Computer Has Become Extremely Slow All of a Sudden

[Meathead]

Download this. It's free and works well:

Spybot - Search & Destroy from Safer-Networking Ltd.

I have what I think is probably the best malware detection program available - Malawarebytes. I have run scans with it and nothing turns up.

Did you update?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del...choose "Task Manager"...go to the "Processes" tab...order by "CPU"...what is the process that is eating memory?

Can hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, but nothing happens thereafter. Part of the entire problem.

You have a virus...no doubt.
Take it off of your home network before it infects other computers.
Anytime a Microsoft task (like taskmanager) does not work - without a doubt your are infected as this is usually the first program a virus will disable.

 

[emptystep]

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del...choose "Task Manager"...go to the "Processes" tab...order by "CPU"...what is the process that is eating memory?

Can hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, but nothing happens thereafter. Part of the entire problem.

You have a virus...no doubt.
Take it off of your home network before it infects other computers.
Anytime a Microsoft task (like taskmanager) does not work - without a doubt your are infected as this is usually the first program a virus will disable.

Would starting in safe mode help. I'm a Linux guy myself.

 

[Flopper]

Before I call Computer Guy, I want to run this one by y'all for any suggestions you may have.

My wife's computer has gone nuts. All of a sudden, it takes forever to open a program. You can double click on anything on the desktop, and it may or may not open. It can take as long as 10 mintues for it to open, it may never open. Sometimes we can get IE to open up, most of the time not. If we can get IE to open, it is impossible to go anywhere. We can get the home page (Google) but that's about it.

The computer gives new meaning to the term, "extremely slow." The hard disk has not crashed - it still works. For example, every so often, she can open up a program and actually get it to work.

My first thought was to degrag the hard drive. I went in and found out it hits defrag on a weekly basis automatically.

The only program installed recently on her computer was Carbonite (see my thread extolling the virtues of Carbonite on this Forum). Carbonite is a cloud backup program that only puts a tiny piece of software onto the computer. I can't imagine that this is the cullprit.

What do you do when you have a computer that starts to act like this? Obviously, something is very wrong.

The first thing I would do is start task manager, by right clicking on the task bar at the bottom of the screen, then click on task manager, and then processes. This will show you what's running. Those that don't show zero cpu are running. There is a good chance one of the running processes is responsible. You may have to Google the name of the process to get some information you can use.

If this doesn't reveal the culprit, I would delete the application that was recently installed to see if that helps. Here is a good link on eliminating programs that start when you boot your computer. If you follow these instruction, you have a good chance of finding the culprit.

How to Disable Startup Programs in Windows

Unfortunately Microsoft does not provide a good tool to diagnosis performance problems. There are a lot of tools to do things like defraging drives, cleaning the register, but not much to help you determine the problem.

 

[Defiant1]

You must be in the top 1% of internet speed. Obama is taxing your bandwidth.

 

[George Costanza]

Download this. It's free and works well:

Spybot - Search & Destroy from Safer-Networking Ltd.

I have what I think is probably the best malware detection program available - Malawarebytes. I have run scans with it and nothing turns up.

Did you update?

Yes.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Let me say it again...you...have...a ...virus.
Anytime a Microsoft system application will not run like taskmanager or msconfig etc...you are virtually guaranteed you have a virus or working malware.
I sstrongly suggest you disconnect this computer from your network before it infects your other computers and take it somewhere to get it cleaned if you can't do it yourself.

 

[Rat in the Hat]

Download this. It's free and works well:

Spybot - Search & Destroy from Safer-Networking Ltd.

I have what I think is probably the best malware detection program available - Malawarebytes. I have run scans with it and nothing turns up.

Download Spybot and run both. I have had SB catch malware that MalwareBytes didn't catch, and vice versa.

 

[Sallow]

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del...choose "Task Manager"...go to the "Processes" tab...order by "CPU"...what is the process that is eating memory?

Can hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, but nothing happens thereafter. Part of the entire problem.

You have a virus...no doubt.
Take it off of your home network before it infects other computers.
Anytime a Microsoft task (like taskmanager) does not work - without a doubt your are infected as this is usually the first program a virus will disable.

This is absolutely correct.

It's almost a sure thing you have a virus.

Get some good virus protection software like MaCafee.

 

[George Costanza]

Can hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, but nothing happens thereafter. Part of the entire problem.

You have a virus...no doubt.
Take it off of your home network before it infects other computers.
Anytime a Microsoft task (like taskmanager) does not work - without a doubt your are infected as this is usually the first program a virus will disable.

This is absolutely correct.

It's almost a sure thing you have a virus.

