I have a great PC, with high speed internet connection, (which I pay for),but for a month now it is at a snail's pace, worse than dial-up and pop ups galore. Had my internet provider check the lines a couple of nights ago, no problem there. They had me un-install 'Norton personal firewall', that wasn't the problem, I have deleted nearly everything I know how to and still its not worth the time to use the internet...too frustating, an average of 30 long seconds or more to download a page or read an e mail with attachments. Never mind explorer.
Blank pop ups and no speed, how can I cleanse or purge my PC or IP from all the demons? Deleted the cookies too.
Should I totally re-format the whole thing, get new software and start from scratch?
Your input would be welcome.
Roog

Missing Dwight

Internet slowdown.... hmmm sounds like a problem we have all shared at one time or another! LOL

I have the same problem with one of my computers at home too. However, I dont think that it is related to your problem. There are various things you could do that might help resolve your problem.

1. Make sure that all your cables and cards are connected properly. One of the ways to slow down your internet traffic is the deterioration of cables or a bad connection with your computer. The analogy being that of you trying to talk to a man who is very hard of hearing, you have to keep repeating what you are saying in order to make yourself heard.

2. Make sure that your software has the latest security fixes. Trojan horses, viruses that kidnap your computer time, can seriously slow down your internet connection. So make sure tnat your browser has the latest fixes and your anti virus software is upto date.

3. If you ae running windows xp, make sure that there is plenty of room on your hard drive. XP requires quite a large buffer file in order to run fast. If you have limited space it may be eating into that buffer. So clean out your files regularly and optimise your disk at least once a month. Do this even with a large hard drive, it keeps things running smooth and quick.

I dont like reformating hard drives whenever there is a problem that seems difficult to cure. This is because there is no guarentee that you will have cured the problem and you end up being back at square one. Better to try and resove the problem.

Hope this helps, let us know how you are doing.

Rarius

There are a number of reasons for a slow computer. The first is to make sure that your computer is running at the speed that it is supposed to. This will usually show during the bootup process. The second and most probable reason is that your computer has massive amounts of Adware programs or even a virus. To check this out, you can download several programs like AdAware and also Spybot 1.3 . You can download a free antivirus program from Grisoft called AVG . Just follow the instructions on each program's usuage.
Good Luck

I forgot to mention.... there are several 'tweaks' for both AdAware and AVG to make them work better for you. In AdAware, go to the configuration page. Under the heading for "Scan Settings", make sure you have the first item under the "Drives & Folder" selected & all of the items under "Memory & Registry" selected. Next, go to "Tweak", under the "Cleaning Engine", select also the "Automatically Try To Unregister Objects Prior To Deletion". Next, click on "Proceed", "Check For Updates Now", download whatever is available. click on "Start", then, "Next". This will start the checking process.
For AVG, open up the AVG Control Center. Select everything except "Event Write To Log", then "Save Parameters As New Default". Next, go to "Email Scanner" and select everything there. Next, go to Update Manager and change the "Update If Database Id Older Than" from 14 days to 7 days and also select the "Allow Schedules Update".
Just remember to always check for updates before doing any kind of checking with any Adware or Antivirus programs.
Good Luck

Click on Ctrl, Alt and Delete at the same time and tell us how many programs are running.
Also, go to pcpitstop. They will test your computer for free(safe, too). Click on the yellow key and test anonymously. At end of test, you will need to decline an offer. Click on "test details" to see complete results.
This program is essentials to prevent pop-ups (free): Spybot S&D.
If you have a lot of programs running(from Ctrl,Alt,Delete), you can stop them from starting up when you log on by these steps: Start, Run, then type msconfig and click OK. Choose "selective startup". Then Startup ( top, right). Uncheck the programs that you don't think you need. Usually those with "real" and "common" in them are spyware and need unchecking. Don't worry about messing up. You can undo what you did the same way by rechecking.

Thanks for all the replies, I have been over-worked of late and knowing how slow the 'puter is I have been kind of avoiding it. I did have my internet provider check from their end, all seemed well, they had me uninstall Norton personal firewall. I did try run and msconfig, am still re-reading all the helpful responses.
It is not the connections and the symptoms are pages opening slowly, applications opening slowly if atall and pop ups interfering with everything. Strangely, besides the pop ups it is unusually faster today.
Thank you all for the input, I am going to re-read them all and try some things.
Thanks,
Roog

Slow in responding, such is my free time.
I have yet to find a solution, what is getting worse is the pop-ups.
Even trying to post this I was interfered at first by the pop-ups.
A close friend , more computer savvy than me insists I re-foremat, erase everything, and start from scratch. I would lose so many things...

Ok, everyone has given some really good advice, here. But I do see that you keep on mentioning pop ups, this may very well be the whole problem.


