My laptop is being incredibly slow, please help

ecangel24

Sorry i got called into work I haven't been being ungrateful honest.
I know you must think i'm a massive idiot. But somethings if you're never taught your not going to know.

ecangel24

marsden_pete wrote: »

you can get AVG anti virus free of charge

i also run spybot search and distroy

also might be worth installing free ram which will help free up your ramand make your computer run faster.

what make and model laptop is it?

Thank you for your advice
I have downloaded the AVG anti virus

It is Acer 5535
I know it was only a cheap one and not to expect much, but it is definetly slower than when I first bought it.

ecangel24

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Download MALWAREBYTES (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD NOW')
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
UPDATE and FULL SCAN
Post the log here AFTER youve deleted everything it finds


reboot

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

Thank you for your advice.

I am currently running the malwarebytes scan
Will post later with the results.

macman

ecangel24 wrote: »

Thank you for your advice
I have downloaded the AVG anti virus

It is Acer 5535
I know it was only a cheap one and not to expect much, but it is definetly slower than when I first bought it.

You need to remove McAfee. It is still running, even though it won't update if the trial period has expired. You can't run two anti virus programs at once as they will conflict with each other.
AVG Free is not a good AV program, if you want to use a free one Avira is much better.

ecangel24

spakkker wrote: »

It might be worth downloading the mcaffee removal tool and getting rid of mcaffee - http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
save to desktop. Some anti-vurus can be a problem in themselves. If you are able to download avira try that for now , its not bad and it's free.
See - http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallmcafee.shtml

I have done this, mcafee is gone!
thank you

ecangel24

macman wrote: »

You need to remove McAfee. It is still running, even though it won't update if the trial period has expired. You can't run two anti virus programs at once as they will conflict with each other.
AVG Free is not a good AV program, if you want to use a free one Avira is much better.

I have removed mcafee, using the tool suggested above.
so should I uninstall AVG and get Avira? or have both?

thomas01155

AVG is not so good use the AVG removal tool to uninstall it (never have 2 antivirus installed) http://www.avg.com/download-tools then installed Avira http://www.free-av.com/en/products/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

[Deleted User]

ecangel24 wrote: »

I have removed mcafee, using the tool suggested above.
so should I uninstall AVG and get Avira? or have both?

You should only ever have one antivirus program installed. If I were you I'd uninstall any anti-virus programs, anti-malware programs or anything else of a similar nature. Then do the following:

1. Download and run CCleaner - http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
2. Run a free online virus scan as it's best to remove any viruses prior to installing a long-term anti-virus package - http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kos_trialpay_offer
3. Install and run - http://www.superantispyware.com/
4. Install, run, and post back a log - http://www.malwarebytes.org/
5. Install, run, and post back a log - http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html

danoh

Hi there,
I too have the misfortune to be blessed with a slow laptop, though mine is 3 and a half years old!

One thing to check is what power plan your laptop is set on. Set it to Maximum Performance, which speeds it up a little.
Zone Alarm is a good firewall to use, but first disable Windows Firewall, as having two contradict each other
How full is the Hard Drive? Freeing up some space will speed it up massively - put it onto CDs/DVDs, or buy an external hard drive. When you have freed some space, defragment the hard drive.
I understand that you may not want to spend on your laptop, but buying more RAM will really make a big difference to the speed. Seeing how you have bought a cheap laptop, it most likely does not contain the full amount of RAM it can take. Run the memory checker on crucial.com, and try and buy more sticks to top it up to the max! If you add RAM, it will take a couple of days/weeks to kick in, so be patient with it.

Hope I have been of any use! Let me know of anything that you do and if it works!!

[Deleted User]

danoh wrote: »

One thing to check is what power plan your laptop is set on. Set it to Maximum Performance

I wouldn't bother.

danoh wrote: »

Zone Alarm is a good firewall to use, but first disable Windows Firewall

I'd rather use the inbuilt Windows firewall and do.

danoh wrote: »

Freeing up some space will speed it up massively

Defragmenting may help once you've uninstalled all the crap you don't need but I definately wouldn't say 'massively'.

danoh wrote: »

but buying more RAM will really make a big difference to the speed.

First sensible thing you've said.