Not your average slow computer problem

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mo_0d

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(yes i have done the all the quick fixes I can think of;
-disable programs on startup
-scan for spyware/virus
-clean up registry
-defrag
-run CCleaner
)

Okay so I have this IBM thinkpad right, my brother had been using it until the LCD screen broke. He would keep it on days at a time and set his books down on it, etc, so I am pretty sure the thing just burnt out. So I hooked it up to an old monitor to start using it again and I've had some strange problems.

When I first started using it, I decided to do some scans to make sure the computer was clean along the lines of spyware and viruses. It wasnt running particularly slow, but I thouhgt its better safe then sorry. The computer had seen very light use and only a few things had even been downloaded.

But once I installed AVG it just seemed like everything slowed down tremendously. I will note that there was 1 error during the installation, it said;

"could not find folder "C:/Program" please create this to continue installation"... So I did that and it finished. Weird. After scanning with that, malbyteware and ad aware, I only found a bunch of zedo or zango tracking cookies.. No big deal, I just clean out everything with CCleaner anyway.

AVG also had 1 error when I uninstalled it.

Anyhow, thats the gist of it.. hopefully I didnt wall of text it too bad. Basically I think this computer is free from spyware/virus/trojan/malware/rootkits and all those nasty things from downloads, because my brother really only downloaded a few SC2 vids and Nero I think.. Its not just an old/slow computer (512mb RAM, 40mb hdd, pentium 4- not the best tho) because its running noticeably slower then a 10 year old desktop with pentium 3 and 128mb ram. with the only exception being WC3 is actually playable on it. What I mean is, the startup takes longer, it takes longer to shut down, longer to respond to requests like open a program.... The desktop icons load 1 at a time very slowly... initiating a connection to battlenet takes like 10 seconds when it shouldnt even take 1.

I'm thinking some hardware suffered from excessive heat as well as the LCD screen. I cant get the sound to work so Im thinking that is fried too..

Oh and yes I've already cleaned up the registry and defragged. That helped, but it keeps on slowing down.

I keep seeing "atl2evxx.exe" running and it has no apparent function but to take up memory. processes from avg still run even though I did an uninstall. I think 512mb ram is enough to handle what little programs I use..

I may just reformat, but for now Im going to see what i can do in BIOS
 
If I were you, I'd skip all this and reformat and reinstall. Wish I had another suggestion, but if the reformat doesn't help you can be certain it's a hardware issue of some sort. I'm assuming reformatting isn't an issue for you (i.e. you have an external HD and the Windows installation CD)? At any rate, best of luck.
 
When I tried AVG and uninstalled it I still had a lot of stuff left over from it too. I manually searched the registry for anything AVG and deleted it, seemed to help some.

Probably better off to do what milraved said and do a format and see how it runs after that.
 
I would do the same, if you have all the CDs and nothing on the computer anyways it can only do good to reformat the computer.
 
I would do the same, if you have all the CDs and nothing on the computer anyways it can only do good to reformat the computer.

I don't know... I wouldn't be using the original install discs, lost those a while ago. I would be using a.. "alternate" version of windows XP.
 
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