Computer Problem...any help would be appreciated

[jwells777]

My computer is having a problem that I am having a bit of difficulty trouble shooting. It seems that the performance has slowed considerably overnight. A couple of friends of mine had checked their e-mail between when I last used the computer and when it began having problems. I am thinking it might be a virus so I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this problem. It also might be a hardware problem since it seems that the system info is not correctly reporting the processor speed. This seems unlikely though since the box has been up and running for a long time with no problems (Perhaps a virus that is able to alter system properties?). I am trying to run a virus scan with Norton, but the reduced system speed is making the process interminably long (probably on the order of a couple of weeks to complete...). Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions or experience with this problem please post some insight. Btw, it is an XP1700 running WinXP in case this makes anydifference. Running at about the speed of a pentium 100 right now.

 

[gwlam12]

maybe some programs didnt fully close. u should just do a reboot.

 

[Ryan]

Wrong forum, buddy. Try OPERATING SYSTEMS.

 

[rpc64]

I don't know if I've ever heard of a virus that can do that. Maybe a virus or some other program(s) are eating up all your memory? Do you have any temperature monitors installed like Motherboard Monitor? Maybe your processor is overheating.

 

[rpc64]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Wrong forum, buddy. Try OPERATING SYSTEMS.

umm maybe his topic isn't OT, but why would it need to go in operating systems?

 

[Kadarin]

The W32.funlove.4099 virus will cause some of the symptoms described. This is not to say that you're infected with this particular virus, or any virus. You're going to have to do some detective work in order to figure this one out. Good luck.

 

[LongCoolMother]

try rebooting first. if still nothing happens, try closing all the applications and processes that are non vital and run virusscan.

 

[jwells777]

My apologies if this shouldn't be in OT, but I always thought OT was kind of a free for all, no holds barred sort of place. At any rate, I have tried all of the usual suspects, hence my last ditch effort here in OT. The temps are o.k. on the processor, I have rebooted repeatedly and ensured that there are no rogue programs running. As near as I can tell, there are no suspicious processes showing the Task Manager and I am not hitting any memory limits. I suspect that this might be a virus similar to the one mentioned by Asteroth, although I have verified that this one is not present on my machine. Either that or a failing processor, although I was under the impression that these either work or they don't with no middle ground to speak of. Does any one know of a site that allows you to search virus definitions based on known symptoms? This would probably be helpful in tracking down the problem. As always, any help is appreciated.

 

[LordThing]

I would probably bring up task manager and watch the current running process while its being slow. Sort by mem or cpu usage and see if some background process is eating up your resources. It might even be the indexer. M$ added a file indexer to XP and 2K that constantly tracks all the files and makes updates...you really don't need it and can nix out of your services...


Check Here for a good guide on what services are running and what you might need. Tighten the belt on your system

 

[Doggiedog]

What kind of HDD are you using?

When my IBM 75GXP started to conk out, my PC slowed down bigtime. Could be the HDD if you have an IBM.

 

[Ipno]

Windows XP has a feature where it periodically backs up your system state data. You can restore to a point probably fairly recently and not hurt anything, and it would hopefully back out any configuration change that might have been made to the system to cause it to slow down. This wouldn't work if it were a hardware problem obviously, but you can at least eliminate a configuration change as your fault.

Also, Make sure your drive is not full. That could cause problems with a swap file or something.

As to where to go to restore system state... its been so long since I did that I forgot, but its not too difficult to find under administrative tools. I'm on a win2k system atm or I'd look it up.