Author Topic: Gasping for breath (Read 3041 times)

Clive · « **on:** May 03, 2006, 12:53 »

A friend's 1.9MHz computer (same one that had Brave Sentry) is running so slow that it's virtually come to a standstill. I've cleared out viruses and all sorts of spyware using Norton's, Ad-Aware, SpywareBlaster and Spybot and decided to carry out a Norton's Utilities Speed Disk defrag. It's taken almost 2 hours to get to 2% of the initial scan which suggests that the whole process could take days to complete! Am I missing something here?

Sandra · « **Reply #1 on:** May 03, 2006, 13:30 »

If its a big drive then it could take quite a while Clive.

I would have thought that it would do it overnight though.

Clive · « **Reply #2 on:** May 03, 2006, 14:06 »

It's 80Gb Sandra. I'll have another go at it as soon as I can.

Sandra · « **Reply #3 on:** May 03, 2006, 14:25 »

Shouldnt take that long then.

Do Ctrl Alt Del and close any programs that may be running before you run it again Clive and maybe disconnect from the net incase theres still something nasty thats using the net.

Clive · « **Reply #4 on:** May 03, 2006, 14:53 »

Might it be a good idea to run it in Safe Mode too?

Sandra · « **Reply #5 on:** May 03, 2006, 15:54 »

That would make sure nothing extra was running but I am not sure if it will run in safe mode.

Also safe mode tends to make stuff run even slower than it does in normal windows.

Clive · « **Reply #6 on:** May 03, 2006, 16:22 »

Quote from: "Sandra"

but I am not sure if it will run in safe mode.

I just tried on Mrs Clive's machine (since she's away) and Speed Disk doesn't load up in Safe Mode. But the inbuilt XP defrag works OK so I'll try that on the 1900. Incidentally, I tested it with Shields Up and it seems pretty watertight. Possibly because he's using a router.

Simon · « **Reply #7 on:** May 03, 2006, 20:55 »

Don't forget to disable any screen savers, as they will make it keep starting again, Clive. My guess, however, regarding the general slowness of the system, would be that there is still something running in the background, which none of your spyware utilities have removed. Have you had a look under the Processes tab in Ctrl/Alt/Del, to see if anything is hogging resources? Have a try with Ewido, which seems to find things some of the others don't. For the defrag, you could also try EndItAll2, which will kill all running programs, except anything essential to run Windows. This might make the defrag a bit faster.

Clive · « **Reply #8 on:** May 03, 2006, 22:04 »

There are no screensavers enabled Simon. The HDD doesn't seem to be chattering away to itself either but I'm equally inclined to think that something as yet undetected has hijacked the machine. Yesterday, Norton's took 6 hours to scan 160,000 files. I'll certainly try Ewido and EndItAll2 though. Surprisingly, the Internet works at a reasonable speed - it's the rest of the machine that's soporific!

Simon · « **Reply #9 on:** May 03, 2006, 23:18 »

This is one of the reasons I switched from Norton. It may be thorough, but full system scans are incredibly slow. F-Secure manages to scan my whole system, comprising of round about 120,000 files, in around 1 hour 20 minutes.

Sandra · « **Reply #10 on:** May 04, 2006, 00:00 »

Its not an AV scan hes doing Simon, its Nortons speed disk.

Simon · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2006, 00:04 »

Quote from: "Clive"

Yesterday, Norton's took 6 hours to scan 160,000 files.

I assumed by this, Clive meant a system scan.

Sandra · « **Reply #12 on:** May 04, 2006, 00:13 »

Sorry Simon, that part was the AV, I hadnt read that properly.

Its definately got something wrong as even if the drive was absolutely full it shouldnt have taken anywhere near that long to do an AV scan.

You can do AV scans in safe mode Clive, just not the speed disk.

Clive · « **Reply #13 on:** May 04, 2006, 08:13 »

That's what I thought too. I'll try and spend some more time on it today.

Clive · « **Reply #14 on:** May 05, 2006, 13:35 »

I've completed a defrag on it but it hasn't made a great deal of difference. The CPU is constantly running at 100% yet it seems to be free of malware. I forgot to try Ewido though so that's for another day.