Computer Has Become Extremely Slow All of a Sudden

[Flopper]

This just in. Disregard everything I have said thus far. Here's the deal . . .

It occurred to me that my computer was acting like a computer that was completely out of memory. So I went into Task Manager and, guess what . . . 100% CPU usage going on. It turns out that the villain was McAfee, which was using 99% of memory. I uninstalled McAfee (never liked that son of a bitch anyway - too intrusive) and rebooted. (Why, all of a sudden, McAfee decided to hog so much memory on my wife's computer is beyond me. It had never done it before. I have McAfee on my computer and my CPU memory usage runs around 19%.)

Memory usage after doing that? 12%. All that was left to do was to put another anti-virus in there in place of McAfee. That would be Avast! I did some Internet checking on the best anti-virus programs, and Avast! was well toward the top. We'll see. It's my wife's computer, after all, and she doesn't go to high risk Net sites.

Several of you hit on this issue - had I paid attention when you posted it, we would have gotten to the solution a lot sooner.

So - all's well that ends well. Thank you all!

p.s. And to boot, I didn't have to shell out the big bucks to Computer Guy!

My guess is that your McAfee contract had expired, and you needed to re-new to unleash the memory space.

Yes, except I have three, home computers on the same McAfee account, and the other two are doing just fine. McAfee active on the other two, no memory hogging, no word from McAfee that they want more money.

If you have time, you might want to re-install McAfee to see if the problem reoccurs. Quite often a software installation is damaged and you just need to re-install it.

 

[Flopper]

I use Avast and Malwarebytes as a backup.

I use Malawarebytes as a backup as well. So far, I like Avast. But I don't know how to schedule scans. I paid the $29.99 annual fee. Do you know how to schedule scans? PM me if you wish.

if all else fails BU everything and do a system recovery. what ya got to lose???

System Restore does a good job of fixing windows but only a mediocre job of fixing applications because it does not restore the application folders but rather selected file types. So it may or may not fix an application problem.

 

[Ringel05]

My guess is that your McAfee contract had expired, and you needed to re-new to unleash the memory space.

Yes, except I have three, home computers on the same McAfee account, and the other two are doing just fine. McAfee active on the other two, no memory hogging, no word from McAfee that they want more money.

If you have time, you might want to re-install McAfee to see if the problem reoccurs. Quite often a software installation is damaged and you just need to re-install it.

Why should he when Avast is free, does a better job and is no where near the resource hog McAfee is by leaps and bounds.

 

[Zoom-boing]

We switched our antivirus from Norton to Kaspersky about a year ago. Just after my daughter installed in on her laptop she started having problems very similar to your wife's problems. It continued to get worse, she started getting the BSOD, computer would just shut down randomly, programs were difficult to open, etc. Searched for solution with no luck. She bought a new laptop a few months ago so hubs took her old laptop (Dell), wiped it, reinstalled Vista. All was well until we reinstalled Kaspersky. Then the problems started again. It was especially bad while on the internet (Firefox). He could get onto the net better/more reliably with IE but . ... yeah, IE. Couldn't find a solution anywhere until someone at Bleeping Computer suggested trying another browser. Downloaded Chrome and haven't had a problem since. Must be some kind of conflict with her particular computer (which is nearly the same as our other laptop), Kaspersky and Firefox (yes, we updated FF, Java, Adoble Flash to no avail). Perhaps there is just some weird conflict with Carbonite and that computer. Uninstall it and see what happens.

 

[George Costanza]

We switched our antivirus from Norton to Kaspersky about a year ago. Just after my daughter installed in on her laptop she started having problems very similar to your wife's problems. It continued to get worse, she started getting the BSOD, computer would just shut down randomly, programs were difficult to open, etc. Searched for solution with no luck. She bought a new laptop a few months ago so hubs took her old laptop (Dell), wiped it, reinstalled Vista. All was well until we reinstalled Kaspersky. Then the problems started again. It was especially bad while on the internet (Firefox). He could get onto the net better/more reliably with IE but . ... yeah, IE. Couldn't find a solution anywhere until someone at Bleeping Computer suggested trying another browser. Downloaded Chrome and haven't had a problem since. Must be some kind of conflict with her particular computer (which is nearly the same as our other laptop), Kaspersky and Firefox (yes, we updated FF, Java, Adoble Flash to no avail). Perhaps there is just some weird conflict with Carbonite and that computer. Uninstall it and see what happens.

Thanks for the input. I think it must have been some type of conflict with my wife's computer because, as mentioned, I have McAfee on my computer and no problems at all with McAfee hogging memory.

Carbonite is totally blameless in this situation. I did uninstall Carbonite, and the problem continued. Once I uninstalled McAfee, everything works fine, including Carboinite. Ironically, it was the Carbonite techhie who put me onto the solution.