Get some good virus protection software like MaCafee.

I've had McAfee for years. It didn't catch anything. Have had it on auto-scan. Auto update.

 

[George Costanza]

Download this. It's free and works well:

Spybot - Search & Destroy from Safer-Networking Ltd.

I have what I think is probably the best malware detection program available - Malawarebytes. I have run scans with it and nothing turns up.

Download Spybot and run both. I have had SB catch malware that MalwareBytes didn't catch, and vice versa.

I can't run anything on the computer, let alone download anything. That's the problem.

 

[Flopper]

I have what I think is probably the best malware detection program available - Malawarebytes. I have run scans with it and nothing turns up.

Download Spybot and run both. I have had SB catch malware that MalwareBytes didn't catch, and vice versa.

I can't run anything on the computer, let alone download anything. That's the problem.

I thought the problem was the applications were just running slow. If nothing will run, then you probably have either a hardware problem, windows is damaged, or you have some undetected malware. If it just runs very slow, then there are many causes.

If the computer has been turned off for say an hour and you boot the machine and the problem is not present immediately, then you could have overheating problem.

 

[George Costanza]

Download Spybot and run both. I have had SB catch malware that MalwareBytes didn't catch, and vice versa.

I can't run anything on the computer, let alone download anything. That's the problem.

I thought the problem was the applications were just running slow. If nothing will run, then you probably have either a hardware problem, windows is damaged, or you have some undetected malware. If it just runs very slow, then there are many causes.

If the computer has been turned off for say an hour and you boot the machine and the problem is not present immediately, then you could have overheating problem.

It isn't that I can't run anything - I may have overstated that. I can run some things. For example, there is a game my wife loves to play. She can play it. It just is very jerky when it runs, if you know what I mean. Other things just won't open. Other things will, but you can'r really do anything with them.

Everyone is so sure I have a virus - I'm not so sure. I can turn the computer off, leave it off for half an hour, turn it back on again and the desktop will appear. If I want to open a program (let's say it's Word), I will double click on the Word icon. It will take a long time - perhaps as much as 5 or 10 minutes. Then Word will open. If I try to open another program, it may or may not open and will take much longer. It's almost like it's a memory issue.

 

[Flopper]

I can't run anything on the computer, let alone download anything. That's the problem.

I thought the problem was the applications were just running slow. If nothing will run, then you probably have either a hardware problem, windows is damaged, or you have some undetected malware. If it just runs very slow, then there are many causes.

If the computer has been turned off for say an hour and you boot the machine and the problem is not present immediately, then you could have overheating problem.

It isn't that I can't run anything - I may have overstated that. I can run some things. For example, there is a game my wife loves to play. She can play it. It just is very jerky when it runs, if you know what I mean. Other things just won't open. Other things will, but you can'r really do anything with them.

Everyone is so sure I have a virus - I'm not so sure. I can turn the computer off, leave it off for half an hour, turn it back on again and the desktop will appear. If I want to open a program (let's say it's Word), I will double click on the Word icon. It will take a long time - perhaps as much as 5 or 10 minutes. Then Word will open. If I try to open another program, it may or may not open and will take much longer. It's almost like it's a memory issue.

I would not jump on the virus bandwagon, if you have good malware protection. Of course almost any problem can be caused by some type of malware.

Here is a link to a problem description and recommend action that sounds similar to yours.

WINDOWS 7 - when I right click on any icon, in desktop, programs, my - Microsoft Community

For a problem like this, I like to use a process of elimination, removing programs that were not install on your computer when you bought it, stopping non-windows tasks and services, and removing startup programs. Of course, always uninstall any programs that were recently installed. Also just stopping your security software to see if it's the source of the problem is a good idea as long as you restart it.

 

[George Costanza]

I thought the problem was the applications were just running slow. If nothing will run, then you probably have either a hardware problem, windows is damaged, or you have some undetected malware. If it just runs very slow, then there are many causes.

If the computer has been turned off for say an hour and you boot the machine and the problem is not present immediately, then you could have overheating problem.

It isn't that I can't run anything - I may have overstated that. I can run some things. For example, there is a game my wife loves to play. She can play it. It just is very jerky when it runs, if you know what I mean. Other things just won't open. Other things will, but you can'r really do anything with them.

Everyone is so sure I have a virus - I'm not so sure. I can turn the computer off, leave it off for half an hour, turn it back on again and the desktop will appear. If I want to open a program (let's say it's Word), I will double click on the Word icon. It will take a long time - perhaps as much as 5 or 10 minutes. Then Word will open. If I try to open another program, it may or may not open and will take much longer. It's almost like it's a memory issue.

