Computer PAINFULLY slow out of the blue

My computer was booting and running fine, than all of a sudden, it started to take about 2 minutes to boot up, instead of the normal 30 seconds. Now, it takes LITERALLY 10 minutes to boot up.

I had this problem about 3 months back...same symptoms. I backed up everything and reformatted my system and it went back to working fine again.

I'd really like to avoid reformatting yet again if I don't have to.

I have defragged, run adaware/spybot and did a full system scan with AVG Virus scanner. Everything has come up clean.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Hi, and welcome to MajorGeeks,
From the sounds of your symptoms, you have spyware applications or trojan's running! Please go to the spyware forum on MajorGeeks, read the instructions in all the sticky notes at the top of the page, follow them, and then repost with the results!

 

I had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. It was the Downloader.small.15A trojan. AVG got rid of it.

 

Thanks...I did everything, and now I'm having new problems.

The vast majority of web sites I'm trying to go to with Firefox now no longer work. AOL.com for example no longer works. How can I fix this?

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but did yo do EVERYTHING the tutorial mentioned: specifically getting AdAware/Spybot Search&Destroy an making sure that they are UP TO DATE? -Did you try running them in Safe Mode? -Did you update a REPUTABLE antivirus and run that? -I only ask because it seems that your symptoms *should* be cured by following those instructions. By all means post back here if you have tried all that to no avail...hopefullly someone will have a suggestion.
Yours,
522.

 

Yes, I did EVERYTHING they told me to. I am a faithful ad-aware/spybot user, and scan my computer every day. I also have AVG, and did a full system scan there as well.

My system seems to be booting up normally now, but now Firefox seems to be corrupt. I uninstalled it and re-installed, but I keep getting errors, pages won't load, etc.

Did any of those programs I ran corrupt Firefox?

 

Fixed it!

I had to go into Firefox manually and clear the cache. I guess it wasn't getting fully cleared with CCCleaner.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

I may be off track here -but did these problems occur when you updated to XP SP2? -or update a proggie to a newer version (like Firefox) -If so: I have a friend with the same problem -but we've yet been able to find the cause. I suspect (but can't be sure) that SP2 install f*cked up due to existing Spyware/Malware on the system.
Oddly enough I'm going to my friends house tommorow to reinstal the OS -luckily he is an avid fan of backing-up to his secondary HDD, so we can do this safely... ... ...anything sound familiar in that?
-522.

 

Well...that will be the first thing I try tomorrow then...though I suspect that my friends problem is more entrenched than that...
Yours,
522.

 

I will say that I've only experienced this problem since SP2's been on my system, but the second time this happened, SP2 was installed as soon as I formatted my system, so I doubt it has something to do with malware corrupting the installation.

I am not one to install/uninstall many programs, which is why this problem is so weird, It is definitely running faster now that I ran all the spyware removal, but I NEVER use IE, so I don't even know where that spyware came from.

 

But did you install a firewall and AV *before* you connected to the net? -I *bet* you didnt -as that seems to be the cause of most problems... Remember that you can become infected with a couple of Viruses within a few seconds of connecting if you aren't protected.
I could be wrong -Tell me if I am!
Yours,
522.

 

Yes, I did. I installed AVG, Ad-Aware and Spybot all prior to establishing my internet connection.

 

Whats good Spaceboy88,

1) What operating system do you run? (including service pack version)

2) Do you have a router? Or run a software firewall?

3) What AVG version do you run? (including definition file version)

4) What Adaware and Spyware versions do you run? (including definition file versions)

5) If you have not lately, run a chkdsk of the hard drive(s). Make sure it's thorough. Make sure repair is enabled or it won't fix errors.

6) Provide a brief description of your hardware. Nothing crazy. Just some basics.

With this information, people here can better determine this problem of slow booting which returned from three months ago. We can determine if it is software or hardware related, and go from there.

 

Spaceboy88,
Download the latest version of CC Cleaner from MajorGeeks, it clears the cache from FireFox as well as IE.