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I hate to add another one of these, epically since I feel I have not contributed enough to warrant anyone's time, but this seems to be the type of place that would be willing to help.
So for the past few days my computer has run ridiculously slow. Also, i will be either reading something or watching a stream, and a new tab (firefox 3) will randomly open with an ad. streams are slow, Youtube is slow, and Word takes forever to open. At first I just thought I overworked it (at the time it started, I had SC2 open, gsl stream, and multiple web pages up. Yes, that's not much, but my processor is crap). But after turning it back on the next day, the symptoms continue. There are no other symptoms that I can think of, it is just incredibly slow+ the random ads.
Hope someone knows something. i have ad aware and symantec. Any good programs I should use in addition to/instead of (yes I know there are other threads, but just quick name or two, thx!).
I hope this is just a tech issue, I need some motivation to upgrade some of the older components.
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have you tried running an anti virus? have you defragged your computer within 2 weeks?
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I haven't defragged recently, but I have run both ad aware and symantec.
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On May 31 2011 17:07 Introvert wrote:
I haven't defragged recently, but I have run both ad aware and symantec.
download a program called Malwarebytes, install it/ update/ and run it. This should find things that ad aware and symantec might have missed.
Also download Ccleaner if you don't already have it. And run the cleaner and registry fix. This will help your computer a little.
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first id like to adress all the poster before me:
while its nice that you want to help you should NOT post any general advice without knowing the circumstances of the issue. those things will (in most cases) not help the op and just waste his time or even damage his system more.
@op
1. first thing we need to know is your system specs - thats what hardware you run what os.
2. when did u update your system the last time - do you install all windwos updates as they are released?
3. do you have the latest versions of acrobat and flash player.
4. do you have antivirus software installed and updated? which brand? (you wrote that your ran adaware and symantec but what where the results? did you run it in safemode?)
5. did you install anthing or change any hardware recently before this issue startet to occur?
6. have your checked your task manager when your computer slows down to check which process takes up most resources
7. did you encounter any other weird behaviour like hidden files or denied access to regions you could access before?
greetings
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Some of this advice is good, but what you should do is wipe your drive out, reinstall everything, back it up and never worry about this type of shit again. I get a virus maybe once every 18 months if that and I fix it by hitting a button before I go to bed and waking up with it being fixed.
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wipeing your hard drive is not really a good advice, the best at this time i can say is anwser the questions Azro stated, if that's virus try to scan your pc with antivirus of some kinds, you could also post here what you get after running hijackthis
but really Azro's questions first
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first id like to adress all the poster before me:
while its nice that you want to help you should NOT post any general advice without knowing the circumstances of the issue. those things will (in most cases) not help the op and just waste his time or even damage his system more.
It's pretty clear cut of malware
So for the past few days my computer has run ridiculously slow. Also, i will be either reading something or watching a stream, and a new tab (firefox 3) will randomly open with an ad. streams are slow,
The one that makes it scream out malware is this will randomly open with an ad
So all the advice that people gave were for that. None of the advice me and other posters gave would cause any harm for the OP in a normal circumstance nothing can be 100%.
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OP, do what everyone else has said so far: Run CCleaner, defrag your HDD, and run Malwarebytes and maybe Spyboy Search and Destroy as well. If this doesn't completely fix your problem, restart your computer in safe mode and run Malwarebytes again. Some viruses are tricky little buggers that won't be found until you boot in safe mode.
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My computer ran into a HUGE slow down issue yesterday. Was working great all day for about 8 hours straight (I was downloading stuff so I left my computer on) and then BAM it went to a crawl. I can tell you what I did to resolve the issue.
1. When your computer is running slow hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and review the task manager. Check the tab 'processes' and review what is running. Are there any programs that have a memory usage over 30K? If there are DON'T START HITTING END PROCESS. Do some research online about the running programs to diagnose if the memory usage is normal or not. Secondly find out what program is actually running. If it is not an important program close it with the end process button once you are sure it will not effect system stability.
You can also click the tab 'performance' to review how hard your CPU is chewing away. On my computer (Windows 7) it has a 'resource' button I can press. This will show me what programs are eating away at your CPU. Once again research and turn off/remove what you don't need.
In the end I found out my Google Chrome was eating away at 250k for memory usage and kept climbing and my CPU was becoming maxed at 100% (usually only 23-50%). Turns out there was a memory leak caused by a plugin I installed. I had to remove some Google Chrome folders and it fixed my problem.
Maybe you have a program installed that has a memory leak. The above should help you narrow down that possibility.
