www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I am having problems with my pc running slow and freezing when I log onto the internet.

I have an anti virus and firewall and running explorer 7

Can anyone give me some ideas as to what the problem could be and what to do to get the pc back to running normally. I could re install but trying to avoid that route

really richard

How old is your computer and what are its specs?

Also, does your computer run slow when you are not online, or is it limited do when you are on the internet?

What type of internet connection do you have and who is it with?

What anti-virus software is it?

Can I ask any more questions?

The computer is about 14 months old, and runs slow even when off line

Specs; Windows xp home edition, 2.8 GHz, 504 MB of Ram

Service provider is Telewest broadband

Ant virus is PC guard, I also have windows defender loaded

How much free space on your hard drive ? when did you last defrag your system?.

Check to see if there is a process hogging all the system resources in Task Manager

how do you know which processes you can safely end, I have a huge list on mine.

explorer & msn manager are using the most!

easy....if after stopping the process it crashes your machine don't stop it in future

Seriously, if something is taking a lot of resources I just google the process and see if its an application I know I have running.

Big issue with slow speed is the fact the HD head is thrashing about 'cos the data is all over the place, hence running defrag - but do it on an empty machine!

Thanks for the replies

There is 80% free space on the hard drive

I last defragmented about a month ago. I will defrag when finished on pc tonight

I will check if anything is hogging the system, I will let you know if there are any further problems

1) Make sure you always download the latest updates from Windows Update.

2) My guess is that there are some applications running which you don't know about which are called adware / spyware. These can seriously slow your computer down. Does your anti-virus protect you against these? If not, you may want to download a free tool to detect and delete these applications:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

or

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad- ... rsonal.php

(However, sometimes these applications do not run harmonously with existing anti-virus software (such as Norton). If you do have trouble, try temporarily disabling your anti-virus and then run one of the above).

3) Do you have a firewall? XP has one already - check Settings / Control Panel / Security Center to check whether one is being used. You can download free firewalls also.

4) Try these links. You can spend hours trying all this stuff, and downloading things from Microsoft to check whether your memory is failing, et cetera. It's worth spending some time on the Microsoft website as there are lots and lots of tips and tweeks and things to check out, ranging from simple stuff to quite complex stuff.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/optimize.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredon ... sweep.mspx

5) Does your anti-virus download automatically? Check that it actually doe, as some says they do but don't!!! Check to updates manually, then do a virus scan once a week.

Let me know how you get on.

Oh, by the way, if you are doing a whole load of stuff to your computer (deleting files, deleting unwanted applications, running anti-virus software), make sure the last thing you do is de-frag (i.e. do it, but do it last).

Thanks Andrew

I will have a look at the links you have posted and let you know how I get on

I had wierdy problems with my computer running dog-slow all the time a year or so ago and it turned out that I'd been infected with some nasty spyware.

There's a tool called Hijack This (bit of a scary name, but I assure you it's genuine!) which helped me and the folks on a forum somewhere to diagnose what the problem was and find the right tool to remove it (often virus software doesn't catch Spyware, because it's 'legitimate' software that you've often been tricked into downloading and installing and sometimes even adaware and the like don't catch it, though they're a good start).

I can't remember the name of the forum (if I do, I'll post a link) but this one is similar:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/securit ... -log-help/

(it might even be the same forum with a different look - like I say it's a while ago that I had the problem)

Good luck :)

Or you can just avoid the porn sites that install the spyware in the first place

Seriously, +1 to all of those who suggest checking for spyware / malware etc first

I had the same problem , running explorer 6 on windows XP - used system restore from the accessories/tools folder. Now its fine.

most of the time when pc's r running slow, slow to shut down they have alot of processes running in the background or spyware/adware running.
Hijack this is a very powerful tool be careful when using this, personaly i would use ccleaner in safe mode, when in safe mode only the basic processes run, ccleaner is free and is very good:)

when booting press F8 for safe mode for most models

What did you find out about your computer after you ran the defrag program?