Windows XP Home Edition Slow - Page 2

[explodinghead75]

I have a computer with specs close to yours p4 1.5ghz, and it uses the old RDRAM so I have even less memory cause I refuse to pay the prices for more memory for mine so I'm running 256mb, and I noticed that Firefox and IE 7 can use alot of memory and slow it down so you might want to check your processes and see how much memory you're using when you're surfing.
I've also experienced the cursor pausing; I'm suspecting it's due to lots of ads on sites, as my computer works fine for older 3D games. Is your computer slow offline or only online?

[JAJansenJr]

Quick Question
When you open the task manager and click the Performance Tab. Under CPU usage what dose it say. Try to give me about and average when you're not doing anything on your computer then open up your internet browser and then let me know what that says.
Tech TJ

It seems to be jumping around all over the place. Usage shows anything from 14% to 100%. The usage graph shows a series of jagged spikes.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[TechTJ]

Well, if you're not doing anything on your computer and dont have any programs running in the back ground and it spikes like that often it dose sound like you have spyware or adware or some kind of nasty software running in the background. Cause if you have nothing running the computers not sopose to jump around like that. Thats my final conclusion on this is that you have some nasties and your comptuer might just be getting old lol. Try running some adware and spyware programs again and make sure they are up to date again i know you said you have done that. If that dont help you might want to just back up important documents and clean install.

Best Regards
Tech TJ

[TheNNS]

do yourself a favor and get a new computer

[explodinghead75]

"I will have to look at your post but, no, have not run virus scans mentioned in this thread, as I have American Online Security Edition, which has a McAfee virus scanner and other security measures."

I would not place to much confidence in this combination; it may be a great virus scanner but I recently went to a customer's house that had 63 processes running and the computer was slowed down to a crawl; it was just sitting there on AOL, doing nothing and the page file was using around 500 mb, which is a problem if you only have 256! I know without a doubt it had spyware, because I saw one application running myself, and that was only the most obvious one!

I do not have the quote here, but Microsoft admits that malware is so advanced today that IT IS VERY POSSIBLE FOR IT TO GET PAST YOUR ANTIVIRUS software, because it is impossible for the antivirus software to have signatures for every malware there is. So you can deal with this by looking through the processes yourself (and even this can be tricky because malware can be named after legitimate processes), running MULTIPLE anti-virus and other malware programs (remember to use one for trojans) or if you find that this is too time-consuming and feel your computer is still too slow, backup your files and reinstall XP, as some people have already advised.

I agree with the posters who think your problem is malware, because of the CPU activity. The only other thing that I know of that would help speed it up is increasing RAM, but you might as well buy another used system that doesn't use RDRAM if you're going to take that approach and you should still rule out the malware first.

[TechTJ]

Very Good Post that put everything in this thread and its all 100% good advice and correct. There is all the answers that can be given to you.

Very Good Job explodinghead75 alot of kudos for you.

Best Regards
Tech TJ

[JAJansenJr]

Microsoft has a support webcast at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823887

which addresses Performance Tuning issues in Windows XP. I haven't tried everything they suggest but as this webcast came out in 2003 it's apparent that Microsoft has realised as of quite some time ago that there are real performance tuning issues in XP.

There is a lot of good information here and I recommend anyone facing slowness issues take a look.

At the moment things are running better, mainly after shutting down indexing services running in the background. It was interesting to see just how long it took for the shutdown process took to complete - virtually every file on my F partition was accessed and that took a while.

This "slowness" issue is something I will be looking at carefully when I next upgrade or replace my system.

Any additional ideas anyone may have are still welcome. Every step to getting the system to run promptly is helpful and welcome.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[jbennet]

do you know that xp can be tweaked to run using only 48mb ram. Fine for a low-spec PC that you could donate to an elderley relative.

[JAJansenJr]

48 Meg RAM. Interesting that XP can run with that small amount. I have 384 Meg RDRAM.
One can only wish that more capability was built into the operating system to permit automatic configuration for smooth running for the RAM you have. Tweaking by trial and error can eventually work, but the time spent in doing this is overhead to doing something you really wish or need to be doing.

OS developers of the world! Write more intelligent operating system code so that the befuddled end user can get things to work!

