my laptop is driving me crazy. i have installed mcafee,avgvirus-spy ware,avast,root kit(avg?)ad aware, and it is still not working right. it's slow, cuts off the internet(cable) freezes etc. i still have 50% cpu space. did disk clean-defrag but nothing helps. i think it's a virus but don't know
any help would be appreciated.



Thanks in advance,
Eric

 

Do you have everything important backed up? Format the HD and reinstall your OS. Preferably with Linux

 

vista?

open task manager and see what is using the processor?

 

no i didn't make a backup. i had assumed like my old computer that it had restore disks. i can burn restore files but will that just transfer the problem to the disks?i have windows xp. in the task manager it says 64 processes, and the item using the most is system idle process 94-97%. the cpu usage at the bottom says 3-15%. is linux something way different then windows?

 

Yeah, it's a different OS, very small part of the market. Free, open source, pretty much virus/spyware/trojan free. I switched when Vista came out and haven't looked back, but it's not for everyone.

 

ahh, i see. i wouldn't mind the change but my wife just forked out some $ on programs for her busssiness (windows live? bunch of other stuff). ultimately she will need a larger capacity computer but i'm trying to fend that off as long as i can.

 

Is it just one program that is slow like Internet Explorer or is it all of them?

 

with 64 running at a time it will be super slow. see what you need running every time you use the computer and stop the rest until you need them. not quite sure how to change those settings (the wife does all the stuff requiring brains.. i just do the heavy lifting)

 

best bet is take it to the neighbors kid, the one that is a wiz with things lke this........ he will most likely go into msconfig and stop half of those 64 items from running on startup, then he will most likely clean out the registry, get rid of a ton of leftover junk lyin around in temp files........ then maybe he will get rid of all but the most recent restore point and run defrag again. mite even set the computer for best performance, vs best appearance........

 

Did it just start recently? If so go to the system restore in the accessory/system tools folder and go back to a known date that you believe the system was running correctly.
If that doesn't work it could be hardware. Could try booting into DOS and play around with it and see if it still locks up. If so it's hardware. Processor thermal or memory is high on the list for problems.

MikeyB

 

Uninstall all the programs you added and start all over.

 

64 processes isn't bad. I just have FF running and I have 59 processes.

If your processor is only running at upto 15%, then there isn't anything that is loading up the processor to slow things down. something is probably not responding.
How much memory does your laptop have? How cool is your laptop? Most of the modern mobile processors (celeron-m, cetreno-m, pentium-m, sepherons (or whatever AMD is calling theirs)) have the ability to slow their clock speed to cool and save battery power. If your laptop isn't getting adiquate airflow (or is dirty), it may be slowing the processor down to protect itself.

 

normally, internet explorer, but lately it's been all of them

 

this has been doing this for awhile now. some months ago i had thought i fixed it-i guess not. i did the restore thing and went back as far as i could-same thing. as for the dos part, i know nothing about it

 

Had the same type of problem on my home PC

There are some parts to McAfee that gobble up the cpu.

I think it's the virus maping part. remove McAfee and reinstall only the virus scan. Don't add all the extra crap....