Computer slow even though I had it checked out

[ANDORYUU]

Is it just the web or the computer in general?

What is your system setup? ie. PC WinXP, Vista.

Have you tried disabling the firewall, anti-virus software?

Have you adjusted your internet options?

Have you done a re-install?

 

[star-warrior]

When my computer did that, I decided to back up all my important files, then used the disks that came with the computer and started afresh, as it formatted and reloaded a factory fresh version of the operating system on once again. Do back up everything, and consider writing down your settings on paper for the internet access, the passwords for the sites you use, and their web addresses, because all that info will be "wiped" and you'll need to do it once again the next time you use it.

Occasionally, the more crud you put on like programs, utilities, and the saving of junk on your system, the more slowly it runs.

If you don't want to do something as drastic as this, then clear the internet browser cache, and see if that helps.

 

[star-warrior]

When you're switching on the computer, how long does it take before the desktop appears?

Mine used to take upwards of more than 2 minutes...

Do you have an automatic connection to the net, i.e. as soon as you're in your account, or desktop, the modem starts dialling automatically and then goes to MSN messenger or something using AOL?

 

[herrmarkums]

Sorry to hear about your computer problems and especially your experience with Best Buy, they should never have deleted any of your itunes library. Maybe i can help with some other problems.

Try Using Firefox or Safari as the program you use to browse the internet, you can download/install one of them easily if you google either of them. (this won't severely make your performance better but you will be less likely to pick up drifting adware/spyware)

Secondly go to crucial.com and use the tools available on that website to see if you can upgrade the RAM in your computer, in many cases a good 1GB of extra RAM can do any computer good. This usually costs between £15-£20 including delivery and they give you instructions on how to physically install it onto your PC.

If your computer was slow and it turns out best buy had to delete things from your computer, you might have used up too much of the space on your hard drive. I would suggest uninstalling of some non-essential programs, especially games you bought on disc that you don't use anymore.

Also try defragmenting your hard drive using disk defragmenter, which can be found through Start>Programs>Accessories and running it. This process could even take hours so i would suggest running it before going to work/sleep.

Finally i would advise asking for help from a techy-minded friend or a technician in your local area if you are really unsure of what to do. I have helped lots of people with these sorts of issues only after asking them, it seems most people can even be embarrassed about computer problems so refrain from getting help.

I hope this improves things for you and you can get back to us with some good reports

 

[Kins123]

If the Best Buy tech people are anything like the PCWorld "Tech Guys" then it was a bad choice taking your computer there. It's always best to take your computer to a small independent computer repair shop as you are more likely to get someone who knows what they are doing.

So do you have 3 anti virus programs then? If so then that is very bad. It can do more than slow your computer down. I can't believe that best buy didn't pick up on this. I would recommend removing all but one of these anti virus programs. If you tell us which ones are installed we can tell you which one would be best to keep on there.

 

[barefootbob]

if one of your virus programs is Nortons it is a resource hog, a very good antivirus program but major resource hog.

You should not fill your hard drive more than 90% because windows uses it for virtual ram and not having enough space will cause it to slow down.

you can also cntrl+alt+delete, click performance and see what is going on as far as usage goes

 

[mike_n_herrin]

you should not have more than one antivirus program running. you need to pick one and let it run and get rid of the other two. I have AVG free edition.

you may mean you have an antivirus program and maybe some antispyware or antimalware program (and not 3 antivirus programs), if that's the case then that's ok.

there isn't enough information for us to help you out yet. so we'll need you to post more info. What operating system are you using (i.e., is it windows xp home, windows 2000, widnows vista etc. ?). Also you need to tell us what "antivirus" programs you are referring to that you have. Did best buy tell you what they did? What have you tried so far?

what you can do in the mean time is download and install spybot search and destroy.
download it here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1
instructions on how to install and use it are here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial43.html

i'm going to make one change to the instructions in that link. after you install instead of running the program, restart your computer, and then go into safe mode, by pressing and holding the F8 button right after your computer comes on. then you will get a brief menu of starup options, you should pick "safe mode with network support." if you see the windows logo before that menu then you didn't press F8 early enough and you'll need to shut down and try again.

then once you are in safe mode then you can run spybot like the directions above say to. basically by starting at "step 1" in the instructions.

 

[wirega56]

maybe it needs a good defrag ?

 

[mike_n_herrin]

he can try defraging his hard drive (and that's a good thing to do now also ), but i suspect he has a trojan virus or something that is trying to spread through his DSL connection and is taking a lot of his system resources to try and do it.

here is a tutorial on how to defragmented using the windows defragmenting tool. start at step 1 under "using windows disk defragmenter."

if the hard drive is more than a 1-3% fragmented you definitely need to do it, but like i said above, i don't think that is the main issue.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I merged the two threads since the neither one hadn't gotten any additional responses in over 24 hours.