Any further suggestions anyone may have are sincerely welcome. XP has many nooks and crannies and I'm sure that there are other things that may be tried.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[jbennet]

the machine actually had 64mb ram (min for windows to install) but i tweaked the servcies so that task manager reported that windows was only using 44mb of it

basically everything went off apart from basic networking, RPC and logging (else the system doesnt boot)

[Suspishio]

It seems to be jumping around all over the place. Usage shows anything from 14% to 100%. The usage graph shows a series of jagged spikes.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

I've been following this thread since it started and I'm amazed you haven't been asked to list the, say, top 5 processes and their % CPU usage when Task Manager/Processes sorted on CPU is selected.

We might be able to get a handle on all this then. Also there's a HJT log that can tell us what's running in your 384MB PC.

If there's no malware, then remember that Windows or your AV do kick in from time time time. Again, if there's no malware the way to speed up is what you've already been told:
- Keep your startup stuff to a minimum (needs effort & maintenance)
- Unload programs not in use
- Don't run several apps at once

Your aim must be to avoid page thrashing because of all the crap that can run if you don't housekeep what's in startup.

If you ost an HJT log we might (or might not) find malware. But 4 pages into this thread and you're not much further forward because a whole load of important stuff isn't known. Or have I missed it?

[JAJansenJr]

Here are the top 5 processes running at the moment:

Opera 72,972K
WAOL 52,288K
AOLsoftware.exe 13,456K
McShield.exe 13,168K
svchost.exe 10,816K

The % CPU fluctuates but mainly
the SystemIdleProcess is showing
the greatest % (around 85%).

So at the moment the brower (with four windows open) Opera,
AOL and McAfee antivirus are the main processes. Svchost.exe
can mean a variety of things - is there a way to decide which
svchost.exe can be stopped without crashing the system? At the
moment there are six instances of svchost.exe running.

What XP needs is a control panel that would make it a no brainer
to shut down every process that isn't needed. As it stands, you
have to do a - lot - of digging to figure out what can be done.

I'd run a Hijaak This but have not done this before - can
you point to directions on how this is done.

As mentioned, disabling indexing services seemed to help -
a lot - but I'm still interested in anything else I might do
to perk things up.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[jbennet]

The % CPU fluctuates but mainly
the SystemIdleProcess is showing
the greatest % (around 85%).

System idle doesnt do ANYTHING. In fact , its a measure of what the CPU ISNT doing.

e.g if system idle is 90% then it means your CPU is only being 10% used

[Suspishio]

Is what you listed typical of your problem period - which is, after all, what we're interested in? 15% used CPU isn't much to worry about. I hope the list you provided was top down in CPU usage order rather than memory order. I wanted the 5 processes at the top of the CPU list.

I'd observe the following from what you've posted:

1/
Your memory usage profile for the main running items is fairly lean. Opera uses less RAM than IE7. Stuff that isn't running will usually be paged out and will spring to life (and send your disk into hard work) when you wake something else up.

2/
SVCHOST.EXE manages your DLLs and you can't safely stop them because you don't know to which DLL any instance is bound.

3/
I've always stayed clear of AOL. There's absolutely no reason why any ISP needs to run anything on your PC to enable internet access. It's an obscenity to consume YOUR resources for their purposes. So what happens if you don't run the two AOL processes? WAOL.EXE is resource hungry. I looked this one up for you to confirm my suspicions. This link may help you: http://paler.com/forums/message-view?message_id=4438

My superficial diagnosis at a distance is to get round having to use WAOL.EXE. Switch ISP is also sound advice. I use MSN which is totally software free;

Let us know what you think and try stopping WAOL.EXE. Worst comes to it you'll need to log off and log on your user again.

[TheNNS]

>running MULTIPLE anti-virus and other malware programs

running more than one antivirus program is NOT recommended. They will interfere with each other and not work at all.

[JAJansenJr]

Is what you listed typical of your problem period - which is, after all, what we're interested in? 15% used CPU isn't much to worry about. I hope the list you provided was top down in CPU usage order rather than memory order. I wanted the 5 processes at the top of the CPU list.ou've posted:

Sorry I provided the memory usage when you asked for CPU usage. It turns out not to be simple to get CPU usage, as it seems to jump about every second or so. Services.exe (23%) and svchost.exe (22%) seem to figure as two that use a high % CPU - some of the time - but, as I say, the % changes every second or so - I had to do a screen capture to get just those two processes identified.

This is just one glaring example of the OS not providing useful information without a lot of effort you should not have to provide - there just is no way to capture %CPU usage for the top 5 processes since these change so rapidly.

