Genealogy Chat

I am currently experiencing a problem on my computer which i cannot resolve, this has been happening for the past 3 weeks or so, so any advice will be most welcome
Im using Windows XP and IE8
This is what i know

On start up its taking 45 minutes before i can open any programme.
During this warm up time
I get the usual notice pops onto the screen "programme not responding". Also say,when i try to open up GR another pop up saying "cannot be found"

When eventually i get a web page open after the 45 minutes mostly it just hangs there,then after a further 10 minutes or so it then everything operates normally

I have done all the remove temporary files, history, empty the recycle bin etc, the only thing i have not done is delete the "cookies" which i have not done as yet until i make a note of all my passwords etc, but could this be the problem?

I have also done a check in "msconfig" to check that the start up has only the minimum items.

The cooling fan tends to keep coming on, so is it overheating for some reason? vents not blocked, nor is it in a confined space
Done restore to an earlier time no change

Now my computer is about six years old, so any opinions whether or not its worth spending money on it to have someone look at it, with possible more expense for repairs, or should i just accept its better to buy a new one.

I hope this all makes sense
Any advice will be much appreciated, if i have miised doing something
I have the window open ready to throw it
Thanks

George

hi George,
might I suggest that you get into the microsoft help?facility.

I had a problem where I couldnt access any updates.although I had updates set to auto, I still wasnt getting any.

long story short.contacted the MS help, and followed their directions.had to do a couple of searches and screen shots, but they found I had a rootkit virus thingy....they sent me a killer prog, and all is well now.

Bob
is your antivirus program doing the hogging?

have you done a task list dump? ctrl+ alt+ del? see what stuff is running and what might be hogging the memory?

having done that go here

www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm


and check if they can tell you what all your programs are, and if you have some that shouldnt be there?
bob

BTW, if you DO have a virus, dont forget that you have to disable the Restore facility for the killer to get into the restore files

hello Bob

Thank you for your advice, i will try as you suggest, It just seems so strange, that once everthing opens up it all works perfectly.
Not sure about my Antivirus programme doing the hogging, but i will check that out
Your advice much appreciated

George

Hello Jonesey

Many thanks for your reply, i will check the things you have mentioned.

since the problem started i have been backing up daily, just in case it was going to pack up, which i thought it was going to do

Anyway i will check you suggestions and see how i go on.

Many thanks for your help

George

Jonesey

Thank you again for the advice about cookies, that will help me.

Just downloaded the piriform, the temperature reading now is 35 so it states OK, but i will check it if the fan starts up.

Gosh with all these checks i might finish up being an expert, and come out of retirement. LOL

George

Hi George,
If it’s any help, my Cousin had a similar problem with his computer, his was taking about 20 mins before he could use it. It turned out that after an automatic update his anti virus had got set to run a full scan each time on start up, so hogging loads of memory.
Regards,
Mayfield.

Hello Mayfield

thanks for your suggestion, i have just checked but my antivirus is not running at start up, good point it may have been something i missed, i know when it runs scans it does slow everthing down.

Thanks for your help.

George

Hello all

Well i have gone through all the suggestions and done what was necessary.

I switched off the computer after doing the suggestions, sorry to say its just taken 35 minutes to get back on again,

I suppose i am going to have to make a decision to get it checked out or buy a new one.


Once again many thanks to everyone for your efforts in trying to solve my dilemma.


George

Hi George,

Mayfield may have a point as many malware / virus scanners have auto scan on start up which can require "unticking" when dowloading updates etc.
It would be a good idea to check that all these types of programs only scan when you tell them to do so rather than at start up when they will clash and grab whatever they can............

What anti-virus and firewall are you running and what about malware and spyware removal programs.
Are you running AVG9 which as the latest version has been slated for grabbing lots of resources

Also are you still with SP2 or have you downloaded SP3 for XP.

Don't go spending your cash without making absolutely sure it's required.

Hi Frank

I do have AVG 9 the paid version, it is programmed to run on a daily basis but not on start up.

