Need help with malware on a WinXP laptop

There is a possible partition and MBR infection here as noted by RogueKiller and also by info from MGtools showing the below partition in red

Code:

Partition Disk #0, Partition #0 
Partition Size 47.03 MB (49,319,424 bytes) 
Partition Starting Offset 32,256 bytes 
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1 
Partition Size 49.78 GB (53,456,094,720 bytes) 
Partition Starting Offset 49,351,680 bytes 
[COLOR=red]Partition Disk #0, Partition #2 
Partition Size 4.64 GB (4,984,519,680 bytes) 
Partition Starting Offset 53,513,671,680 bytes[/COLOR] 

Do you have have your WIndows XP boot CD?

 

Okay well before we go about deleting that 4 GB partition that I flagged, is this PC stillhaving any form of problems?

If it is, I will be having you create a special bootdisk containing G-Part that we will use to remove the partition.

Having the Windows Boot CD, is a precaution incase the MBR needs to be rewritten.

 

Well the only possibly thing to do is delete the partition I pointed out. There is no guarantee that this is the problem, but it is the only thing that is in question. We can do this if you want, but I would recommend backing up all important data to an external drive or to DVD before doing this.

 

Now that you mentioned it, I checked into those details in your logs which shows the below

Code:

Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~798 Mhz 
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB 
Available Physical Memory 601.89 MB 

Yes this PC is way to slow to be used with Windows XP. And in addition, we do not recommend any less than 2GB with Win XP these days. I doubt your PC even supports that much memory but even if it did, the processor speed and type is just too out of date to properly/efficiently run current versions of Windows.

I would leave the partition alone and live with the slowness until you can manage to purchase a more current PC. Other things you could do is remove that McAfee Security Suite and use some tools that are not so resource intensive.

 

It's not so much the age as it is the changes to the software on the PC. Original barebones Windows XP did not require as much horsepower as current XP SP3. The same is true for other software that has been updating especially protection software. Modern protection software requires MUCH MUCH faster and much more memory.

Vista and Win 7 are no more secure in reality.

No way. And I don't typically recommend security suites as they contain too much other baggage you don't really need especially on a slow outdated PC like this. You can try Avira for antivirus and it includes antispyware too. And stick to the Windows XP firewall to try and save on resources. Not ideal but you have to work within the constraints of the CPU. In fact on such an old processor, you really cannot get to great of performance unless you leave off the security software. Not really a great thing to do but it would improve performance while increasing the risk of infection.