I have heard that Kapersky can cause memory problems on some (not all) computers, which is why I went with Avast! So far, I really like Avast! It isn't free - but the cost is only thirty bucks a year; cheap enough for a virus protection program that actually works.

 

[Flopper]

Yes, except I have three, home computers on the same McAfee account, and the other two are doing just fine. McAfee active on the other two, no memory hogging, no word from McAfee that they want more money.

If you have time, you might want to re-install McAfee to see if the problem reoccurs. Quite often a software installation is damaged and you just need to re-install it.

Why should he when Avast is free, does a better job and is no where near the resource hog McAfee is by leaps and bounds.

The reason for re-installing McAfee is to get a better idea of what caused the problem. If after re-installing, the problem never reoccurs then the McAfee files were probably damaged due to some activity on the computer or a conflict with another application which is no longer occurring. If it does reoccur, then McAfee should be able to trace down the problem.

When removing an application seems to fix a problem, you may be just removing a symptom of the real problem. If possible, it's far better to trace down the problem.

 

[Ringel05]

If you have time, you might want to re-install McAfee to see if the problem reoccurs. Quite often a software installation is damaged and you just need to re-install it.

Why should he when Avast is free, does a better job and is no where near the resource hog McAfee is by leaps and bounds.

The reason for re-installing McAfee is to get a better idea of what caused the problem. If after re-installing, the problem never reoccurs then the McAfee files were probably damaged due to some activity on the computer or a conflict with another application which is no longer occurring. If it does reoccur, then McAfee should be able to trace down the problem.

When removing an application seems to fix a problem, you may be just removing a symptom of the real problem. If possible, it's far better to trace down the problem.

If removing a program resolves the issue and it does not reoccur afterwards then the typical use doesn't give a damn.

 

[Flopper]

Why should he when Avast is free, does a better job and is no where near the resource hog McAfee is by leaps and bounds.

The reason for re-installing McAfee is to get a better idea of what caused the problem. If after re-installing, the problem never reoccurs then the McAfee files were probably damaged due to some activity on the computer or a conflict with another application which is no longer occurring. If it does reoccur, then McAfee should be able to trace down the problem.

When removing an application seems to fix a problem, you may be just removing a symptom of the real problem. If possible, it's far better to trace down the problem.

If removing a program resolves the issue and it does not reoccur afterwards then the typical use doesn't give a damn.

I agree and the typical user buys a new computer or pays someone several hundred dollars to fix relatively simple problems.

 

[Synthaholic]

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.

Then it probably wasn't malware.

Avira Anti-Virus is famous for flagging non-harmful items that it just isn't familiar with, in their database.

 

[Synthaholic]

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.

Also, failure of the video hardware will cause similar problems.

Also, a registry hook can cause similar problems.

George, see if you can try START>CMD>MSCONFIG

START

Type CMD, hit ENTER

Type msconfig, hit ENTER

Change it to Diagnostic boot and click apply, then OK, then affirm the reboot.

This will at least confirm that your major hardware is working.

Make sure you change it back afterward.

If there are no problems, go to the Startup tab and uncheck all non-essential items, like printers, Quicktime, Google, etc.

Then reboot and see if it frees up enough resources to do anything.

 

[Synthaholic]

This just in. Disregard everything I have said thus far. Here's the deal . . .

It occurred to me that my computer was acting like a computer that was completely out of memory. So I went into Task Manager and, guess what . . . 100% CPU usage going on. It turns out that the villain was McAfee, which was using 99% of memory. I uninstalled McAfee (never liked that son of a bitch anyway - too intrusive) and rebooted. (Why, all of a sudden, McAfee decided to hog so much memory on my wife's computer is beyond me. It had never done it before. I have McAfee on my computer and my CPU memory usage runs around 19%.)

Memory usage after doing that? 12%. All that was left to do was to put another anti-virus in there in place of McAfee. That would be Avast! I did some Internet checking on the best anti-virus programs, and Avast! was well toward the top. We'll see. It's my wife's computer, after all, and she doesn't go to high risk Net sites.

Several of you hit on this issue - had I paid attention when you posted it, we would have gotten to the solution a lot sooner.

So - all's well that ends well. Thank you all!

p.s. And to boot, I didn't have to shell out the big bucks to Computer Guy!

Well, then disregard my last post!

 

[Synthaholic]

I use Malawarebytes as a backup as well. So far, I like Avast. But I don't know how to schedule scans. I paid the $29.99 annual fee. Do you know how to schedule scans? PM me if you wish.

if all else fails BU everything and do a system recovery. what ya got to lose???

System Restore does a good job of fixing windows but only a mediocre job of fixing applications because it does not restore the application folders but rather selected file types. So it may or may not fix an application problem.

Plus, a lot of times when you are having computer issues, System Restore won't work, and ends up telling you that it failed to restore your machine.