I will continue to tweak and if I learn something useful that seems to make a significant difference I'll return and post about it.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[caperjack]

What XP needs is a control panel that would make it a no brainer
to shut down every process that isn't needed. As it stands, you
have to do a - lot - of digging to figure out what can be done.

a no brainier ,there is none with windows ,you should maybe switch to Linux ,because you hate windows so much.
the problem with the control panel you want is everyone uses/needs different services ,depending on what is installed on there computer . and Microsoft has no way of knowing this !!
There use to be a really good Guy with a web page to help us decide what we need and don't need in services ,Called Black Viper ,but he retired /quit doing it .just did a search and i think hes back.
http://www.blackviper.com/index.html

[JAJansenJr]

I'm sorry if it comes across that I "hate Windows so much". That is really not the case.

What it comes down to is working with a PC - decades after they were first manufactured - is still an exercise in time wasting guesswork to a very considerable extent.

Yes, an OS manufacturer can only guess at what customers need and there are a huge variety of end use programs that make it a challenge to meet the needs of the customer.

In spite of this, under no circumstances should an OS come to a crawl. There can and should be some capability for the OS to tell you - why - it is coming to a crawl and offer you some options to fix whatever is bringing it to such a state.

Firmly believing that is not the same as hating any OS.

Maybe Linux would be worth a try but there is so much software written for Windows that going to Linux offers challenges of its own. And there are so many different flavors of Linux!

Thanks to all who have participated on this thread. Any further suggestions sincerely welcome.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[Suspishio]

You keep asking for further suggestions. What about the ones you've been gen?

WAOL.EXE and dealing with the AOL overhead.

The svchost.exe cpu usage is due to one or more running DLL (malware cannot be ruled out - but try stopping WAOL.EXE first); services.exe is a routine used to control Windows services. If the high CPU is asociated with high disk activity, then it may be paging. If not, then there could be a trojan and indeed it could be services.exe itself if it is not the one located in the system21 folder.

So, please follow the recommendations I've mad - they won't hurt you and additionally post a Hijack This log so we can look into your processes a little deeper.

[JAJansenJr]

You keep asking for further suggestions. What about the ones you've been gen?

WAOL.EXE and dealing with the AOL overhead.

The svchost.exe cpu usage is due to one or more running DLL (malware cannot be ruled out - but try stopping WAOL.EXE first); services.exe is a routine used to control Windows services. If the high CPU is asociated with high disk activity, then it may be paging. If not, then there could be a trojan and indeed it could be services.exe itself if it is not the one located in the system21 folder.

So, please follow the recommendations I've mad - they won't hurt you and additionally post a Hijack This log so we can look into your processes a little deeper.

I have tried your suggestions regarding minimising startup programs. Regarding not using AOL, this suggestion isn't usable because I want to continue to use AOL. It's probably not the most efficient ISP but I have been using it for a long time, finding the news, email and various other features valuable. Also, I accept what you are saying that it probably is contributing to the slowness issue to some extent, but there are many times when it is running and there is no difficulty.

A Hijack This log is enclosed.

