laptop running extreamly slow..

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ryanrs

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hi, my brother complained to me that his laptop was running slow and he wanted me to have a go at fixing it..

i started off my checking that there is enough disk space left for the VM, to which only about 10gb of his 60gb HDD is used, so thats fine, then i checked task manager for any programs 'Eating up' at CPU resources.. all seemed ok

i then ran a virus scanner.... found 60,000 infected files (rounded number btw) between trojans and viruses !! majority of them was in a Morpheus directory..

So, got them all cleared up, and Morpheus removed..

but the laptop still runs dreadfully slow! from the time the Windows desktop loads -after logging in, it takes about 5 minutes before you can use the computer, mouse is a hourglass.. system tray icons dont show up for a bout 3 minutes.. sometimes if you try opening the start menu, or clicking on my computer it will load the initial window (eventually) but you are just left with White windows, as-tho they have crashed, and they eventually become functional once everythin has loaded..

i tryed Ctl + ALT + Del, so as i can see if there is any Resource eaters, but even the task manager wont load, till everything else is done..

once its all loaded, things like double clicking on 'My Computer' there is a Big delay before it opens.

The operating system is Windows XP home, and it has 60gb HDD, 1.3 Ghz processor (poss AMD) 512mb ram.

anyone have a clue what could be causing the Slowness?! it seriously like trying to run XP on a 386 !!!
 
It is more viruses and malware. Only way to get rid of them now is to format and re-install. Espically after 60,000 of them that were able to take root. Who knows what they were able to affect.
 
oke thanx... is there any chance there could be an infection on the boot sector thats not found by the virus scanner? if so, how do i clear that too when i re-install XP... or is that done automatically?
 
If there was a boot sector virus it would get cleaned out with a format. It rewrites the boot sector with a new install.

I am guessing that is one of the problems. Along with some Registry viruses.
 
id be more inclined to say run adaware or similar malware scanner. The viruses are most likely gone as the av softwares are very good. But they miss out the spyware and adware.

Give that a go and see what happens
 
That all depends on the AV applicaiton. If it is Norton or McAffe i would bet that there are still some on there. Plus AV apps do not do Boot Secotr scans. Only Avast! does. So there is still the chance that there is a virus.
 
well i think i will just start from scratch, as all the scanners are comming up clean.. there isnt much stuff on the computer that needs to be backed up neither so ill just format it. thanx for the help peeps.
 
reinstall is ALWAYS the LAST option
you learn NOTHING from a reinstall

here's a list of suggestions and tried-and-true (just did this Sat. myself) methods for virus/spyware/adware removal

---spybot search & destroy to get rid of the rest
---windows repair console from install disk, run 'fixmbr' to rewrite the mbr.
---there's also a program called EasyBCD (freeware) that should be able to fix an mbr virus.
---look at the msconfig (type it in run box) startup tab and remove the bad/empty entries
---navigate to reg key [hkey local machine>software>microsoft>windows>currentversion>run] and remove bad entries there (also check [run services, runonce, runoncex...] as there's usually some bad things there too)
---boot into safemode, and uninstall apps from the "add/remove software" utility
---i'd also recommend running a reg. cleaner, and reg. defragger
---and defrag the hdd
 
fixal0t said:
reinstall is ALWAYS the LAST option
you learn NOTHING from a reinstall

here's a list of suggestions and tried-and-true (just did this Sat. myself) methods for virus/spyware/adware removal

---spybot search & destroy to get rid of the rest
---windows repair console from install disk, run 'fixmbr' to rewrite the mbr.
---there's also a program called EasyBCD (freeware) that should be able to fix an mbr virus.
---look at the msconfig (type it in run box) startup tab and remove the bad/empty entries
---navigate to reg key [hkey local machine>software>microsoft>windows>currentversion>run] and remove bad entries there (also check [run services, runonce, runoncex...] as there's usually some bad things there too)
---boot into safemode, and uninstall apps from the "add/remove software" utility
---i'd also recommend running a reg. cleaner, and reg. defragger
---and defrag the hdd
Under different curcomstances i would fully agree with you. But over 60,000 viri is a different story. There is no software out there that will fully get rid of all of them. Let alone all the damage they have caused.
 
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