Good morning computer literate people.

My work computer has suddenly gone slow as hell recently.

So much so I cannot open word documents without waiting for 5 minutes and IE keeps crashing, MSN goes wild - its unusable atm.

The only thing I can think of is recently I tried to download a crack for a program ( :nono: i know) and Norton detected a virus - since that day its been awful.

I ran a virus check on Norton and 18 odd came up, since then I've downloaded Avast! and ran another check with picked up a few more.

I was looking at Task Manager and there's a program which is constantly using as much of the CPU as it can, always on about 97% usage or something. Its Explorer.exe other computers have this but they are using around 1% or 2% at a time.

I've also noticed that under 'connections' there's two new ones called:

CoolWeb

New Dialup Connection

Both aren't connected just bt broadband.

Any ideas, or what I can download to clear this mess up would be gratefully appreciated.

James

Run Adaware SE and Spybot S&D for starters... maybe grisofts AVG too.

Remove any unnecessary programmes etc.

Empty recycle bin etc - delete any unneccesary files. Then run a registry cleaner, restart and all should be well again. Maybe.

Explorer.exe is basically the main Windows process, eg Task bar, desktop, etc When it's hitting 97% it usually means it's trying to do a lot, eg starting up Word, IE and it should not be like this all the time.

If the computer's always running slow, look at removing unnecessary files, virus and spyware scanning, and defragmenting the disk. If it's just this time it's running slowly, try a reboot or just bring up Task Manager, kill explorer.exe (under processes) and then switch to the application tab on task manager, click New Task and type in explorer.exe...

Chris

Explorer.exe is basically the main Windows process' date=' eg Task bar, desktop, etc When it's hitting 97% it usually means it's trying to do a lot, eg starting up Word, IE and it should not be like this all the time.

If the computer's always running slow, look at removing unnecessary files, virus and spyware scanning, and defragmenting the disk. If it's just this time it's running slowly, try a reboot or just bring up Task Manager, kill explorer.exe (under processes) and then switch to the application tab on task manager, click New Task and type in explorer.exe...

Chris[/quote']

Sounds like a virus has injected itself into explorer.exe ... quite common... but unfortunately also a PITA to get rid of... if i were you id save your stuff off the machine and get it rebuilt:thumbup:

i agree with Tom_vRS in the above post.

www.filehippo.com will let you download Adware SE, spybot and AVG Antivirus.

Also download ccleaner from there, the best program in ages, my computer runs so much faster now.

the above are all shareware or freeware so no licence worries.

run these and you should be running fast agian.

I use:

AVG Antivirus

Spybot with Tea timer mode enabled for live scanning

and run ccleaner twice a week.

If worse comes to the worse and nothing helps try:

Malicious Software Removal Tool from microsoft @:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

You need to be running a legitimate version of windows to do this.

But beware this will remove all spyware (good), but may remove some programs like bearshare and other things. great though, got me out of trounle a few times.

Have you mistakenly got some hair products in the CD drive ? Maybe a hair clip in a USB port ?

Have you tried doing a System Restore to before the date the suspect program was loaded?

Also, in System Tools you should find a Resource Meter, which you can leave open in your system tray thus showing a little green box. The green "slices" go transparent as your resources are used and then turns to yellow (warning sign) then red (critical shortage). If you have the Resource Meter loaded also in your Start-up menu, you can see it go clear as things are loaded at boot-up.

You might find that "unchecking" boxes on the Start-up menu (then rebooting) helps. Programs such as Word and Excel etc can always be opened from an icon as/when needed, so if you start with the minimum required, you can monitor how much the meter drops when you load each thing.

Some programs always put themselves into the Start-up menu, though not all are necessary - for example you can open Adaware-SE when you run it. Also some MS ones are your choice as to whether you want them running in the background all the time.

Best

Mo

Edit: Unchecking start-up boxes is like a temporary visibility toggle - if you decide you do want a program to be "seen" (run) at start-up, just "check" the box again and reboot.