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.0 (BETA)
Scan saved at 4:00:26 AM, on 11/21/2007
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
F:\WINDOWSX\System32\smss.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\winlogon.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\services.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\lsass.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\svchost.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\System32\svchost.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\spoolsv.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLAcsd.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\TopSpeed\2.0\aoltsmon.exe
F:\Program Files\McAfee\MBK\MBackMonitor.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\HackerWatch\HWAPI.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MSC\mcmscsvc.exe
f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\mna\mcnasvc.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcods.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MSC\mcpromgr.exe
f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\mcproxy\mcproxy.exe
f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\redirsvc\redirsvc.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcshield.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcsysmon.exe
F:\Program Files\McAfee\MPF\MPFSrv.exe
F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MPS\mps.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\System32\HPZipm12.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\System32\snmp.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\System32\svchost.exe
F:\Program Files\UPHClean\uphclean.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\Explorer.EXE
f:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
F:\Program Files\McAfee\MPS\mpsevh.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLDial.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1188598631\ee\AOLSoftware.exe
F:\Program Files\HP\HP Software Update\HPWuSchd2.exe
F:\Program Files\America Online 9.0d\waol.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe
F:\Program Files\Speeditup Free\SearchDefender.exe
F:\WINDOWSX\system32\ctfmon.exe
f:\program files\common files\aol\1188598631\ee\services\antiSpywareApp\ver2_0_32_1\AOLSP Scheduler.exe
f:\program files\common files\aol\1188598631\ee\aolsoftware.exe
F:\Program Files\America Online 9.0d\shellmon.exe
F:\Program Files\Opera\Opera.exe
F:\Documents and Settings\Joseph.CUSTOM-PROGRAMS.000\Desktop\HiJackThis_v2.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://www.searchgateway.net/search
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.searchgateway.net/search
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL,(Default) = http://www.searchgateway.net/search.php?sa=Search+Here&client=pub-4642981363251965&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&q=%s
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - F:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - F:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: scriptproxy - {7DB2D5A0-7241-4E79-B68D-6309F01C5231} - f:\PROGRA~1\mcafee\VIRUSS~1\scriptcl.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - f:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Notifier BHO - {AF69DE43-7D58-4638-B6FA-CE66B5AD205D} - F:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\2.1.615.5858\swg.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Google - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - f:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AOLDialer] F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLDial.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Pure Networks Port Magic] "F:\PROGRA~1\PURENE~1\PORTMA~1\PortAOL.exe" -Run
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HostManager] F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1188598631\ee\AOLSoftware.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HP Software Update] F:\Program Files\HP\HP Software Update\HPWuSchd2.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [googletalk] F:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe /autostart
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MSConfig] F:\WINDOWSX\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\MSConfig.exe /auto
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "F:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] "F:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe" -osboot
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MBkLogOnHook] F:\Program Files\McAfee\MBK\LogOnHook.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [AOL Fast Start] "F:\Program Files\America Online 9.0d\AOL.EXE" -b
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Search Defender] "F:\Program Files\Speeditup Free\SearchDefender.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] F:\WINDOWSX\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [swg] F:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: &AOL Toolbar search - res://F:\Program Files\AOL Toolbar\toolbar.dll/SEARCH.HTML
O8 - Extra context menu item: Add to Google Photos Screensa&ver - res://F:\WINDOWSX\system32\GPhotos.scr/200
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - F:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - F:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra button: Real.com - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - F:\WINDOWSX\System32\Shdocvw.dll
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - F:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - F:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/muweb_site.cab?1195018168148
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{F02B532D-F717-4379-AF33-97214A583AC3}: NameServer = 205.188.146.145
O20 - AppInit_DLLs: "F:\PROGRA~1\Google\Google Desktop Search\GOEC62~1.DLL"
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Browseui preloader - {438755C2-A8BA-11D1-B96B-00A0C90312E1} - F:\WINDOWSX\System32\browseui.dll
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Component Categories cache daemon - {8C7461EF-2B13-11d2-BE35-3078302C2030} - F:\WINDOWSX\System32\browseui.dll
O23 - Service: AOL Connectivity Service (AOL ACS) - America Online - F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLAcsd.exe
O23 - Service: AOL TopSpeed Monitor (AOL TopSpeedMonitor) - America Online, Inc - F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\TopSpeed\2.0\aoltsmon.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee E-mail Proxy (Emproxy) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\McAfee\EmProxy\emproxy.exe
O23 - Service: MBackMonitor - McAfee - F:\Program Files\McAfee\MBK\MBackMonitor.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee HackerWatch Service - McAfee, Inc. - F:\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\HackerWatch\HWAPI.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Update Manager (mcmispupdmgr) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MSC\mcupdmgr.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Services (mcmscsvc) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MSC\mcmscsvc.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Network Agent (McNASvc) - McAfee, Inc. - f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\mna\mcnasvc.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Scanner (McODS) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcods.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Protection Manager (mcpromgr) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MSC\mcpromgr.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Proxy Service (McProxy) - McAfee, Inc. - f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\mcproxy\mcproxy.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Redirector Service (McRedirector) - McAfee, Inc. - f:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\mcafee\redirsvc\redirsvc.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Real-time Scanner (McShield) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcshield.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee SystemGuards (McSysmon) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\VIRUSS~1\mcsysmon.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Personal Firewall Service (MpfService) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\Program Files\McAfee\MPF\MPFSrv.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Privacy Service (MPS9) - McAfee, Inc. - F:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\MPS\mps.exe
O23 - Service: Pml Driver HPZ12 - HP - F:\WINDOWSX\System32\HPZipm12.exe

--
End of file - 8022 bytes

[caperjack]

I but I have been using it for a long time, finding the news, email and various other features valuable.

