Pc very slow

[dougiedickson]

Hi guys n gals,
All of a sudden my pc has got slow especially on start up. When i start it up i can see the HD light clicking away as though it's loading up and after it finally gets there (about 1 min) its just very slow at doing anything. Ive defragged,checked for spyware, viruss everything. Any ideas? Ive even cleaned up my temp files.Running 2.6ghz so should be fast. Have recently installed about 3000 songs to my media player could this be the prob? Mind you i have got a 120gig hard drive and only used about 16gig. Any ideas appreciated. Oh and my shortcut for media player has dissapeared from my taskbar

Dougie

[tayspen]

You may have things that are booting as windows starts, things that may not need to b e. To check this, do the following.

Start>Run>Type msconfig

Then click the startup tab. Uncheck anything that you are sure doesnt need to boot.

-T

[dougiedickson]

i'll try that one thanx

Dougie

[dougiedickson]

pretty much the same i,m afraid! At my wits end now.
lol

Dougie

[gemini4]

Hey Dougie when is it slow exactly? Before the Windows logo, before the login screen or after the login screen?

Also what security program do you use?

[dougiedickson]

Hello mate,
its pretty quick up to the Windows logo (12 secs) then after that another 30 secs to the log on window starts.After i log in my name the Hard drive clicks away like crazy fpr another 2.24 secs, so in all its about 3.06 b4 i can start a programme. It used to be a hell of a lot quicker. I use norton personal firewall and also norton systemworks.

[gemini4]

I really don't like Norton. It's a big resource hog and it will end up by crashing your computer. Try uninstalling Norton completely for a while.

You can have your Windows Firewall turned on or you can simply install the free Zone Alarm Personal Firewall (but not the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite) if you want to be more secure.

For an antivirus you can install free AVG from here: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

[jingalala]

Hey Dougie,

How much RAM are u running on? Also did you run chkdsk before defragmenting and was it completed successfully?

[fuzzypumpkins]

I also would like to know if any of this works...I'm having identical problems. BTW I also have norton running in the system tray.

A friend told me that he heard a rumor that norton creates viruses/spyware/etc... so that you buy their product. Ever hear of this?

[jingalala]

I also would like to know if any of this works...I'm having identical problems. BTW I also have norton running in the system tray.

As someone suggested, why dont you try AVG which is not so taxing on the system resources and is a very efficient utility- free as well. Have heard from many that Norton has caused the system to slowdown.

[fuzzypumpkins]

Ok, now I got rid of norton, and now avg free is the only thing running in my tray. I can't really tell if it helped or not. I also posted my hjt log file in the virus/spyware forum.