Such a slow laptop

Tozer

Hi

Sure its been asked a million times or more...but

I've got a brand new Dell XPS 1530. 3GB Ram and a decent processor. 250GB HDD.

It is so, so slow. Nothing downloaded at all - I have another laptop downloading emails to keep the XPS 'pure'. The only thing downloaded is Avast and Zonealarm.

Shutting down takes 10 mins or so. Internet Explorer says Website Found but doesn't do anything.

Hard drive always sounds busy.

Any troubleshooting tips?

thomas01155

Swap to Avira and Comodo Firewall(Deselct the antivirus and the toolbar during installation). Zonealarm is a Hog. Avast is also quite heavy.
http://www.comodo.com/
http://www.free-av.com/

Tozer

Thanks. Not sure it is that. Got another laptop running exactly the same (with less memory or processor power) and it is very quick.

Should have said - if it is switched off and on again, seems fine for a bit. Internet Explorer then seems to crash (as does Firefox) and it is painfully slow.

Reluctant_spender

Having recently been on a state the bleedin obvious course I would say that something is not right - I passed the course!!

Did it come pre installed with any anti virus software? I wonder if this is conflicting on first start up?

tey this;

Click here to download HJTInstall.exe

• Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop.
• Doubleclick on the HJTInstall.exe icon on your desktop.
• By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis .
• Click on Install.
• It will create a HijackThis icon on the desktop.
• Once installed, it will launch Hijackthis.
• Click on the Do a system scan and save a logfile button. It will scan and the log should open in notepad.
• Click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" to copy the entire contents of the log.
• Come back here to this thread and Paste the log in your next reply.
• DO NOT use the AnalyseThis button, its findings are dangerous if misinterpreted.
• DO NOT have Hijackthis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.

Tozer

Thanks again. It came with McAfee which has already been ditched.

The thing is the computer used to be blisteringly fast. Really, really quick.

Last 2 weeks? Slow as anything. Really noticeable.

Hence I don't think it is the normal operational software issues.

Reluctant_spender

Could be malware then. Lets rule that out too.

Download Hijack this and also MalwareBytes; Run malwarebyres first

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.
alternate download link 1
alternate download link 2

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Then click Finish.

MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan.

• If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself.
• Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
• If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install. Alternatively, you can update through MBAM's interface from a clean computer, copy the definitions (rules.ref) located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware from that system to a usb stick or CD and then copy it to the infected machine.

On the Scanner tab:

• Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
• Then click on the Scan button.
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.

Back at the main Scanner screen:

• Click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply and exit MBAM.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you may be asked to reboot your computer so it can proceed with the disinfection process. Regardless if prompted to restart the computer or not, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware. MBAM may "make changes to your registry" as part of its disinfection routine. If using other security programs that detect registry changes (ie Spybot's Teatimer), they may interfere or alert you after scanning with MBAM. Please temporarily disable such programs or permit them to allow the changes.

Tozer

loaner wrote: »

When did you install ZA?

About a month ago.

aliEnRIK

Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
SCAN and post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)

Tozer

Thanks for that. I'll do that later - at work at the moment.

Thanks all.

aliEnRIK

loaner wrote: »

Ditch zonealarm

I 2nd that advice

Tozer

aliEnRIK wrote: »

I 2nd that advice

Would you have confidence in just Windows (Vista Home) firewall?