slow computer, need help

[Kaeleen]

Hi,
I've been havin a bit of a problem with my Acer Aspire 7730 Laptop (operating system = windows vista ) It was running incredibly slow, games constantly lagging, flash player skipping and when watching a video on youtube it was like looking at a slideshow ! (but also applications like photoshop were running slow and giving errors) I thought it might be a virus or something but my Norton scanner could never find anything. So desperate to fix it I rebooted my entire system.

The first few days everything was running fast again, but now it's all gone back to it's old slow ways ... CPU is always at 100 % as well. When I check task manager it's whatever active process that's using that much CPU.

The only programs I installed in the few days that it all went wrong again were: Adobe photoshop 7.0, my Wacom Tablet drivers, Flash Player, and Dragon Age: Origins ... and a bunch of windows updates.

any ideas on how to fix this ? ... I don't know much about computers myself. I'd be most grateful.

 

[pjtrucker]

Hello Kaeleen,

Can you provide me the specifications of the laptop that you are using right now that is running in Windows Vista? What is the version of Windows Vista that you are using right now? Is it Home Premium or Professional? Have you tried to install other OS besides the Windows Vista, let us say Windows XP?

Thanks,

 

[deanj20]

Hi Kaeleen,

The first thing I would do is completely uninstall anything that says Norton or Symantec. It's a major resource hog. Follow the steps in this post, and we'll replace it with something equally effective and less demanding.

Next, run Malwarebyte's Antimalware in Safe Mode with Networking and remove anything it finds.

After that, download and install Piriform CCleaner. Run the program, and on the left hand side select Registry. Scan and Fix Issues. Continue scanning for/repairing issues until it doesn't find anymore.

Then, if you're like 90% of Windows users, you probably have a ton of extra programs starting up automatically when Windows starts up. You can disable unneeded processes from starting up by doing the following:
Go to Start-->Run-->type in 'msconfig' and hit <enter>

In the Startup tab, uncheck everything that you do not need running in the background at
startup and click "Apply." Then, in the Services tab, check Hide All Microsoft
Services, uncheck everything that you do not need running in the background at startup and click "Apply." Restart the computer.

Next, download and run the executable for TrendMicro HijackThis!.
Press the button labeled "Open the Misc Tools Section". Then check both the check boxes next to the "Generate StartupList Log" button and click the button. Click the button to generate the list, save it and upload it as an attachment to your next post, and I or some other forum member will advise you on what else to disable, if anything.
Then run HijackThis! in normal mode and
post your scan log here and we'll see if there's anything else that needs to be looked at.

Finally, you can install a free anti-virus to help keep you protected (these aren't nearly as taxing on your memory as Norton). I prefer AVG Free Edition, but I've heard good things about Microsoft Security Essentials as well. Avira AntiVir and Avast! are two more options. Please install one of these programs to help keep you virus free.

After you've done all of these things, please wait until the computer is idle (no programs loading/scanning/etc), and hit ctrl+alt+delete and make note of your CPU usage at the bottom of the popup window.

On your next post, please include both the HijackThis! Logs I've requested, your idle CPU usage, any steps you left out, the make/model of your computer, and let us know how your it is running now.

Good Luck!