Slow IE loadup and other wierdness in XP**SOLVED***

[viperbri]

I have something wierd going on with a friend's computer. Everytime he clicks on IE to load it up it sometimes takes a minute to even load IE and his homepage. Also when we do finally have IE up and we go to the pull down in the address bar it causes IE to hang. It is Win XP Pro SP2.

Another problem (related or not?) is that when we use Save As in any program (ie Word, Excel). It hangs on the pull down for the Save In box for about 45 seconds and finally pulls up the list of locations to save.

Also when we double click on the My Computer icon we get the flashlight for a minute before it pulls up the list of drives.

This is what I have done so far for troubleshooting:
- Ran Ad-Aware, Hijack This...found nothing unusual.
- Ran a full virus scan with Mcafee...found nothing.
- Cleared out the temp internet files and history in IE.
- Install Opera to test web...loads right away...web pages and everything.

We would switch to an alternate browser (Opera, Firefox) but some of the banking sites require IE.

Any ideas on what is wrong? Or what to do to fix this?

 

[aGreenAgent]

Download this:

http://www.ccleaner.com

Run that bad boy, usually helps with this stuff.

 

[mechBgon]

If needed, also run these:

1) LSPFix

2) WinSockFix

3) Microsoft AntiSpyware beta, do the full-version scan and also go to Advanced Tools and reset the browser stuff there

4) Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, often a rude awakening, but hey

5) F-Secure BlackLight beta (rename the executable before you run it)


What version of McAfee do you have, and what engine and DATs is it using? Is it armed for "potentially-unwanted programs," as McAfee euphemistically calls adware/spyware? You might also try Kaspersky's webscanner too: link. Let it run overnight if you have lots of data to scan.

Another question: if your friend has broadband, does he have a router to provide perimeter firewalling?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Spyware cleanings need to be performed in safe mode. You also need to remove malicious BHO objects or you'll just re-infect yourself when you open an explorer or IE window (thank you M$ for integrating IE into the OS).

Please refer to my detailed spyware remove instructions here: http://theflyingpenguin.com/spyware-removal.shtml

You should also see if there's a long delay when you RIGHT click on a file. If so, he probably has a mis-behaved contect menu item, which may also be causing the delay with the drop down menu. Go here for more info: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Hope this helps...

 

[viperbri]

Hey guys...thanks for all the tips. I will give it a go and let you know what I find out.

 

[viperbri]

Turns out it was the HP PSC 2610 Printer software was creating the problem. There is a big issue with using the HP PSC scanner over the network...it has a problem with the Windows Image Acquisition Services.