There could be any of a number of things going on, but if you'd like to post a HijackThis log for us to review, you can do that:
Download the free HijackThis utility. Once downloaded, follow these instructions to install and run the program:
Create a folder for HJT outside of any Temp/Temporary folders and move the HijackThis.exe file to that folder now. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.
Run HijackThis, but do not have HJT fix anything yet; only have it scan your system! Once the scan is complete, the "Scan" button will turn into an option to "Save log...".
Save the log in the folder you created for HijackThis; the saved file will be named "hijackthis.log". Open the log file with Windows Notepad, and cut-n-paste the entire contents of the Notepad file here.
The log contents will tell us a lot about what (if any) "nasties" have crept into your system, and once we analyse the log we can tell you what to do from there.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
McDaddy17,
Please don't bump your threads with "reminder" posts. It's pretty rare for us to forget a thread, but with a few hundred problems per day to deal with, it can take some time for us to posts follow-ups to all of the active issues on which we are working. Also keep in mind that it's a major holiday weekend in the US, meaning than many of us have other things to do with our "free" time today.
That said:
* Your log is definitely free of any signs of infections, and it also indicates that you a running a relatively "lean" system in terms of startup processes and the like.
However, the following startup items are not critical to their programs' operations; to conserve CPU and memeory resources, you can safely disable them if you wish:
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_03\bin\jusched.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SpeedTouch USB Diagnostics] "C:\Program Files\Thomson\SpeedTouch USB\Dragdiag.exe" /icon
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MsnMsgr] "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe
To disable the above items with HijackThis, run another HijackThis scan, put a check in the box to the left of the following entry, and then click the "Fix checked" button.
* Have you made any adds/upgrades/etc to software or hardware which coincided with the point at which you started to notice the slowdown?
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
Checking/"fixing" the items with HijackThis will only remove their autostart entries, not the programs themselves. You can also disable/enable the autostarting of most of those programs through an option in the programs' preferences settings.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
One other thing, can you think of why my pc is a bit slow responding? For example, moving the mouse pointer around the screen, opening folders/files etc.
That can definitely be one of the noticeable effects of a background process which is taking CPU and/or memory resources away from your applications and user-initiated events such moving the mouse, opening folders, etc. More specifically, a symptom like that usually manifests itself in "spurts". That is, your mouse may periodically lag for a moment, but then return to its normal behaviour; if the lag isconstant, that may be indicative of some other issue.
I understand that by checking the items then that would speed up the time it takes for the computer to boot up, but would it also speed up the computer generally??
Technically yes- because most of the startup items remain active in the background (hidden) while Windows is running. Whether or not the actual performance increase gained by disabling startup items is actuallynoticeable to the user is another story.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
Any idea what that issue could be?
Well-is the lag constant, or does it come and go?
Either way, do you experience the lag even when Windows is booted in Safe Mode (you get to the safe mode boot option by hitting the F8 key as your computer is starting up).
Also, I've started my computer since I used hijack this to check those items and my computer still takes the same amount of time to boot up. Any ideas please?
Unfortunately, as I said earilier:Whether or not the actual performance increase gained by disabling startup items is actually noticeable to the user is another story.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
