Very strange windows and Dell problem

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Alright, here goes the description of the problem. I dont have first hand interaction with it (at college instead of home).

My mom has a dell, I dont know what model or how old, but it is running xphome. My bother, some of you may know him(spiidersniiper on tf), decided that the pc was running slow, so he ran macafe. he said macaffee found four folders or files that were not good, and it removed them, he did not reboot the pc like macafee told him to. He didnt say if performace increased after that. But later that night when my mom went on the pc it was crawling, with the cpu maxed out all the time. She rebooted it to see if it would get better, but no success.

So the problem is that the cpu is maxed out and something isnt allowing any cpu cycles to be used for any other program. When you three finger salut, task manager flashes on, then off. You cant get msconfig to stay open either. Windows Explorer we have moderate succes with, but you cant move files around because the cpu is maxed out. Even in safe mode the pc runs just as slugish. So it sounds like there is something wrong with a file in windows, since the pc run slow in safe mode.

I suggested putting the xp instal disk in before boot up and runing windows reapair. Because windows restore wont always open, or wont work at all, even in safe mode. Also booting to the last known god config wont solve the problem.

So unless some one has a suggestion, and windows repair doesnt work it looks like i'll have to take the hard drive out, back up the files and reinstall.

Any help, ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Blitze105]

first.. u can always use another virus scanner.. i never agreed with mcaffee.. but ne how.. ur tak manager wont say open??? thats not good..
i doubt ud miss something like this.. but make sure ur cpu temp isn't high... if not try using hijack this if u can.. sorry that isn't much help but thats all i can really think to cause it.. (if mcaffee already looked for viruses) u said it is not ur computer so.. try hijack this and spyware search and destroy.. i dont know if u have enough cpu to run that much.. but hijack this doesn't take much cpu or time so maybe...

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Well I'll see what happens with hijack this, but since the computer was slow in both normal windows and safe mode, I am assuming its not spyware or a virus, but something in windows.

 

[Inaris]

SFC /scannow.
try that and see if it helps...
Check the start up folder and the entires in the registry manually.
\software\microsoft\windows\currentverions\run | runonce
in either local machine and current user.
good luck
**EDIT**

better yet, boot into safe mode, and run this program..
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
it has the most recent viruses out there and is very good at removing them. Then, while still in safe mode, run spybot (install if you don't have it already) and clean up the junk that is there.
I'm sure your little brother can figure it out since you are not there. That should get you to the point where you can work in the system. There are more things to do after this, but that should be a good start.

Good luck

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

yeah that's spyware \ virus for sure, if mcafee picked up ANYTHING their is alot more it didnt pickup

 

[Blitze105]

yeah that's spyware \ virus for sure, if mcafee picked up ANYTHING their is alot more it didnt pickup

ty!!! haha.. but im sorry i coulnd't give u a better solution

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Yeah that post from dj chris just solved the problem totaly. I cant thank you enough. Seriously he has a history of worthless posts.

Inaris, do I run that command under start > run ? I have used stinger. The problem is that even in safe mode most programs cant get any use of the cpu clock cycles. I'll give it a try, but I dont know if it will work.

The command you suggested, wouldnt the repair option with the cd fix many of the same problems?

Thanks to those who have worth while suggestions.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

It is not pointless since reinstalling windows XP is generally easier than trying to fix deep rooted spyware and virus's...

 

[Trotter]

Re-installation of Windows is not always a viable option. Although repairing Windows doesn't normally mees up a hard drive (well, it didn't my bud's when I fixed his), reinstalling wipes everything.

If the problem can be fixed without resorting to the extreme, the solution is worth seeking. Besides, reinstalling presents no challenge whatsoever, while hunting down the problem and figuring out the necessary steps to take can present ample opportunities for those who are brave enough to step up to the task.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Reformating and reinstalling is a last resort. I keep this computer very clean, run a hardware and software firewall, av scans every sunday night and updates, run spyware software that doesnt find many things. So I highly doubt it has anything to do with a virus, spyware.

I said that before dj chris. If you read my post, you would see it more likely a windows problem, since its slow in safe and normal mode.

Reinstalling is a pain, and you often loose a day doing all that. On my computer I use norton ghost to save the time, and keep my drive clean.

DJ CHRIS, keep trying, some day your reply might be on topic. No one mentioned reformating, I dont know where you found that one. Try to contribute something to the thread.

I suggested to my mom to try the scf /scannow, I'll see what happens with that. Inaris, any other ideas? Thanks.