BleepingComputer.com: Computer running very slowly

Hi. Starting a couple days ago, my computer has been very laggy. For example, opening up My Computer or Firefox takes 5-12 seconds. Also my applications have been freezing and crashing (i.e. the message "this application is not responding") including Firefox, Wordpad, and explorer.exe. First I tried downloading Google Chrome to see if that ran any faster than Firefox, and it doesn't. Next, I ran MBAM and Spybot (the scans took a few hours each) and they turned up nothing. I also used autoruns to stop some executables which were unnecessary or possibly malicious, and that didn't seem to help either. I'm not sure what's wrong, and using my computer now is very frustrating. Could someone please help me?

This post has been edited by boopme: 17 July 2010 - 09:31 AM

Just as a quick update:

My computer seems to run slowly only while browsing the web. Youtube videos are so choppy that they are impossible to watch. I use Firefox. Since my last post, I've also run an ESET scan, which showed no infections, and defragmented my hard drive, which hasn't seemed to help.

Hello, I moved this to XP from AII,,, iguessed at the Opereating system. Please advise if it is NOT XP,thanks.

Hi .

Is this the same system...on which the malware situation was resolved on 1 Apr 10?

There are any number of reasons why a system may run slowly, malware is only one.

Slow Computer-browser Check Here First; It May Not Be Malware - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic87058.html

How much RAM is installed on this system?

Did you run chkdsk /r before defragging?

Have you taken a look in Event Viewer for clues?

Do you experience the same problems using IE?

Have you tried uninstalling Firefox...and then reinstalling/updating?

How To Use Event Viewer - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html. Focus on items listed as errors...warnings and information items typically require no user action/interest.

Louis

Hello hamluis. This is an XP system, and it's the same system on which the malware issue was fixed. It has 2.0 GB of RAM, and I was experiencing the same lag using IE. Today I was prompted about a new Windows Update, and I installed it. Things have been running smoothly since then, but I'm not sure if the two events are related. I took some of the actions suggested anyway. Since my last post, I have:

-checked my laptop's vents. They're clean, but I noticed that one of my fans isn't running. The laptop gets a little warm there. I couldn't check inside my laptop because I don't have the appropriate tools to open it.
-cleared my Firefox cache and history. I also made some of the tweaks suggested on the slow computer/browser page.
-ran a disk cleanup.
-ran an error check. It found and fixed a bad sector.
-did not run System File Checker, because I'm not sure where my XP installation CD is...
-opened Device Manager and checked the statuses of the devices. I found no errors, although under the Monitors category, I noticed I have four copies of Default Monitor.
-defragged my hard drive again, since I didn't run CHKDSK beforehand the first time.
-modified which services are automatic, manual, and disabled
-turned off indexing
-disable ctfmon.exe
-adjusted my visual effects for best performance

I looked in the event log, and there have been about 40 errors since the problems started occurring. Would you like me to give these to you? As I said before, things are running smoothly now, although I don't really know why. Things seem even faster since I optimized my computer a little bit, but things might just seem that way since my computer was slow just a bit ago.

Thanks again for your help.

If it's running well...no need to stress .

You might review some of the errors reflected in Event Viewer...for your own knowledge. When errors are generated, it's XP's way of saying "Wake up and do something about this!!"

If you use the link I previously provided...and Google...you will find adequate documentation for most errors and indications of what should be done to overcome such.

Good luck .

Louis

Alright I'll look into the errors. Things are still running smoothly. Thanks again for your help!