Going really slow

[ack]

My comp has started going really slow. Its very hard to do anything. I run windows xp. I looked at the taskmanager to see what was taking up so much and i found the the explorer.exe shell was using up all the processor speed. Is there any way i can fix this without formatting my hardrive?

 

[apj101]

might be worth running some anti virus and anti spy stuff. This is a common cause of slowing down. Read
http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=14397

 

[Byteman]

Try this see if that's it...?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819946

 

[ack]

No that's not it byteman, i already have my settings set like that. The problem happens when i open up a folder so it does seem like it is that problem but what they say to do does not work.

 

[Byteman]

Do some investigation... open taskmanager, and start ending processes one by one, each process you end, check the CPU and see if it calms down. If it does, note which process you just ended, there's your problem child. Let us know...

 

[ack]

I'm working on it, but i have ended every process i could and nothing has changed. I'm scanning my machine now for adware and spyware.

 

[ack]

Ok, it must have been adware and spyware. Because now after i removed a bunch of adware and spyware its running good again.

 

[apj101]

glad to here it

 

[Byteman]

Same! Odd though... if you kill the process of the offending spyware, it should have done it as well, unless (most likely) it automatically restarts itself when killed. (which is more and more becoming the norm ). Anyway, like apj101 said, glad to her it!

 

[apj101]

Same! Odd though... if you kill the process of the offending spyware, it should have done it as well, unless (most likely) it automatically restarts itself when killed. (which is more and more becoming the norm ). Anyway, like apj101 said, glad to her it!

wouldnt that require 2 processes, one start the other when it dies? Quite clever really

 

[Byteman]

what's annoying is when you kill one and it starts right back up again but has morphed it's file name. Those get tricky to eradicate. oopps I think I'm getting off topic...