I would not jump on the virus bandwagon, if you have good malware protection. Of course almost any problem can be caused by some type of malware.

Here is a link to a problem description and recommend action that sounds similar to yours.

WINDOWS 7 - when I right click on any icon, in desktop, programs, my - Microsoft Community

For a problem like this, I like to use a process of elimination, removing programs that were not install on your computer when you bought it, stopping non-windows tasks and services, and removing startup programs. Of course, always uninstall any programs that were recently installed. Also just stopping your security software to see if it's the source of the problem is a good idea as long as you restart it.

I have considered doing a system restore. I know how to do that, having done it before when I had a browser hijack. Just go back to a day or two before the hijack appears, and you are good. Whether that would work here, I don't know. I am also considering uninstalling Carbonite. The problems all began within two or three days of installing that program. But my wife's computer is identical to mine - same OS, although (obviously) somewhat different software on each. My computer has worked fine with Carbonite on it.

Uninstalling Carbonite wouldn't affect the backup that has taken place, right?, since that backup is in the Cloud.

 

[George Costanza]

I would not jump on the virus bandwagon, if you have good malware protection. Of course almost any problem can be caused by some type of malware.

That's another thing - we pay a lot of money for McAfee, which is installed on both computers and which scans at regular intervals on a schedule. It also updates automatically. One would hope (and expect) that any virus would be detected and eliminated as fast as it came in - that's what we're paying for, right?

 

[Flopper]

It isn't that I can't run anything - I may have overstated that. I can run some things. For example, there is a game my wife loves to play. She can play it. It just is very jerky when it runs, if you know what I mean. Other things just won't open. Other things will, but you can'r really do anything with them.

Everyone is so sure I have a virus - I'm not so sure. I can turn the computer off, leave it off for half an hour, turn it back on again and the desktop will appear. If I want to open a program (let's say it's Word), I will double click on the Word icon. It will take a long time - perhaps as much as 5 or 10 minutes. Then Word will open. If I try to open another program, it may or may not open and will take much longer. It's almost like it's a memory issue.

I would not jump on the virus bandwagon, if you have good malware protection. Of course almost any problem can be caused by some type of malware.

Here is a link to a problem description and recommend action that sounds similar to yours.

WINDOWS 7 - when I right click on any icon, in desktop, programs, my - Microsoft Community

For a problem like this, I like to use a process of elimination, removing programs that were not install on your computer when you bought it, stopping non-windows tasks and services, and removing startup programs. Of course, always uninstall any programs that were recently installed. Also just stopping your security software to see if it's the source of the problem is a good idea as long as you restart it.

I have considered doing a system restore. I know how to do that, having done it before when I had a browser hijack. Just go back to a day or two before the hijack appears, and you are good. Whether that would work here, I don't know. I am also considering uninstalling Carbonite. The problems all began within two or three days of installing that program. But my wife's computer is identical to mine - same OS, although (obviously) somewhat different software on each. My computer has worked fine with Carbonite on it.

Uninstalling Carbonite wouldn't affect the backup that has taken place, right?, since that backup is in the Cloud.

I would uninstall Carbonite first, boot the computer and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then I would try a system restore. With problems like this, you often just keep trying things until something you do fixes it and you never know just what caused the problem, but who cares if it's working.

 

[Ringel05]

Start the computer in safe mode, once it boots up then run your antivirus/malware programs. If that doesn't work do a restore from a point before the problem showed itself.

 

[Flopper]

I would not jump on the virus bandwagon, if you have good malware protection. Of course almost any problem can be caused by some type of malware.

That's another thing - we pay a lot of money for McAfee, which is installed on both computers and which scans at regular intervals on a schedule. It also updates automatically. One would hope (and expect) that any virus would be detected and eliminated as fast as it came in - that's what we're paying for, right?

I have McAfee on my wife and daughter's computer. I'm using Norton because I have a free copy. I've also used AVG, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro. I don't think there is much difference in the level of protection. The differences are in support, transparency, and resource usage and this changes from year to year.

You can save money often by not buying the renewal when offered and shopping around for the best price. I got a notice that My Nortion 360 was expiring and the company wanted $79 for the renewal. I waited till the week before it expired and check their web site. They were offered it for $39. I checked Frye's and they had it for free when I purchased another product. It pays to shop around when it's time to renew, particularly if you have a number of computers.

 

[Politico]

Another option - get it into the DOS mode.
At the C prompt type Format and hit return.
It's a charmer

Thank you very much.


Wise guy . . . . .

This is why people shouldn't get advice on the internet.