I am assuming my AVG has malware & Spyware removals, it certainly states spyware, which i understand includes malware

SP 2 or SP3 now that i dont know, again i have assumed this gets downloaded on the updates, i know i shouldnt assume anything.

I will check that.

Thank you for your interest, all info much appreciated.


George

Edit Just checked it is SP3 i use

George,

All the spyware programs do things a little differently so having a couple of alternatives is good.

Just to give you some idea of what's out there, here is what I run on my Vista setup.

Norton Internet Security 2010 anti-virus and firewall as well as the following all available from http://www.filehippo.com/

Microsoft Security Essentials.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_security_essentials_xp/

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.46

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

SpywareBlaster 4.3

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spywareblaster/

CCleaner 2.34.1200

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

If you haven't already, I would download CCleaner with Jonesy's instruction as follows....

""When you open ccleaner click in "Options" then "Cookies". You will be presented with a list of all the cookies currently on your computer. You can move all of those you wish to keep by moving them into the right hand panel. Once you have moved the ones you wish to keep you can safely delete the others. The ones you moved will stay in the "Cookies to keep" file for good so your passwords will be safe. ""

Allow it to run the cleaner and this will take some time if it is a first run.
Also in CCleaner, go to tools / starup and you can check all the startup programs on your computer, enabling or disabling them as you see fit.

Once it has cleaned up all the rubbish, I would download Spybot, Malwarebytes and SpywareBlaster

Spybot will only take a minute to run and update.

Microsoft Security Essentials, Spybot and Malwarebytes scans will take an hour or so perhaps more so you could even leave them running overnight

Just trying to get rid of any nasties which may be lurking about.

Worth a try ?

Hi Frank

Many thanks for the comprehensive list and info etc.

I did download the ones that Jonesey suggested, and did as he suggested about the cookies, didnt realise i had so many of them.
I will follow the rest of your advice tommorrow, my brain is going round in circles at the moment, plus im knacked.


Again thanks for your help it is very much appreciated, i will let you know how i go on.

George

I think that it is unlikely you have a disk problem nor is there likely to be an overheating problem, from what you have said. Both these are red herrings. It is quite normal for your fans to run continuously, especially in hotter weather - mine certainly do.

The fact that your computer works normally would confirm that it is something running on start up that is the problem. You should be able to check what is killing your machine by looking at processes in Task Manager, that is if you can get it to come up....!

You mention AVG9? My guess it that this is the culprit. I had similar performance problems when v9 came out and in the end removed all traces of it from my computer.

It doesn't even have to be running a scan, as it is AVG's background process what is causing you problems. When I mentioned it to my son he said he and many of his friends had dumped it too. It doesn't seem to affect everyone but when it does, you know about it as it grabs all available resources.

The resultant improvement in performance was spectacular, to say the least.

When you are sorted, hopefully, get yourself a startup managrer program - there are several free ones around, I have one called Code Stuff Starter which came recommended by one of the computer magazines recently.

First of all make sure only the programs you want are running on start-up,and secondly check all the non-windows processes that are also running. You might be surprised to find how many there are. Stop all those that are non-critical. Doing this for me, further halved the time it takes to boot up and that was after sorting out the AVG issue.

Hi George,

Just recalled that my mother-in-law had problems with XP SP3 and AVG 9 trying to install an update on startup which was taking forever.
She had stopped it halfway through and on restarting the computer found it was stuck in a loop where it constantly looked for the update but could not install it.
I eventually uninstalled and reinstalled the AVG 9 which solved the problem but the AVG 9 still was a resource hog.

Just to rule out an AVG problem, you could try switching it off totally so that the computer will start up without any interference from it at all.

DON'T GO ONLINE.............

If it starts and runs quickly then that may suggest AVG to be a problem.

REMEMBER TO SWITCH AVG BACK ON BEFORE GOING ONLINE..........

Just try anything to rule out problems so even unistall / reinstall AVG to see if that helps.

