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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:48 am
by thescruff
Running ex service pack 3.

I have CCleaner and Mbam on my cumputer, and thought if I save them to the remote, I could just plug it in when I go round there next.

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:19 am
by chat_to_rich
When removing viruses etc. I always burn my tools onto a CD (assuming the machine to be cleaned has an optical drive!) That way you can be sure you won't transfer the infection back to your computer, which could happen if you use a re-writable drive, e.g. USB stick etc. Once I think I've removed any infections I do the following cleanup tasks:
  • Check the firewall is enabled
    Manually update anti-virus + run full scan + schedule a weekly scan
    Manually update anti-spyware + run full scan + schedule a weekly scan (if you have a separate anti-spyware package)
    Manually re-run anti-virus and anti-spyware scans until no more threats are detected
    Check Windows Update is enabled and set to Automatic
    Check Microsoft Update is enabled (Option on the Windows Update home page, which installs updates for other MS products)
    Manually run Windows Update and install all critical updates
    Wait a few days. If everything seems ok create a new system restore point and delete all old ones.
To manually create a system restore point:
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.
On the Welcome page, click Create a restore point.
On the Create a Restore Point page, enter a descriptive name for your restore point, and then click Create. This link tells you have to remove all but the latest system restore point using Ccleaner http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner/using ... ore-points

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:58 am
by dave.m
thescruff wrote:Running ex service pack 3.

I have CCleaner and Mbam on my cumputer, and thought if I save them to the remote, I could just plug it in when I go round there next.
Scruff, It is not the actual program that you need to take on a Hard Drive to the other computer, because it will not work.
You need the setup.exe file to be able to install it on the other computer.
If you saved the setup .exe files in a download folder from when you installed on your computer, you could drag or right click and send to the external drive. But depending upon how long ago you installed them, they will probably be out of date, so you are as well, downloading a new setup installer and dragging (or right click and send To) to the external drive.

dave

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:43 pm
by scot-canuck
also going to "start" then "run" and then type msconfig.exe, startup, and removing stuff from there helps also. Also looking for the file name and location of anything suspicious and deleting it manually, can help to stop malware reseeding itself, also disconnect the computer from the internet until the computer is clean, otherwise it likely will just redownload the missing parts of itself.

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:46 pm
by thescruff
Thanks Scot, thats a good idea.

I'm going round there in the morning. :thumbright:

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:10 pm
by thescruff
Hi guys,

I think I've got rid of 228 threats. :shock: but the computer is as slow as you like, although signs of improvement.

I notice the Total physical memory is 512mb and only 24.26mb available. Is this part of the problem and what can I do to improve it.

I brought the tower home with me, to play.

Comments and suggestion welcome as always.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:22 pm
by chat_to_rich
Open task manager, by right-clicking on the clock and choosing Task Manger. Go to the Processes tab, tick the "show processes from all users" checkbox, click on the memory column to order by memory usage. See what process are using most memory. 512MB RAM isn't a huge amount, but at idle with no programs open I would expect more RAM to be available than 25MB.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:53 pm
by thescruff
From the top.

SSScheduler 452K
Google toolbar 1,060K
cftmon 1,780K
avgtray 852K
Monitor 936K
jusched 4,292K
MSASCui 6,384K
iTouch 724K
sistray 1,316K
mDNSResponder 328K
avgwdsvc 328K later 2,288K
explorer 18,712K
avgnsx 292K
svchost 468K
avgrsx 180K
taskmgr 5,208K
spoolsys 944K
tgsrvc 80K
svchost 1840K
svchost 256K
svchost 828K
sprtsvc 548K
svchost 548K later 14,016
alg 544K
MsMpEng 19,756K
svchost 1,536K
svchost 1,680K
Isass 1,128K
services 1,616K
LVPrcSrv 912K
winlogon 2,156K
csrss 1,836K
wuauclt 6,760K
smss 56K
jps 1,384K
System 52K
System idle 16K


Obviously all dot exe, but a couple keep changing.

cpu usage goes from 0% to 2%, with an odd peak at 15%

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:18 pm
by chat_to_rich
There's nothing in that list that's using a large amount of memory. Are there any startup programs that can be disabled via msconfig as per Scot, or using Ccleaner? Can you see much disk activity by looking at the disk activity light? Is the computer generally slow, or is it when you do anything in particular? Are you sure all the viruses etc. have been removed? You could try a defrag, which might speed-up the loading of programs.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:31 pm
by thescruff
In the task manager performance.

cpu usage is 0% up if I click on something.

Totals.
Handles 8959 ish
threads 437
processes 38

Physical memory 458224
available 242428
system cache 293572.

commit charge
total 346392
limit 1082412
peak 602532.

kernal memory
total 37912
paged 32208
nonpaged 5704.

PF usage is 338MB at the moment

the whole computer is very slow. especially when loading, I have disabled loads of start on start up, and could do more.

I was going to defrag tonight, when I finished playing.

Not configured to connect to my router yet.

I checked for viruses several times, but it take well over an hour, and avg took 3hrs ::b first time it's been done I think, I may take it off and put avast on instead.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:34 pm
by chat_to_rich
Your figures show ~250MB free RAM, not 25MB. Try a defrag and another AV program just to check there's still nothing there.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:39 pm
by RichieP
At risk of there being too many people giving input, download Hijack This 2.02 from here

Close all open windows and select "Run a system scan and save a logfile£

It will open Notepad with a log. Copy and paste the entire contents here.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:42 pm
by thescruff
More the merrier Richie. :thumbright:

I could download that to a cd and load it on the thing.

Same with the log I could save it to disc.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:43 pm
by thescruff
chat_to_rich wrote:Your figures show ~250MB free RAM, not 25MB. Try a defrag and another AV program just to check there's still nothing there.
I was in system resources or something when I got the 25mb, did have a few things going at the time, like an avg scan.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:48 pm
by chat_to_rich
Having a number of programs open would explain the increased RAM usage. 250MB free at idle for a 512MB machine is a healthy amount.