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[ASturge]

ARGH

My comp has been running really slowly for some time now.
I have no idea why. I have a bajillion gigs of memory left, so I know it's not that.

The only thing I can think of is viruses.
So I did a complete virus scan using AVAST. It comes up with a few Trojans, which i 'Send to Chest' [Whatever that means...]
Nothing, comp-still-fucked.

The only thing I can think of that may be doing it is the fact that when i hit Control+Alt+Delete, i have about a million apps running which i dont know about and that have funny names like "ashwebserver"

So i've tried to get rid of these...I have no idea how....

Can somebody please save me from this computing disaster!?

It's got to the point where the msn popups that tells you that someone has just come online judders, as it come up....My comp is having trouble loading up an msn popup.

Please help.

Any suggestions, tips or links are welcome.

[Trollstormur]

sounds like your kernal is busted. re-install your OS.

[ASturge]

Won't that kill all my files?

as in, the large amount of *cough* entirely legal dvds i....have?

[Inanimate Object]

If it's running really sluggishly, you might need to defrag your drive. I'd try that before re-installing the OS.

[shrimp]

Did you try checking for Spyware and adware?

Try running AdAware or SpyBot Search&Destroy.

Thanks to the fiance who likes his compies and is technically minded (and works in tech support)

Give that a try, if not reinstall your OS.

[Mr Putter]

I'd recommend checking for spyware too, but really if you've found trojans it's a pretty good idea to reformat. I try to do it every 6 months to a year - it only takes a few hours and it's good to just clear out all the crap you've accumulated and forgotten about.  

See if you can convince someone to lend you their iPod/Hard disk, then you can dump all your media and important stuff onto it and get it back once you've reformatted.

[shrimp]

I'd  also recommend, once you've got it sorted, that you then run a spyware removal programme at least once a week, more if you visit lots of "dodgy sites".

Good luck and I hope you get it sorted soon!

[Super Dave]

Yes, try defrag.

Also, if you're running Windows, go to the microsoft website and get their anti-spyware program. It's by FAR the best Anti- spyware program out there for FREE!

[Trollstormur]

Man, get a second hard drive for all your legal DVDs. my media drive is a 150gig and I've used 75 of them on music, video, comics and install files, and if my windows gets messed up I can quick-format and reinstall without fear of losing anything.

[Tedd]

Have you tried increasing your paging memory file? the default windows one is 256-768mb which is like Mike Tyson fighting a small child with soiled pants. Try all of the above tips and then increase it from 1000-2000mb.

[jhocking]

See if you can convince someone to lend you their iPod/Hard disk, then you can dump all your media and important stuff onto it and get it back once you've reformatted.

Or just buy one (an external harddrive that is.)  $100 is easily worth having a backup of your entire computer.

[5thWheel]

The only thing I can think of that may be doing it is the fact that when i hit Control+Alt+Delete, i have about a million apps running which i dont know about and that have funny names like "ashwebserver"

That suggests virussy trojanny spywarey things are still lurking to me.
You could try a different virus scanner (www.nod32.com do a 30 day full-feature evaulation for free, which I have used before when Avast failed to spot stuff).

You could try googling for each process you see in task manager.  There are lots of sites that tell you what is essential to windows and what is not.
You can prevent stuff from running on startup by doing
Start->Run->msconfig
and unticking startup items, but not all os's have this.

You can manually prevent stuff from starting up by looking in the registry
(Start->Run->Regedit - only if you are feeling brave!)
under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
and deleting anything suspicious (AFAIK Win2k and XP don't need anything under this registry key, but your printer driver etc might legitimately put stuff here).

Also (more obviously) in your start menu in the "Startup" folder AFAIK nothing is required by windows.

XP services can be enabled/disabled using msconfig (and it helpfully allows you to distinguish between MS ones and non MS ones).
You can disable 2k services by right clicking my computer and hitting "manage".  If you disable an important MS service you may end up screwed.

Unfortunately, nastier things (MS ActiveSync for one :p ) will automatically reinsert themselves into the startup groups.  Starting in safe mode may allow you to edit them out while they are not running, I am not sure.

Disclaimer: you can *really* bugger up your PC by messing in the registry, and can probably do bad things to it if you disable essential services.

[LiterSize]

Hopefully you have a system restore point set before the computer did all this?  (If you have system restore available on your comp.)  I just used it to save mine and my sister's computers recently (Easier than reformatting, IMO).  I think it automatically does a point once a month and you'll only lose any programs that were installed AFTER that date.  Basically a month's stuff (my pictures and music were intact after the fact, still)


Good luck.  And thanks 5th wheel, I've been trying to remember what that command was!

[Matteh99]

I would say back up your stuff and format the sucker..  If you don't have original disks that came with your computer Driverguide.com has a great tool that will let you backup all of your non microsoft drivers.

I have worked on hundreds of computers with spyware and viruses and usually they end up having to be formated.  I run spybot, adaware, spysweeper, microsoft anti spy, trendmicro's spyware remover and alot of the time the computers are still screwed up.  System restore never seems to do any thing accept bring back the spyware.  The only thing that works for sure is a format..

Backups are good to have any way...

Eric Matt

[ASturge]

Ok, i totally restarted the computer...

All the weird processes are STILL THERE

!?!?!?!??!?!?!

I hate all technology

[GebStar]

Backup and Format. Do you have two computers on the network? Shove it in your network folder and work from there? Also, i don't know if it's possible but you might be able to partition your harddrive without restarting, if it's big enough, split it and put all your shit there.
 
Formatting is the best thing to do, i do it once a month, i've got three partitions and i only format the windows one so that all my junk is cool, but doesn't attack my windows.

[decklin]

Yeah, just buy another drive or PartitionMagic or some networking kit. Move your data off, and install Windows fresh. (You can also do this in-place with a Linux boot disc but it's not for the faint of heart.)

After a certain amount of spyware etc. it's just not worth it trying to clean up.

After you get it cleaned do *not* use IE or OE *ever* and run MS Antispyware/Adaware/Spybot religiously. And I would recommend AVG over Avast.

[ASturge]

It's weird.

Sometimes I log on, and the CPU is at 100% despite not having anything running.

Other times it works perfectly fine.

I'll definatly get the anit-spyware stuff though. Thanks for the gogos

[AgentOrange]

When is the last time you opened your computer?

Dust is a bitch.

[Peet]

Try going to adaware.com and downloading the free spyware thingy. It worked for me.

[jhocking]

Dust is a bitch.

Seriously.  It doesn't sound like this is the case here, but it may be worth cleaning the inside of your system.  I've had computers that gradually started bogging down suddenly perk up when I dusted the inside.

[DavidGrohl]

Control + Alt + Delete .  Check the processes that are taking up quite a bit of your RAM / CPU.  Usually if it's an "Owner" process, it doesn't neccessarily need to be required to be run.  Go by priority (the amount of Memory it's using up, when you're eliminating them).

After doing this, click Start and go to Run . . .
Type:  msconfig       then enter.
Your system configuration should pop up.  The last two tabs, sevices and startup, are what you want to be looking at.  Uncheck the ones that are problematic.  The Location of the files are also a big hint as to whether they should or should not be running.

Just my two cents.

[Peet]

Try going to adaware.com and downloading the free spyware thingy. It worked for me.

When I say ''worked for me'' I mean ''didn't work for me and I just had to buy a new motherboard and hard drive''.

Just so you know.

[jhocking]

That's quite a typo.