Whats going on here?

N

newatit27

New Member
I sat down with a friend to some basic maintaince\clean up on his old p4

eg. spyware and virus clean because his computer was running really slow. So I did that got rid of the spyware an about 4 viruses however now the computer is worse .
It runs normal for 5-10 minutes then it slows down and freezes it is barley useable.

any Ideas whats going on here?

XP-pro
2.8 p4
80G HDD
512 DRR ram
 
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What are the system specs for your friend's system? That could be needed here if some other ideas don't work. A good number of things besides adwares, spywares, viruses, etc. can cause slowdowns. Reducing the startups that autoload with Windows can sometimes point to a program that may need to be reinstalled or removed.

The information that can also help is what tools were used for removing the "4 viruses" you have indicated? When was the present copy of Window installed? The slow down problem could also be from a hardware fault that may have developed or a simple update of the bios. System files have been infected and remain that way even though the source or sources were removed.
 
known system specs are in original post

I thought about using msconfig but I didn't think that could have been it since things where bad but not to bad before the spyware and virus removal.

all I used for the virus removal was the automated removal with AGV FREE EDITION 7.1 I've never had any problems using that program before so I thought it would be ok.

The present windows is about 4 years old.

also A copy of spyware doctor was on the computer which I tried to get rid of because having adaware was good enough but no matter what I tried it wouldn't go, I unistalled through add\remove programs that didn't work i checked the registry it didn;t seem to be there so I left it for thr time being

could that have anything to do with it?
 
If you have been running that installation for 4yrs. straight that can explain quite a bit. The system registry often accumilates useless entries, the drive may be somewhat fragmented if you haven't defragged it recently, and the possible corruption of system files.

AVG is one of the better ones but nothing catches all everything. RegClean free from Microsoft and RegCleaner freeware as well can find a number of lnvalid entries in the system registry itself. Besides Windows other installed programs can develop problems over a period of time. Besides running the msconfig utilty to reduce non essential startups a clean partition with a fresh installation of Windows may be needed. Four years without a fresh install of Windows to work with? :confused:

The current memory installed and a need for a bios update are two other things to consider with any older system besides the battery on the board itself. Does your friend have an installation disk? Besides anything lingering from the infection a run of the system file checker to replace/repair any damaged or missing system files may help. You simply type in "sfc /scannow" at the Run prompt and press enter to start that. Usually it will ask for an installation cd for verifying system files.
 
Actually what it sounds like is that the virii are reinfecting the system. Many new virii hide copies of themselves and put keys hidden in the registry. You go to delete anything and you might get lucky with it saying it has deleted it, but then when you go back, they're right back where they were before. These virii make me the angriest...like I want to punch something.

That is the first thing you have to search for before anything else. If those buggers are there, any other tool you run will be useless.

You may even need a professional to clean it. It can be REALLY tricky. Don't forget that some of these bastards are capable of evading virus detection. They are really ugly. I hate them.
 
What I-Worm type viruses do is infect files outside the usual system locations like files you save in folders you have created. Other types of malwares can simply be copied onto the root of the drive and then create new startups every time the system is started or restarted even after cleaning the system registry.

Another thing to look at is temps,, cpu and others. One option to see if something is still infecting the system is running a few other types of removers.

Ewido works well catching things AdAware SE doesn't and likewise AdAware goes after what Ewido misses. Webroot Spy Sweeoer, Spybot S+D, and several others can be tried out. But one way to determine if anything left is causing the problems being seen and not hardware related is the "install to repair" option where Windows is restored long enough for a total sweep of the drive while in safe mode. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
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