comp behaving badly

glowgirl_2

Hi, for the past couple of weeks my computer has been very very slow, especially on certain sites, this one included, it also keeps loosing settings and regularly seems to just simply shut down when your in the middle of something, sometimes when it does this I get the message "Internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" other times it just goes with no message. If anyone has an idea what might be wrong or an idea how to fix it I would be very grateful because its driving me up the wall and I will through it out the window soon........................Thank you.

DCFC79

glowgirl wrote: »

Hi, for the past couple of weeks my computer has been very very slow, especially on certain sites, this one included, it also keeps loosing settings and regularly seems to just simply shut down when your in the middle of something, sometimes when it does this I get the message "Internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" other times it just goes with no message. If anyone has an idea what might be wrong or an idea how to fix it I would be very grateful because its driving me up the wall and I will through it out the window soon........................Thank you.

what operating system do you have, do you have any anti virus/firewall, do you regulary use your anti virus to scan the pc

aliEnRIK

Download Malwarebytes
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
UPDATE and QUICK SCAN

We can take from there

glowgirl_2

Hi,

DCFC79 - I use windows XP my OH recently installed XP Service pack 3 at roughly the same time as the problems started, I use Norton security which does an automatic scan every friday night.

aliEnRIK - I downloaded the package you suggested, did a quick scan and it came up with 7 malware problems to be removed, I did this and also did a restart - when I connected to the internet there were no problems - all good so far, my questions are, shouldnt Norton of protected me from the malware, if not what can I do to proptect myself in future?

Thank you both so much for the help.

aliEnRIK

Nortons c*ap as far as im concerned

Its upto you. We can advise on free software if you wish to replace Norton?

For now though ~ install SPYBOT
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html
UPDATE, IMMUNISE and SCAN
(Immunising stops a lot of spyware and popups when using the internet)

glowgirl_2

Hi aliEnRIK, I have done all that you suggested and the comp is working perfectly, no pop ups, nice and fast and no loss of settings and no shut downs, am I right in saying that spybot is protecting me as I use the internet? This has been really important to me as I am in the process of setting up a new website so thank you very much for your help, if you think I should do anything else please let me know.:T

GunJack

I personally would ditch Norton, and get, as a full security suite:-

1. avast antivirus
2. spyware doctor
3. ccleaner (not security as such, but cleans up your files and registry)
4. malware bytes (you should have)
5. spybot (ditto)

all free, avast and spyware doctor are real-time protection, spybot's immunisation feature is good, and malwarebytes if you suspect a problem...

think all are available free via www.majorgeeks.com, just use the right links/versions...

robnye

GunJack wrote: »

I personally would ditch Norton, and get, as a full security suite:-

1. avast antivirus
2. spyware doctor
3. ccleaner (not security as such, but cleans up your files and registry)
4. malware bytes (you should have)
5. spybot (ditto)

all free, avast and spyware doctor are real-time protection, spybot's immunisation feature is good, and malwarebytes if you suspect a problem...

think all are available free via www.majorgeeks.com, just use the right links/versions...

what he said.....

i had issues recently and the only one i had missing was malware.... installed it and everything is tickety boo at the mo

glowgirl_2

Thank you very much, I think your both right as Norton seems to be doing nothing - much appreciated will do it later tonight.

spankymonkey_2

make sure you run the norton removal tool, im sure you will be able get the link off here, it removes rubbish that normally gets left behind when you do a normal uninstall

glowgirl_2

Thank you, will do that.