Hi - My machine over the last week is behaving really slowly.
I'm running Windows XP Home Edition 2002 Service Pack 3
Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz 2.9 GHz 512 RAM
I have AVG installed that I run virtually every day - I've cleaned the hard drive and defragged. With no noticeable improvement.
Any light that can be shed on the problem would be very gratefully received.

I found that AVG slowed down my system, so I switched to Avira. Try downloading Malwarebytes and run a scan. Also have you cleaned and defragged your hard drive? If not, do that (and browser cache too). CCleaner is a great free tool for that.

Is your internet explorer running slow or the whole computer
is running slow?
Did you run scandisk command on your computer?

many thanks for all the replies. I've deleted AVG and installed Avira and that has helped a lot. I'd already tried Regcure with limited success. Avira has made a big difference. Thanks again.

It may be very well related to an infection or too many programs running at startup and throughout and not necessarily an anti-virus program...download the following for cleaning up some junk to fasten the computer a little bit more...

CCleaner 2.18.878

PCMaid 1.0.1626

And yeah the following two programs, download, install and scan, they're free and will not run with the memory...


Microsoft® Windows® Malicious Software Removal Tool

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2(Disable the yea-timer to save usage of memory)...

Here's the thing......I downloaded a trial version of RegCure last week and it found over 1800 errors on my registry. It fixed the first 20 errors then asked me for £20 to fix the rest. After much soul searching,anxiety and general nervousness I coughed up the dough. ( Just because I'm paranoid it doesn't mean to say that the world isn't out to get me!) I then ran RegCure and it found 240 errors but managed to fix over 380!!.( work that one out!) . To-day I downloaded Registry Booster and lo & behold it found over 1800 errors on my registry. It offered to fix the first 20 but wanted £20 to fix the rest. No thanks!!. Two different companies offering the same level of service for the same amount of money but with conflicting results......my head hurts.Actually changing from AVG to Avira antivirus programmes has speeded Internet Explorer up considerably. Why though, I have not the slightest idea. maybe you can enlighten me. I am worried though that Avira doesn't give protection to Outlook Express email programme. In the meantime very many thanks to all for helping out. I think my next computer will be counting beads or a Mac. Probably a Mac.

that why we here are suggest fully working programs that are free, yes free and work quite good I might add

Do as said in my previous Post, Ccleaner has a registry section to fix errors, considering you have so many registry errors i presume you 'MAY' be fairly infected....Considering your configuration, your PC should be quite fast...
If you have the time, Download and run all the tools given in my previous post and do the following :

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBA-M) to your Desktop.

* DoubleClick mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install MBA-M.
* Be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then

click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
* Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When MBA-M finishes, Notepad will open with the log. Please save it where you can find it easily.
* Immediately Reboot the computer..

Then Download

Trend Micro HijackThis 2.0.2
Install it and click on 'Run a scan and save the logfile'.

Provide the logfile of MBAM and Hijackthis Here..

Btw...All programs mentioned above are Free

In Windows XP it isn't called scandisk but chkdsk ...

I have used AVG anti-spyware and anti- virus on my computer,
but my computer never showed such bad performance, meaning
running slow.

I think when he boots the computer and the AVG starts in startup,
it performs an automatic scan of the system which slows the system down. If he disables the automatic system scan of AVG,
than I think it will improve the performance of the system.

Thanks for reminding me about chkdsk

Regards,