Please help!! I am new to all of this!!

This whole process is a little frustrating and overwhelming to me. I have a Compaq Presario V5206M and it is running extremely slow...if at all. It takes about 45 min to start and get a browser running. I currently run AVG Antivirus and Spybot Search & Destroy. All scans come back clean but when I open the processes tab there are at least 50 running. I wrote them all down and looked them up in processeslibrary.com. Several of them were listed as malware or trojans. I don't understand why it doesn't show up in any of the scans. I am in the process of going thru the Malware Removal Process in the other section of this forum but due to the slowness of my unit it is taking forever! Could this be a hardware issue instead of virus/malware? Also what is a normal amount of processes that should be running? Thank you for any help you can give!

 

I would suggest you finished the malware removal process before trying to move ahead.

Malware is well known for crippling a PC. Hopefully it's just that and from the sounds of it with just the info above I'd say that's your issues.

Normal amount of processes varies depending on Operating System and how many "little" progs you have opening up on start. I used to run XP at around 28-32 when idle but Vista and Win 7 run a fair bit higher numbers than XP.

Hope the Malware cleans up and with any luck you wont need this thread

Welcome to the Forums

 

Thank you for responding. Still working on the Malware Removal, taking a very long time. By the way, I am running XP sp3. Right now my CPU is bouncing between 70-96%.

 

I'm no expert, but it might be quicker to reinstall the operating system - that will certainly get rid of any unwanted software.

However don't do that unless you are 100% confident that you can handle the process and you have all of the original installation disks.

We had two laptops that were getting to be grindingly slow and over the Christmas holiday I reinstalled the operating system on each machine and now they are running as sweetly as when they were new. But it can take a long time to get all of your software (in addition to the operating system) reinstalled and set up as you originally had it.

Hope this is helpful.

 

Adding on what Nedlamar said, also make sure that your anti virus software is updated,because it`ll need to have the latest updates to identify the latest known viruses.When you update AVG, make sure you update it until it can`t find no more updates, then it`ll be fully up to date.

Also this bit is a bit technical so don`t blame me if it goes wrong, but if you click the start button/windows logo in bottom left, and in click run for windows xp and in windows 7 where you have the search programs and files bar, type in msconfig this in xp should just open to a new window, where as in 7 it will require to click the program to open it, then click he startups tab and then where you have the small boxes with ticks in untick any you don`t want starting up,ONLY and i stress this part ONLY if you know what programs they are, if you don`t know or ain`t sure, either post them in this thread or just leave them as they are.

If after this it`s still slow but you know there`s no viruses/spyware then try a disk defrag using your disk defragmenter,this basically is like the equivalent of organising your files so you know where a certain file is, this is what the disk defragmenter does, it organises all your files/programs, so it can find them quicker.

Just out of interest how much memory/RAM have you got?

 

I really have to say this and it may come off as arrogant, it's not meant to be so please don't take offence.

@James... While I agree to some extent, a reinstall is dependant on many factors, such as "does he have ALL data backed up?"
Does he know how to format?
Does he have a full windows disc etc?

@Lonewolf... Once again I agree with this to some extent, personally I prefer to stop startup processes at the root of the prog if possible.

Both of you are trying to help I know, we all like to help.

But.... His thread is still going in Malware and until he has finished that process all this extra info is going to do is confuse the matter and possibly make things worse.
Saying just for arguments sake he stops the process that a bug scanner is looking for so now it misses it?... back to square 1.

Like I said right at the top.... finish the Malware process first!

 

That`s what i said, do the stuff i said when the malware removal is finished,and if the problem ain`t sorted after the malware removal process.

 

Oookay... at no point in your post did you mention malware lol
I presume you are talking about AVG, that's not really the same thing.

He has a thread going in the malware forums and is in process of removing whatever it is he may have.
My point was to finish with that thread/issue/solution before embarking on different diagnosis in a different thread.

Like I said, not being funny at all, just saying. Having made the same mistake myself in the past