Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 22, 2011 - 10:46pm PT
|
The only tricks I know to put life back in this beast is to go to MSCONFIG / start up, and turn off 3/4s of the startup files. Then I run Spybot, which supposedly cleans up old temp files.
But having done that, the thing still takes 3 to 4 minutes to boot up. Any more quick fixes I should try short of reformatting disk and reloading everything. thanks
(Dell Inspiron 640 / windows XP, only 1 gig of ram)
|
|
Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 10:48pm PT
|
Get a Mac.
Now that that is out of the way, I'm sure good advice is coming.
*typed from an IBM Thinkpad.
|
|
Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 10:51pm PT
|
Instead of reformatting the disc, can you just do a simple "system restore" and restore
your operating system to an earlier time, try a couple months ago
you won't lose anything you want to save
and by doing so good chance you will be bypassing any inadvertently loaded in hooligans
But even if you have to retrieve you operating system disk and do a complete reload,
that should solve your problem, just backup the stuff you want to keep to load back in later afterwards
Did you already go to control panel and then to programs and take the time to uninstall
all the junk stuff you never use? This can help a LOT
Also, do you regularly defrag your hard drive
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 10:52pm PT
|
You may have a bot that's taken over , but more likely it's just that the registry has accumulated a bunch of errors and extraneous files.
|
|
Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 11:24pm PT
|
What do you think is the best one to get Werner?
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 11:29pm PT
|
Werner's got that right. We don't have much trouble with viruses at home with PCyllin running, even though the frequent updates can be a PITA. But, at work with Semantic someone gets infected at least once every couple of months.
The worst offenders are small company websites. They usually have the bosses son or something as the IT whiz. Another frequent source is small newspapers, often linked by aggregator sites . Same reason.
|
|
happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 11:29pm PT
|
My computer got a virus about 2 months ago and I was sooo lucky that a guy was staying at the Pit who went to school for programming and offered to get my computer to go again. It would boot, but wouldn't run any programs.
Anyway, he spent about 3 hours working on it, mostly waiting for the tools(or whatever they are called) to search for ..pieces?... of the virus. He had to go through it two or three times. But since then - all systems a-ok.
I believe I got hit when I Googled Eastern Mountain Sports. I clicked what LOOKED like the url, but when it opened, it wasn't. I clicked the X, but alas it was too late. My "computer" gave me a "You're Hit!" warning, and.....as some already know - THAT was the virus.
Grrrr
Anyway, this guy installed the Avast program, which updates every time I start up. It was free, but I hope Werner doesn't hold that against me.
So far it has caught two or three attempts.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Apr 22, 2011 - 11:33pm PT
|
I use Avira. It's German company and costs me $27 a year.
I've used it for 2 years now with no problems.
I also have a cloned hard drive sitting on the shelf that's hot plug-able for that just in case something happens like complete failure.
Do your baackups too and make sure you write them to DVDs
My back up DVD's are also cloned from my main drive.
Back up frequently.
My data is on separate hot - plugged drives.
If you're diligent about this and something does go wrong you can be back exactly like you were.
|
|
Robb
Social climber
The other "Magic City on the Plains"
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 03:08am PT
|
Download "Hijack This" program (freeware at Major Geeks) , run it (save results), and post it up to one of the many Hijack This(free help) web sites. 95 out of a 100 times they'll be able to tell you what's going on.
PS: Anybody using VIPRE for antivirus protection? If so, any feedback?
Thanks,
Robb
|
|
Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 04:20am PT
|
Thanks Werner. Times has changed. I thought it was okay to use some of the excellent free stuff out there. Guess not any longer.
|
|
rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 23, 2011 - 04:57am PT
|
OK, more info, maybe some improvement
I use Avast for my antivirus (free). I had it set for once a week update (I'm working from a really slow system in rural India), but moved it to constant automatic update. Scanned HD, but it found nothing.
I then updated my Spybot program to newest version. Spybot is supposed to clear temp file folder and then check for spyware etc. Recently the check temp folder segment has seemed to be going too fast. Maybe my spybot software had a virus itself?? Anyway, I updated my spybot program to newer version, and it found 10,000 temp files (that certainly slows things down), and 23 various spybot / ad ware programs. Cleaned those up.
My startup (boot) time is now 2 minutes 30 seconds from the moment I touch the on button until the system is fully ready to go. That is slow, but better than it was. Next I'll check defrag, but my hard drive is relatively new so I don't think that is the problem.
Maybe Werner is right and Avast isn't catching everything??
|
|
hb81
climber
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 08:19am PT
|
Windows startup does get slower over time as you add more and more software to your system, it's a normal process. Cleaning up your system every once in a while helps, but windows tends to keep bits and pieces of even uninstalled software so the system clogs up.
I'm using the free version of this for finding malware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
|
|
nature
climber
Kovalum Kerala India
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 10:21am PT
|
I get hits all the time.
ahhh... the dark side.
I've never ever had a problem with getting hit. I just must be a lucky apple owner. I'm sure it happens all the time to other mac owners. I just don't surf the "right" sites.
actually... I did have a term paper wiped away once on a mac. I used Micro$oft word in the computer lab. If I remember correctly the year was circa 1991.
|
|
JayMark
Social climber
Oxnard, CA
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 10:50am PT
|
For Win XP I've used Microsoft Security Essentials, SuperAntiSpyware and CCleaner to keep things running smoothly. To repair virus damage I go to Major Geeks and follow their instructions which have worked fine. (that includes HijackThis)
jem
|
|
Banquo
Trad climber
Morgan Hill, CA (Mo' Hill)
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 11:11am PT
|
WinPatrol is really useful for figuring out what is running and what it is. Pay the $20 for Plus. It will stop anything running and delete on reboot works for most malware. The "Recent" tab is great for finding new things when something goes sour.
|
|
k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 11:29am PT
|
The malware is executed in the web page script without have to manually click anything.
I never knew that an HTML page could execute malware scripts without downloading something. I guess if you enable JavaScript anything could go, but plain HTML?
|
|
HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 12:32pm PT
|
I second the motion for checking your free space.
"even on a Mac" you need not 10% but in my experience, at least 8 GBytes free (Mac OS10.6 or WinXP)
For either OS, 8 GByte free disk seems to be where the system comes to a crawl.
All modern OSes rely heavily on virtual memory which is geek speak for the OS thinking "To run this bloated software I need way more RAM than any turkey can afford so I'll use disk space instead". When that disk space becomes fragmented things slow WAY down. The less free space you have, the quicker it becomes fragmented again after you've done the de-frag thing.
The MacOS constantly defrags your disk in the background while you're running, things still turn to tar at about 8 GByte free.
One of the major causes of fragmenting your hard drive is the thousands of small files used by DLLs.
|
|
GLee
Social climber
MT
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 07:27pm PT
|
Thanks you for the advice.
|
|
monolith
climber
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 08:10pm PT
|
It's the black helicopters. Nothing you can do. Well maybe titanium foil might work.
|
|
marv
Mountain climber
Bay Area
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2011 - 08:49pm PT
|
you guys are paranoid. I download all kinds of porn and suspect stuff with Windows 7 and haven't had any system issues. I don't have any anti-viral software, much less anything I would pay a cent for.
2 years+ running Windows 7 on a Thinkpad
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!