 

[Synthaholic]

We switched our antivirus from Norton to Kaspersky about a year ago. Just after my daughter installed in on her laptop she started having problems very similar to your wife's problems. It continued to get worse, she started getting the BSOD, computer would just shut down randomly, programs were difficult to open, etc. Searched for solution with no luck. She bought a new laptop a few months ago so hubs took her old laptop (Dell), wiped it, reinstalled Vista. All was well until we reinstalled Kaspersky. Then the problems started again. It was especially bad while on the internet (Firefox). He could get onto the net better/more reliably with IE but . ... yeah, IE. Couldn't find a solution anywhere until someone at Bleeping Computer suggested trying another browser. Downloaded Chrome and haven't had a problem since. Must be some kind of conflict with her particular computer (which is nearly the same as our other laptop), Kaspersky and Firefox (yes, we updated FF, Java, Adoble Flash to no avail). Perhaps there is just some weird conflict with Carbonite and that computer. Uninstall it and see what happens.

I don't trust those Ruskies.

 

[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.

Also, failure of the video hardware will cause similar problems.

Also, a registry hook can cause similar problems.

George, see if you can try START>CMD>MSCONFIG

START

Type CMD, hit ENTER

Type msconfig, hit ENTER

Change it to Diagnostic boot and click apply, then OK, then affirm the reboot.

This will at least confirm that your major hardware is working.

Make sure you change it back afterward.

If there are no problems, go to the Startup tab and uncheck all non-essential items, like printers, Quicktime, Google, etc.

Then reboot and see if it frees up enough resources to do anything.

msconfig is the only diagnostic tool, that has ever help me diagnosis problems on Windows systems. Dr Watson and windows event logs have never helped me. It's too bad, there isn't a tool that would translate this information into something useful for a user.

 

[Uncensored2008]

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

There's a reason you have a mac, and it's not because you know what the fuck you're doing...

 

[Uncensored2008]

It's my WIFE's computer, not mine. The chances that any porn was ever viewed on that computer are somewhere around 1 in infinity. Discussion over.

Facebook is the #1 source of malware, these days. Porn doesn't even compare.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Get some good virus protection software like MaCafee.

Good virus protection, or McAfee? You can't have both.

For Vista, Windows 7, or 8, use;

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

For XP, which is what you have, since you're infected;

avast! | Download Free Antivirus Software or Internet Security

This is my top choice because it has a boot scan mode that will catch many viruses that hide inside of Windows.

AVG Free | Antivirus | Free Virus Protection

Also a good choice.

HijackThis Download

The best utility to find out what is going on; will do some minor clean up, but mostly identifies problems.

 

[Uncensored2008]

You couldn't get me to use Carbonite if you paid me. I use an external hard drive and set my system to back up on a regular basis. With all the cyber hacking going on, it's easier than you thing for someone on another continent to decide he/she wants to 'browse' through other folks' private info.

I understand your fears about Carbonite. I share them to a degree. My problem with backing up has been, simply, that I could never find a backup program that I could get to work properly. Carbonite is a snap to use, which is the main reason I went for it.

You know, there comes a point where one just has to bite the bullet and put it out there. Do you make purchases of any kind online?

I trust Carbonite. A number of professionals I know back up highly classified information with Carbonite.

Seriously?

2BrightSparks | SyncBackFree, SyncBackSE, and SyncBackPro

Free and works stupendously.

 

[George Costanza]

Get some good virus protection software like MaCafee.

Good virus protection, or McAfee? You can't have both.

For Vista, Windows 7, or 8, use;

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

For XP, which is what you have, since you're infected;

avast! | Download Free Antivirus Software or Internet Security

This is my top choice because it has a boot scan mode that will catch many viruses that hide inside of Windows.

AVG Free | Antivirus | Free Virus Protection

Also a good choice.

HijackThis Download

The best utility to find out what is going on; will do some minor clean up, but mostly identifies problems.

Am using Avast! now.

 

[George Costanza]

This just in. Disregard everything I have said thus far. Here's the deal . . .

It occurred to me that my computer was acting like a computer that was completely out of memory. So I went into Task Manager and, guess what . . . 100% CPU usage going on. It turns out that the villain was McAfee, which was using 99% of memory. I uninstalled McAfee (never liked that son of a bitch anyway - too intrusive) and rebooted. (Why, all of a sudden, McAfee decided to hog so much memory on my wife's computer is beyond me. It had never done it before. I have McAfee on my computer and my CPU memory usage runs around 19%.)

Memory usage after doing that? 12%. All that was left to do was to put another anti-virus in there in place of McAfee. That would be Avast! I did some Internet checking on the best anti-virus programs, and Avast! was well toward the top. We'll see. It's my wife's computer, after all, and she doesn't go to high risk Net sites.

Several of you hit on this issue - had I paid attention when you posted it, we would have gotten to the solution a lot sooner.

So - all's well that ends well. Thank you all!

p.s. And to boot, I didn't have to shell out the big bucks to Computer Guy!

Well, then disregard my last post!

You just can't resist, can you?