Lee said:
Hi there, I am running a pc with Windows XP Home, Intel Celeron 320 D CPU,
512 Mb DDR. But the pc doesn't seem to be able to cope with running any
programs. It will run them but the CPU is always at 100% in the task manager.
I've sorted it out a little bit as it was only running for 5 mins but now
you can use it a lot longer. There is a lot of processes running and I think
they are unnecessary but would like to know the right way about removing
them. I've run all the adware and spyware removers and there was a little
bit of spyware on the system which I hope is gone now. Do you suggest I do a
screen dump of my running processes and start up processes so you guys can
have a look at this and give a bit more details advice? All your help will be
much appreciated. Thank you, Lee
Lee, I am a computer hobbyist, not a professional. But I have taken care
of stuff installing at boot this way. It has nothing to do with the
Celeron processor. My guess is something is loading at boot up and iit
might be a virus, not just spyware.
Several ways to appraoch this. You could go use "System Restore" to
restore back to a previous point and see if that takes care of your
problem (by changing your registry back to the way it was before you might
have gotten a virus or badly written spyware). Go back a while if you
can.
Do this 1st, boot up your computer into "Safe Mode". This eliminates all
of the stuff that loads into your RAM when booting normally, except those
essential Windows things. After that, check your CPU usage after running
a program and see if it is OK or not. Usually if I am not doing anything,
even if I have started a program, my CPU is only using from 2 - 5%,
depending on what program and if it doing anything. --- OK? This will
tell you if it is a software problem, becasue your CPU should be much
better now. and it is a software problem.
You have not mentioned anti-virus software. Even if you have some, go
online and have other anti-virus software sites scan your computer while
you are online. A friend mentionwed to me something called 'Giant". which
i have never heard of, as to finding a problem that Notron/Symantec online
couldn't find.
If a few anti-vurus scans don't find anything, take a look in start\all-
programs\start-up, to see what is loading there. Next, there is a lot of
stuff that loads another way. To see, "run" the command line "msconfig" .
You can un-check the files listed there. (I think you have done this).
These are also loading into RAM swhen you boot up. You can un-check-mark
stuff there, but it lasts one time, then reverts back to having a
check-mark in front of these programs next boot up.
But you need to figure out what is essential & what is not, and what might
be spyware or a virus.
Here is how I used to do it , a different approach. So again, if you find
your CPU usage is OK in safe mode, then you know something is loading and
screwing you up, probably loading at normal boot-up.
So, one at a time, write each filename or partial filename into the Google
search engine, or this being a Microsoft newsgroup, I better say use the
MS search engine. Usually I can find results about something. But if
nothing can be found, or if you see it is a non-essential file that is
loading or says it is spyware or something, I would next do a search of my
hard drive for the file or program, and when found, I would create a
folder right there where it is, and move that file into the new folder -
this is a precaution in case the file is really a needed file. Then after
taking care of this weird stuff, I'd reboot normally, and see how your CPU
was going. If later on everything was OK, you could go ahead and delete
those folders that contained the stuff you put in there..
There is a way to care of this stuff from loading by changing your
registry, but I wouldn't mess with it. What I'd do after deleting this
weird stuff, is to eventually run a registry cleaning program. My Norton
SystemWorks 2004 has this as part of the package. So I am supposing it
fixes the Windows XP registry, getting rid of the now-dead code in there
that used to start those questionable files you deleted. There is a
freeware program that deletes all kinds of temporary files on your hard
drive - but also it has a registry cleaner in it. It is called BeClean.
I would, the first time anyway, before I ran the part of BeClean that
cleans your registry, to go to "System Restore" and save a restore point.
Just in case. You can also do a registry save (don't know how offhand,
but I have done it).
Later on after you get some experience you can mess with changing your
registry directly. I've done it once, with well written instructions from
this newsgroup, & it took care of a problem I was having with a Windows
"Installation Wizard" that kept popping up & wanting to install my already
installed webcam. This was happening whenever I tried to start one of a
few programs. (I don't know what program the Wizard belonged to, or how
this glitch started).
...D.
P.S. - I use Norton anti-virus as part of Norton SystemWorks. But, I do
not recommend buying anything Norton. This is not because they do not
make good stuff - but because, and only because, if you do have a problem,
they are the absolute worst company in the kn own universe, for taking
care of individuals with technical help. (Voice = $2995 per incident, &
no Usenet support (years ago used to). Only a website you need to be
technical enough to find your problem on and do what it says with your
fingers crossed. There is a way to email them for tech help, but hard to
find the button on their website. Then on the other hand, each year now
my upgrades to the next release of what I already own, are free, or pretty
cheap, when you take advantage of their always rebates - example, I had
Norton SystemWorks 2003. I upgraded to 2004, and with the rebates it
cost me about $12. Now this year even better, for the 2005 release, I can
upgrade for $0 after rebates. And, each upgrade gets me another year of
free subscriptions to updates, like anti-virus definitions.
