Super slow computer

I wasn't sure which forum to post this in, but here goes.

My mothers computer has been running quite slow for a while now, and just last week she started getting the pop ups for "Vista Antivirus 2012." I couldn't get rid of it, so I did a system restore to original factory settings. It is running slower than ever now. Loading webpages is painfully slow and sometimes it completely freezes.

Any ideas on what to do?


It is a Compaq Presario SR5010NX running Vista

 

Since you already did a restore, I think I would go ahead and repeat the restore process. Maybe it was a glitch in the restore. If you still have problems then we know it wasn't a bad restore.

 

I will try that now. I don't have a restore disc, I am doing it from the safe mode, if that makes any difference. (I don't have any discs)

 

Welcome aboard. Ya, your mum got hit by malware. Repost this in the malware forums after doing the Read and run me first and posting the logs. Also read the sticky about bumping in that forum. Good luck.

 

It shouldn't make a difference unless the recovery partition was damaged but if that were the case the restore should have failed. You should be fine repeating the process. I just want to be certain that the slowness is a consistent problem since if there is no easy answer than we would want to try another restore anyway, we are just doing it first.

Just to be clear you are using HP's FACTORY restore not just Window's System Restore, correct? When your previous restore was done you got to a generic desktop like fresh out of the box?

 

I got a fresh out of the box screen when I did the restore. I have spent 4-5 hours each day for 3 days now at my mothers house running the scans. Each one takes hours, I am about halfway done.
Would buying/installing a new hard drive solve the problems? That is where the malware would be, right? Does it infect anything else, or just the hard drive? I really can't see spending another 12-15 hours running scans.