Another handy tip is to click on start, run and type in msconfig. then go to startup and untick all programs other than your anti-virus program. Should boot much quicker. Check the startup shortcut in programs too.

try a program called security task manager google it -run it- then look for big red bars its quite self explanitry if you know your windows task manger

post back if its a bit scary for you

Another handy tip is to click on start, run and type in msconfig. then go to startup and untick all programs other than your anti-virus program. Should boot much quicker. Check the startup shortcut in programs too.

Hi gillywibble

That's really what I was suggesting except with a little caution. So, not trying to be funny, but on mine, it's necessary to leave "System Tray" ticked and also "*StateMgr", otherwise mine's unlikely to boot at all in Windows.

There is a site which explains what most known things (at time of it's being written) in the Start-up menu actually do (one can accumulate quite a lot): here.

Initially, it might be easier for Walkie just to disable (untick or uncheck) items which he knows he can execute from the desktop or a Programs .exe file.

That way, he should be able to see (via Resource Meter) how much of his resources are being taken up immediately (i.e. before any applications are loaded) by the basic system files and files he doesn't know what they do (otherwise he could have unchecked them).

Probably didn't explain that too well, so hope it makes more sense now.

Regards

Mo

Good morning computer literate people.

My work computer has suddenly gone slow as hell recently.

So much so I cannot open word documents without waiting for 5 minutes and IE keeps crashing' date=' MSN goes wild - its unusable atm.

The only thing I can think of is recently I tried to download a crack for a program ( :nono: i know) and Norton detected a virus - since that day its been awful.

I ran a virus check on Norton and 18 odd came up, since then I've downloaded Avast! and ran another check with picked up a few more.

I was looking at Task Manager and there's a program which is constantly using as much of the CPU as it can, always on about 97% usage or something. Its Explorer.exe other computers have this but they are using around 1% or 2% at a time.

I've also noticed that under 'connections' there's two new ones called:

CoolWeb

New Dialup Connection

Both aren't connected just bt broadband.

Any ideas, or what I can download to clear this mess up would be gratefully appreciated.

James[/quote']

Better than my luck this morning

Put laptop onto dock, turn on, boot up, login screen appears, sed loads of errors including srvchost. Looked v much like blaster, and sure enough the RPC service traffic on the machine was odd. (Instant pull from the network time).

Now I'm waiting on a format and reinstall and then have the joy of getting my data and apps back up and going again.

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned taking the thing to whatever passes for an IT department and letting them sort out the problem

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned taking the thing to whatever passes for an IT department and letting them sort out the problem

My office and company consists of two people. Me and one other person, no IT dept to see here :(

The computers a write off I think, I've tried everything now and its dreadfull.

Walkie

If the computer is to your liking spec-wise, why not download a "hard disk clearer" (or whatever they're called) and then reload your OS et al?

I know of an s/w app that clears (shreds data) the disk completely, but there was a thread on here about 4(?) months ago which gave several options - and I'm sure one of them prevented any virus(etc) from returning after everything was re-installed.

How close to the window is your computer at the moment?

Mo

Only posting cos I'm way off 6K

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned taking the thing to whatever passes for an IT department and letting them sort out the problem

I did.

Never seen an IT department collectively **** themselves when i told them what it was doing mind.

If I get anyone with a PC with these symptoms I'll just wipe it and reinstall from scratch.

Do you have the original CDs so you can do this Walkie?

If I get anyone with a PC with these symptoms I'll just wipe it and reinstall from scratch.

Do you have the original CDs so you can do this Walkie?

I am sure I do somewhere.

Looks like this is the easiest/best option, other than getting a new computer..... Hmmmmm :rubchin:

I am sure I do somewhere.

Looks like this is the easiest/best option' date=' other than getting a new computer..... Hmmmmm :rubchin: [/quote']

If I've said it once, I've said it 6000 times that you musn't ever buy a computer which doesn't have re-install disks - i.e. must not get those where they are preloaded into a different partition which a service engineer cannot get at. I hope you do have/find the disks somewhere

Regards

Mo

:cheers: BTW