I don't think you can switch it off, at least I couldn't

I would go as far as saying uninstall AVG and bin it. Install something else instead such as Avira, which you can get from File Hippo


Alternatively use Microsoft's own product which is called Microsoft Security Essentialswhich you can get from here.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Nor would I go as far as saying DON'T GO ONLINE............. That is being rather paranoid.

As long as you stick with trusted sites (such as the ones I have posted above) and get a replacement installed as soon as you can, you will be ok.

Finally, by all means have more than one security program installed as backup, but don't have more than one running at the same time as this can cause big headaches. And, when I mean running I don't necessarily mean running a scan. Most modern security programs run all the time in background, often without you even being aware.

The other program that has got a bit to big for its boots recently is Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. This is another I have consigned to the bin as it also took up far too much resource.

Hello All

Well since 6 am today i have going through all the suggestions loading all the various progammes etc, running scans etc.
I have uninstalled the AVG and installed The micosoft one, but nothing has changed, in fact it now seems worse. its just taken 1 hour 15 minutes to open the GR page. But i would like to say i have uesd AVG paid version for the past 4 years 6 months without any problem, so i dont think AVG is causing my problem.

I ran spybot the result came up "no immediate threats found"although during the scan i did get a warning message as follows
" There were problems in the include file C:\program files\spybot-search destroy\includes\trjans.sb1"
Dont know why it stated that when the end result was ok.

The whole thing still keeps freezing, and at some point i could not exit any programme that was showing, also when i clicked on the start button then clicked on all programmes i just got a totally black picture where the menu should be.

I have reached the conclusion, that it needs attention, i think its on its last legs, so rather than pay out for repairs to a six year old machine, i am looking to buy a new one, much like an old car really there comes a time when its not worth spending money on only to get more faults occurring later.

so i would like to thank everyone for your advice and assitance in trying to resolve this issue of mine very much appreciated.
I suppose when i get a new one, another problem arise for me, how do i transfer all my data over LOL

Thanks everyone

George

Hi George

I had similar probs with my computer...it was practically unusable. I tried various anti spyware programmes at different times all to no avail and virtually emptied my pc of all unneccessary programmes and files.

The fact is that a pc of 6 years old still has a lot of updates etc that are taking up a lot of space. Take my advice and buy a new one!!! I have and it is bliss!!!
best of luck

Chris

George,

Running scans isn't going to help - the likelyhood is that it is one or more of these that is causing your problems. Believe me - I have been there.

Before you throw in the towel, can you check what is running on startup. If your machine is not stuck that is, run MS Config and check which programs are loading and disable them all. Then check which services are loading. Leave settings for MS services alone, but disable any other third party ones.

Incidentally, were you able to check what is hogging your CPU in Task Manager?

Hello IGP
I hope i am understanding what you are telling me, but here goes.
I have just run the Msconfig and disabled those that were ticked for start up, then checked again after restarting the computer, this now shows just two ticked CTFON & Google tool bar notifier.

Looked at the task bar, that just shows that GR is running which is the only programme i have open.

Not quite sure about MS services there are lots showing in there all ticked, perhaps you can just clarify for me.


I will switch off the computer a bit later, but i know i will not be able to say if things have improved, as i know when its been on for some time it does load faster than from cold if you know what i mean.

Thanks for your continued efforts on my behalf.

George

Hey IGP,

I wasn't being paranoid, just advising George that if he disabled AVG not to go online trawling through sites before he had re-enabled it.

As well as talking to George, many others read these posts and I would be horrified if a newbie thought it ok to switch of firewall / antivirus and carry on regardless!!

I don't know about you, but I have a wife and kids who do hit some strange sites which has Norton throwing an occasional wobbly ;))

I know of it because I read the Norton reports..........
I'm aware of your dislike for Norton and I also had my fill of it many years ago although it has now improved markedly.

Just be careful out there.

George, in the end my mother-in-law did indeed buy a new laptop and her cable broadband just took off like a rocket.
I had considered a fresh install of XP etc but the thought of it just put me off......all those updates!
Windows Vista is a lot quicker to reinstall.

Never did figure out why on the old computer her broadband acted like dial up!?

Good luck.