Computer extremely slow

[lisaroutly]

Hello there!
As of yesterday, my computer's been giving me alot of trouble. I'm not quite sure where to start, because I have no idea what's wrong. I have a year-old MDG computer with Windows XP Home edition.
Basically, my computer froze yesterday. I thought it was because I was doing too many things at once, so I turned off the tower, turned it back on, and let it do the "improper shut down" scan. Normally, my computer starts up fine again after this. But this time, once the desktop started loading, everything became painfully slow. The taskbar takes forever to load, and some things (LimeWire and ZoneAlarm for example), don't load in at all. I tried clicking on icons, for example My Computer. It takes the machine way too long to open the folder, and once it's open, I can't do much of anything. Even right-clicking icons, to look at properties for example, is too much for my PC to handle. I can't access the internet anymore, open files, nothing. The only thing I can do is shut it down.
When I shut it down, I get alot of "such and such program is not repsonding, ... end now". The most common errors are with the following: ESCAN_05C7FDBC (it goes on), WindWWAA, OSA.EXE, and Axwin Frame Window. Each time I shut down the computer though, other programs will "not respond," but generally I have the most trouble with the four listed above (none of which I know what they are).
The problem first appeared after I deleted a bunch of old, unused files, mostly pictures and videos. Is it possible that I accidentally deleted some integral file that was helping my system operate properly? Also, the computer had been on for about a month without ever being shut down... Could that be a factor?
Oh, one more thing. Before my computer was screwed up, I used to get a message like this when the desktop would load on start-up: "DLL Initialization: The applicaton failed because the..." (I don't remember the rest). When I would press "Ok" the computer would continue to load in properly. Since the computer got sick, I haven't seen that message at all.
I'm worried that my only option is to reboot my hard-drive from scratch, which I really, really don't want to do. My computer is so slow that I can't even burn my important files onto CDs or run a virus-scan. Seriously, nothing works. I did try to load the "optimal default settings", but that did nothing.
If any of you have ANY idea what could be wrong, or if you need anymore information about my PC or it's symptoms, please get back to me!
Thanks,
Lisa :o (How I hate being computer illiterate)

[frenemy]

Ya might want to give us a full rundown on your PC specs:
motherboard + bios version
processor
RAM (type, size, speed)
hard drive (type, size, speed)

download and run silent runners and the instructions are here

[lisaroutly]

Alright, after some hunting, here are the specs:
Vision 2600gbfl (Not sure what this is...)
Intel 865GBF Motherboard 800MHz
Intel P4 2.6 GHz
512MB DDR 400MHz Memory
WD 80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive

I'll TRY downloading the Silent Runners on this comp then see if I can use it on my dying one...

Let me know if you have any ideas!

- Lisa

[Novell52]

Alright, after some hunting, here are the specs:
Vision 2600gbfl (Not sure what this is...)
Intel 865GBF Motherboard 800MHz
Intel P4 2.6 GHz
512MB DDR 400MHz Memory
WD 80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive

I'll TRY downloading the Silent Runners on this comp then see if I can use it on my dying one...

Let me know if you have any ideas!

- Lisa

You might want to check your computer for spyware or virus infection. You can start by downloading and running adaware. Also make sure that you have the latest updates and security patches from Microsoft.

Have you defragged your hard drive lately? You should do a disk cleanup and defrag.

[marble]

Boot into Safe Mode, run CHKDSK and defragment. Since you deleted a lot of files, the HD may be heavily fragmented and this may be a reason for the slowdown. With file sizes getting so large nowadays, the drive tends to get fragmented pretty soon.

[Tarnished13lade]

system restore to get a bit more speed

[kccomputerdr]

Hello there!
As of yesterday, my computer's been giving me alot of trouble. I'm not quite sure where to start, because I have no idea what's wrong. I have a year-old MDG computer with Windows XP Home edition.
Basically, my computer froze yesterday. I thought it was because I was doing too many things at once, so I turned off the tower, turned it back on, and let it do the "improper shut down" scan. Normally, my computer starts up fine again after this. But this time, once the desktop started loading, everything became painfully slow. The taskbar takes forever to load, and some things (LimeWire and ZoneAlarm for example), don't load in at all. I tried clicking on icons, for example My Computer. It takes the machine way too long to open the folder, and once it's open, I can't do much of anything. Even right-clicking icons, to look at properties for example, is too much for my PC to handle. I can't access the internet anymore, open files, nothing. The only thing I can do is shut it down.
When I shut it down, I get alot of "such and such program is not repsonding, ... end now". The most common errors are with the following: ESCAN_05C7FDBC (it goes on), WindWWAA, OSA.EXE, and Axwin Frame Window. Each time I shut down the computer though, other programs will "not respond," but generally I have the most trouble with the four listed above (none of which I know what they are).
The problem first appeared after I deleted a bunch of old, unused files, mostly pictures and videos. Is it possible that I accidentally deleted some integral file that was helping my system operate properly? Also, the computer had been on for about a month without ever being shut down... Could that be a factor?
Oh, one more thing. Before my computer was screwed up, I used to get a message like this when the desktop would load on start-up: "DLL Initialization: The applicaton failed because the..." (I don't remember the rest). When I would press "Ok" the computer would continue to load in properly. Since the computer got sick, I haven't seen that message at all.
I'm worried that my only option is to reboot my hard-drive from scratch, which I really, really don't want to do. My computer is so slow that I can't even burn my important files onto CDs or run a virus-scan. Seriously, nothing works. I did try to load the "optimal default settings", but that did nothing.
If any of you have ANY idea what could be wrong, or if you need anymore information about my PC or it's symptoms, please get back to me!
Thanks,
Lisa :o (How I hate being computer illiterate)

You definately have a virus & or spyware. Get a free antivirus at http://www.free-av.com, run that. Also download spybot s& d from download.com. after all that defrag & you might want to boost up your virtual memory a bit(RC my com, choose properties, click tabs until you find it, set it up to 4096 mb). that should help. Also, if you have too many extra programs that start at bootup, try decreasing them, especially unnecesary ones. why run it when not using it.