2. Also try going to start menu >> run >> and type msconfig >> enter. I went to the "startup' tab and started turning off startup programs that were not necessary to begin on start-up. This helped increase my login/bootup time.
** Ultimately this will not fix your speeds, but it can help with slow login.**
P.S the suggestions above are also very good. You will want to do my recommendation in conjunction with those previous since it sounds like you also have a virus.
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I ran the malwarebytes, and it found and cleaned several things out, and my computer is running much better now, but it is still slightly slower than it was. now I RARELY get the random pop up ads, but they still happen. The slow part i think can be attributed to the fact that my computer needed some work anyway, and this just set it over, but the ads still worry me. I did just run Ccleaner, we'll see if that changes anything. Thanks for the help so far!
Edit: I'm also still being randomly redirected to different sites when I click a link.
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On June 01 2011 08:55 Introvert wrote:
I ran the malwarebytes, and it found and cleaned several things out, and my computer is running much better now, but it is still slightly slower than it was. now I RARELY get the random pop up ads, but they still happen. The slow part i think can be attributed to the fact that my computer needed some work anyway, and this just set it over, but the ads still worry me. I did just run Ccleaner, we'll see if that changes anything. Thanks for the help so far!
Edit: I'm also still being randomly redirected to different sites when I click a link.
If all of this is still happening give my post a try, use combofix + hijack this.
Hijack this allows you to see what programs are set to startup and you can disable almost all of the procsses. Then run combofix to fix a ton of malware quick and efficent.
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If it is virus or just to rule out a virus, update Symantec. Shut down machine. While booting tap the F8 key until u get an option to boot into safe mode(other options are last known good configuration and safe mode with networking). Once booted into safe mode, run a full system scan with Symantec and be sure you are scanning all of the drives connected. When that completes, if it didn't find anything then you can rule out a virus or a worm and most trojans.
When did the problems start? If it was when you installed Symantec, that might actually be slowing down your machine. However the new pop-ups definitely point towards spyware.
I use Microsoft Security Essentials on all of my Windows machines. It runs lighter than Symantec and provides good protection against viruses, worms, trojans, ad-ware, and spy-ware. It is also available free for home use.
For general maintenance, I recommend running Defraggler and CCleaner from Piriform about once per month. Defraggler is the best defragmentation tool out there and CCleaner clears out your cookies, history, and lots of other temporary files that can bog down your machine. CCleaner also has a great registry repair tool that has a backup feature that works and has been tested. I have personally never needed its backup copy because the software is very safe. These are also free apps.
[edit] Just saw your update. For the remaining ads, just boot to safe mode and scan again with whatever you used the first time. It should clear it up.[/edit]
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I saw the combofix link, but that looked like a little more work than I had time for, at least initially. I might have to do it though. And I've had symantec on here since the beginning, so that's not it. Plus it's the lighter business version. I did use Hijackthis, I don't know if it accomplished anything. I will check out Microsoft Security... I'll try more scans in safe mode. Malwarebytes did clean it up, the frequency and severity of all issues has definitely decreased. As of THIS moment, it is running as it used to. But there is still the occasional tab ad, plus random odd happenings.
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On June 01 2011 09:56 Halfwarr wrote:
If all of this is still happening give my post a try, use combofix + hijack this.
um ya. combofix doesnt work past windows xp and I wouldnt recommend it to someone who isnt experienced with it. you can do more dammage than good with that program imo.
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On June 02 2011 02:26 tsmitho wrote:Show nested quote +On June 01 2011 09:56 Halfwarr wrote:
If all of this is still happening give my post a try, use combofix + hijack this.
um ya. combofix doesnt work past windows xp and I wouldnt recommend it to someone who isnt experienced with it. you can do more dammage than good with that program imo.
Introduction
ComboFix is a program, created by sUBs, that scans your computer for known malware, and when found, attempts to clean these infections automatically. In addition to being able to remove a large amount of the most common and current malware, ComboFix also displays a report that can be used by trained helpers to remove malware that is not automatically removed by the program.
At this time ComboFix can only run on the following Windows versions:
Windows XP (32-bit only)
Windows 2000 (32-bit only)
Windows Vista (32-bit/64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
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Try using SUPERAntiSpyware. It's similar to MalwareBytes but is much more aggressive in scanning and finding things. Usually that and MalwareBytes are a pretty decent combination for disinfection.
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After you remove the malaware you want to change your email passwords immediately or on another computer.
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I never even manually signed into my email while this was acting up. Besides, i still get the random ads, so I'm cautious about changing it while i still have issues. I'll try some of the other suggested programs as well... I know some stuff about computers but not about their protection (I've always been lazy about that part).
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EPT
