tray, determining if it's needed or not is important.

The next place to look is under the hood(so to speak). MA has posted some information on how to Disable Unneeded Services In Windows XP. You might read through it and follow the link to BlackViper.com but be careful, disabling the wrong service could seriously impair your computer. Don't hesitate to ask us about a service if you're not sure.

At what point are you having trouble attaching the pic(s)? Are you getting any error message(s), if so, what are they? What is the size of the pic file?