Do you have a pop up blocker. If not get one! You probably have so much spyware on your system, it's going whacko. Here is an easy download, and if you don't want to put your phone number or address in the registry just make up one, like 123 nowhere st, anywhere, usa, ph no: 000-000-0000. It's been on my browser for over two years and I haven't had any spyware come along with it, just untick whether you want google to link you with their site when registering. It will add just a small bar on your browser window and makes a popping noise each time there is a pop up that has been stopped:

Here's the link:

Google's Toolbar

Secondly, clear your internet explorer browsers' history and delete files out, that's where all the cookies are hiding. Delete your cookies, don't worry, it won't hurt, they will take a little to load when you first go on a site, but then it's okay. They will come back again, so don't worry.
Thirdly, as everyone has suggested, you have to have a firewall otherwise your computer will be probed all the time, that might be whats going on. Here's a free one, just make sure you click the free version when installing.

ZoneAlarm

Now for those bugs you got in your system, there is a program called Adaware, which cswchan has linked that will not only clean your bugs for you, but if you keep doing this on a regular basis, weekly, then you will be much better for it.
cswchan also suggested, Spybot 1.3, which is a good backup with Adaware, these two put together can really help if you have a trojan in there. I suggest you download these as soon as possible.
I know you think this is alot, but really for now, just get your pop up blocker, and Zone Alarm for sure and clean those temporary files out now!
The last two will make sure you get all of it, and will keep them off of there, when you keep them updated. Hope you don't have to reformat.

PS: Just from my personal experience of antivirus programs, nortons is awful, it really screwed my pc up, ditch it, get free AVG, also in cswcwan's post, and keep udated also. The best free antivirus program I've found.

One more thing is there is a way to test your vulnerabliliy to hackers, it's on symantecs site, I tested mine and the results were Stealth which means I'm in pretty good shape. It asks you to download its activex control, which is fine.
Here's the test:

Symantec's Security Check

If you have ZoneAlarm you pass with flying colors.

Good One SH
I ran it and it detected ByteVerify in a Java file
Not been picked up on other scans

My problems seem to be solved, I installed Spybot and Ad-aware and ran them twice.
My speed was restored and pop ups gone.
Have installed Zone Alarm, but am still trying to get just the firewall, at first it actually wanted to block the entire internet.
Thanks everybody for all your time, input and ultimately solutions.
Roog

Good for you! You got an antivirus program? Zone Alarm is a little hard to get use to, it will at first ask you each time you have a program trying to access the internet. You have the option of clicking yes, no, and do not ask me this question again. Also you can go into your program control if you decide to change your decision, and click a check mark, for allowing, an X for not allowing, or a ? for it to ask you each time. Sometimes you will notice programs trying to access when you're not even wanting them to. This is a good way to keep things from hacking your pc.

quote:

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Originally posted by soaringhorse:
You got an antivirus program?

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I have just starting using AVAST! which is free and I'm pleased with the performance Updates are regular need to register to get a Key valid for a year then you renew the registration get a new key...
Works without the key but times out in 60 days...
www.avast.com/eng/download/programs/index.html

Not sure this will appear, another problem(recent). I have tried several long replies to posts on AP and DP, my computer takes forever to open the page and then I get a message -
"Cannot find Server" Page not available or something to that effect, you've all seen it.
Help!

I tried that and thanks bedstor,but it seems the longer the reply is the less chance of it appearing.

Part 2, I really don't know what temp files are or where to find them. This was in 2 parts because i can't seem to post anything of length.

I have found for whatever reason, I can't post more than a couple of sentences here. Any opinions on a program I used called 'Cyberscrub?'

To clean out temporary files, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then Disk Cleanup. Follow the instructions after that.

For longer posts, give this a try. Type your response into Notepad, then copy/paste your post into the Reply window. See if that helps with long replies. If it does, then the problem will have been narrowed down some. Do you have a pop-up blocker running? If so, try closing it then posting your Reply. Does this make any difference?

Need help with Copy/:Paste? Click Here.

A couple of suggestions.

1. Go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Notepad.

2. Right click on the Notepad entry and select "Properties".

3. In the Notepad properties window, click into the Keyboard Shortcut box and type in:


Ctrl - Alt - N (without the dash marks)

This will open Notepad when you press the

Ctrl - Alt - N keys on your keyboard.

When you have successfully posted your Reply, you can close without saving the Notepad Window. If the reply is not successfully posted, you will not have lost all of your typing, it will still be in the Notepad window.

If you're not able to post a long reply in this method, will you go to: http://discussionpool.com and try posting a Reply there? Let us know the problem appears or not at Discussionpool.com.

I hope something here is of some help!

Dwight

That did it, thanks so much , and good to see you back Dwight!
I need to delete some files as I only have 41% of my hard drive free I found out.