[bootlegga]

After Firefox 4 died (still haven't been able to get it back up and running), I ran two anti-virus scans (Norton and Trend Micro's Housecall). Both came up negative, but on Monday my desktop suddenly became slow and unresponsive, so I was worried I had a virus anyways.

I installed and updated MS Security Essentials and, after running a full system scan, sure enough, it found a nasty little trojan, which it removed. I then updated and ran Mal-ware Bytes and CC Cleaner to clean up my system even further. Mal-ware Bytes found nothing, and CC Cleaner deleted a ton of temp files and cookies.

However, it is still incredibly slow and unresponsive at times - like something is sucking up processing power. I've deleted files and have about 10% of the drive free now.

I've thought about re-formatting the hard drive and re-installing it to factory new, but I just did that last spring and I would like to avoid that if at all possible (Plus, I've already tried backing some stuff up and the system slows to a crawl when I do).

Any ideas on what the problem may be (and of course how to fix it)?

[Gunnair]

You just reminded me to do a scan.

[jeff744]

do a sys restore to an earlier date.

[Brenda]

Like I did, with a 3 month old computer: Back everything up to an external thing, and re install it all factory new, and start over...

Fucking viruses...

[xerxes]

I'm in the same boat right now. My main PC has a virus and spyware that I can't get rid of. So now I'm backing stuff up in prep for a wipe.

[herbie]

Before you get into a super-complicated repair, 10% free isn't enough. Get rid of more shit. Uninstall Norton, keep MSE. Uninstall Malwarebytes, it's compromised.
Shut off System Restore to get more space.
AUSlogic defrag your disk.
Open a command prompt (run CMD), in the window chkdsk /f, say YES
Reboot.
If it's better when it reboots (scan again) you can turn reinstall Malwarebytes (new version came out a couple days ago) and System Restore back on and make a Restore point. If you do, set System Restore to use maybe 3-5% of your disk. 12% is the default, that's way too much.

[herbie]

BTW if you're running XP or Vista, do that slow backup while you're shopping for a new computer.....

[Scape]

herbie wrote:

Before you get into a super-complicated repair, 10% free isn't enough. Get rid of more shit. Uninstall Norton, keep MSE. Uninstall Malwarebytes, it's compromised.
Shut off System Restore to get more space.
AUSlogic defrag your disk.
Open a command prompt (run CMD), in the window chkdsk /f, say YES
Reboot.
If it's better when it reboots (scan again) you can turn reinstall Malwarebytes (new version came out a couple days ago) and System Restore back on and make a Restore point. If you do, set System Restore to use maybe 3-5% of your disk. 12% is the default, that's way too much.

This ^^

10% is way too low.

[421_434_226]

Have to agree with others min should be 25% free, better yet install a second HDD to store crap on and use the OS drive for the OS and essentials only. One step further the storage HDD can be a pair in a raid configuration, reinstalling the OS is a pain but losing important to you data is not fun at all. If you use a storage drive don't forget to relocate your "My Documents" folder to the storage drive.

[Elvis]

This is a plague this day.

Other tips if you have XP SP3 or higher Sometime trojan and other nasty can be remove but they break stuff on the way out! an easy fix is the command (As administrator) "SFC /SCANNOW" You will be prompted to insert your windows XP sp3 CD when it find corrupted file. If that fail you have to them open up "msconfig" check wich process is started at boot that might be invoke for nothing. this and that and so on and finally a fresh reinstall................... Hour of fun

Better yet this just out came out yesterday.

http://www.mageia.org/en/ Great little Linux distribution.
Or this
http://www.mandriva.com/en/
Or this
http://www.linuxmint.com/

Maybe it's time to forget about virus and start on something new. Just saying.

Because MS Os is so much more user friendly than a modern Linux distro

[PostFactum]

Acronis may help for recovery.

[herbie]

Acronis is a backup/clone application. Won't fix an infected disk or one with errors on it.

[desertdude]

Tru Dat ! 10% is waaay too low, also start and check task manager and see if there are unwanted process, like stupid updates, toolbars etc etc clogging up RAM. As said defrag. Also run the registy checker on CC cleaner and do back it up when it asks, just in case.

Also download and install AVG anti virus, its free and ne of the best. Norton couldn't detect half the shit that was on my laptop and that was a paid version which would update weekly. The free AVG is one of if not the best free antivirus or malware software out there. Spy doctor is another good one but the free one is pretty crap.

And most of all, free up more HDD space. I try to keep it 50%.

And it would be a good idea to wipe out any viruses and format the damn thing !

[Brenda]

Norton was the first thing I un-installed when I bought this computer.

[Curtman]

bootlegga wrote:

Any ideas on what the problem may be (and of course how to fix it)?

Windows. Try the Ubuntu live cd. Burn it to a cd, and reboot with it in the dvd. If you like it, it's easier to install than Windows.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

It costs you nothing at all to try it.