Everything very slow

First of all - I'm not sure whether this in the right place. I couldn't find a sort of general technical help forum so if this in the wrong place, I apologise.

Now on to the problem! My computer is running very slow. It's got a pretty decent spec but is very sluggish. It generally takes about 15-20 seconds for programs to load. When burning CDs onto my computer it takes about 20 minutes per song!! The one computer game that I have (Football Manager 2005) is running too slow to play. I have Norton Anti-Virus but it takes about 10 seconds per file to scan which means it does about 10% of the WINDOWS folder in 24 hours. It's just too slow to be useful. Also programs like MS Word and Excel "do not respond" once opened.

Now from my little computer knowledge I thought my computer would just be littered with spyware, trojans and viruses. So I did everything on this guide. I ran Adaware and Spybot - it found quite a lot of spyware which I them removed. I also ran McAfee Stinger and the online virus checker. One trojan was found, thats it. I ran everything except the optional things. But I am in the course of running them. So far there's been little noticeable change.

I do have a HijackThis! log but I won't post it yet as the guide told me not too!

You will probably need more information which I'd be happy to supply but I would just like some helpful insight into how I can fix this slowness.

Thankyou in advance

 

Oh yeah one other thing - I've recently run Scan Disk and disk defragmenter. The scan disk report said everything was ok there.

 

You'll need to post your specs: What Operating System are you using, how big is your hard drive, how full is your hard drive, how fast is your processor, how much RAM do you have, video card, etc.
How many processes are running on your machine? Press control/shift/esc and hit the tab that says processes. You'll see a number at the bottom that should tell you how many you have running. Let us know that number.
Also, you need to see what is on startup. You can download a program such as Startup inspector for Windows, and turn off everything you don't want, except for your anti-virus, of course.
You may also want to switch to an anti-virus such as Avast that will use less resources than Norton. Norton is notorious for adding to system sluggishness. Avast is free.

 

Thanks for the reply.

My specs are:

Windows XP OS
Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor
512MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

I'm running 34 processes.

The thing that makes me think that its not the specs or Norton thats the problem is that my computer has ran quite fast before with Norton. But you will know best.

I've actually just downloaded AVG free edition, updated it and done a scan. It found nothing. I also ran an online trojan scan. It also found nothing. Quite strange.

Is there anything else you will need?

 

You may want to go here and see what you can trim down. And don't forget to download the startup inspector to see what you can turn off.

Also, do you have all the latest updates for Windows?

 

OK will do. But how do I check if I have the latest version of Windows? I don't remember downloading an update anytime recently.

 

OK I've got rid of some useless processes that was suggested in that guide. I've also downloaded that Start-up program and "unticked" some start-up processes there.

I tried a Norton scan in safe mode and it was very fast! I've just done a full system scan but it found nothing. So according to Adaware I now have no spyware and according to Symantec I have no trojans or viruses.

In safe mode everything is so much faster. I'm burning a CD now and its very fast. I don't know whether this is normal.

Any other suggestions?

 

romac,

I have dealt with a very slow computer much like yourself and did the same steps you just did. The major thing that changed the speed of my computer was ditching Norton. I had Norton Anti-Virus and Security and is a huge resource hog. Once I uninstalled it (Add/Remove in Control Panel) and replaced it with very dependable and free Avast (Anti-virus) and Zone Alarm (Firewall) it's amazingly faster. Think it over....

Stephanie

 

Thanks for the help. I decided to uninstall Synamtec Antivirus Corporate Edition. I was half way through the installation when I suddenly had to go out. I quit the installation as I wanted to be able to monitor it and I knew that I would be out for a while. So anyway, I came back, turned on my PC and Symantec Anti-virus seems to be gone. No desktop shortcut, no icon in the quick start icon menu and no folder in Start>Programs.

The Symantec folder only contained a "Live Update" folder. I followed this
manual uninstallation guide.

Now to the point! How do I know if its all uninstalled? It didn't probably uninstall automatically. Is this a problem if I followed that other guide?

So I think Norton/Symantec is gone and I've installed Avast. But doesn't seem to be a significant difference in speed. Thats why I'm not sure whether I've completely Norton/Symantec completely.

 

You may need to check your processes and see if anything is running your CPU at a high percentage. At the bottom of your task manager under the processes tab it will tell you the percentage of processor being used. Also by each process running it will tell you how much each process is taking. Check these and see if one of them maybe maxing your CPU.

 

Actually I've hadn't checked that yet and there's one process that is using 95-99% (it fluctuates) of the CPU and it says 100% CPU usage at the bottom. But the process is a "System" process called spoolsv.exe. Is that critical?

 

Well I just ended that process as I found out it either had a)something to do with a printer or b) it was a trojan. So far so good. My computer is extremely fast now and I can still print. Will let you guys know if there's any complications but thanks a lot for the help.

And Avast and ZoneAlarm are terrific. Avast detected 2 viruses that Norton didn't and the firewall keepers popping up saying its blocked a load of stuff! Brilliant.

 

The Spoolsv is a printer service. If it is using alot of resources it means it has pages stuck in its que. You can stop the spool service through the control panel, administrative tools and clicking on services. Find the print spooler service and stop it. Then go into your c drive, windows folder, system32, spool, then printers. Delete everything in the printer folder. Once you are done you can re-start the print spooler service the same way you stopped it.

 

Thanks. Yeah there were 6 jobs qued (sp?) in one folder. I deleted them and everything is running great! After all that work it was a simple solution. Oh well, at least my PC is nice and clean now.