Can't help myself,so you are familiar with AOL'S functions ,it only finds what on the net ,just like all other ISP,nothing more .Believe me you will become just a familiar with a new ISP,and you will speed up computer at the same time.
Don't quite know how to put this.But about what i said in another post about how Windows should know better.
How You are helping in slowing Your windows and the internet ,programs like !!to list a few you have .

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AOLDialer] F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLDial.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Pure Networks Port Magic] "F:\PROGRA~1\PURENE~1\PORTMA~1\PortAOL.exe" -Run
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HostManager] F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1188598631\ee\AOLSoftware.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HP Software Update] F:\Program Files\HP\HP Software Update\HPWuSchd2.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [googletalk] F:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe /autostart

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "F:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] "F:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe" -osboot

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MBkLogOnHook] F:\Program Files\McAfee\MBK\LogOnHook.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [AOL Fast Start] "F:\Program Files\America Online 9.0d\AOL.EXE" -b

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Search Defender] "F:\Program Files\Speeditup Free\SearchDefender.exe"

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [swg] F:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe

None of these are necessary in startup.except the AOL one because you have AOL ,but if you switch you get rid of those resource hogs,as for McAfee it may be good ,But for the average home user free AVG is just as good !and SpywareBlaster to block IE/Firefox from Going to Over 8000 bad web pages

[Suspishio]

Let's take stock and see where we are. BTW, I'm 100% with caperjack here.

1/
You're short of RAM and your system is running slowly.

2/
There's no evidence of malware from the HJT log, but this can't be 100% ruled out - though now low probability.

3/
We can pin down the resource squeeze on the AOL crap and we've given advice as to what can be stopped from AOL (you just need the login utility).

4/
You want to keep AOL.

Conclusion:
Either live with your woes or upgrade your computer.

Agreed?

[explodinghead75]

Just my 2 cents on AOL (and I've used it before): I was never all that happy with that ISP myself and I feel it is a waste because last time I checked the dialup was overpriced (do you use dialup?) and there is no "AOL" broadband, it either uses cable or DSL ISP anyway so it seems to me you are wasting resources by using it, which you probably don't want to do on an older machine.

[JAJansenJr]

Let's take stock and see where we are. BTW, I'm 100% with caperjack here.

1/
You're short of RAM and your system is running slowly.

2/
There's no evidence of malware from the HJT log, but this can't be 100% ruled out - though now low probability.

3/
We can pin down the resource squeeze on the AOL crap and we've given advice as to what can be stopped from AOL (you just need the login utility).

4/
You want to keep AOL.

Conclusion:
Either live with your woes or upgrade your computer.

Agreed?

At the moment the lag in echoing on screen what I type is greatly reduced. I attribute this to shutting off the indexing service. I'll be looking into what else I can shut down.

Yes, more RAM will help.

Thanks to everyone for sharing ideas.

A question on upgrading: a newer computer would be better, obviously. The SATA hard drive looks like a major improvement in speed. The higher clock speeds and multi core CPUs look good.

What has been the experience of everyone in overall performance with the newer hardware?
Is Windows VISTA a hardware resource hog because of software size and overhead? What is a good choice for a "red hot" and "lean and mean" PC?

JAJansenJr
[e-mail]

[jbennet]

if you are getting a new PC get an Intel Core2Duo or an AMD Athlon FX CPU.

If you want vista you WILL want 1-2gb ram. Dont believe vistas requirements. You will not need more than 2gb and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES get a machine with 512 ram and vista.

Also, make sure you get Vista Home Premium Edition or better. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES get Vista Home Basic.

You can get a pc like that, with a 19" tft screen, and 180gb hard disk for just under $800

[Suspishio]

You'll get the forum going now. Everyone and his dog has an opinion!

One good starting point is to go to the Hardware forum and check which PC to avoid by brand! HP stands out to me; expensive crap IMHO.

[jbennet]

I have many dells. Cheap + its run happily for many years for me.

Not the best build quality and not easialy upgraded, but perfect for average home/business user

[explodinghead75]

I can't tell you what to buy but here's a couple of things I would personally stay away from:
1. A computer with a small case. If you plan on upgrading it this will limit your options.
2. If you want a "lean" machine maybe consider not buying one of those store brands that have lots of extra programs installed you don't need.

[TheNNS]

one the most economical options would be to build your own and get parts from newegg.com.
if you don't you feel you can build your own, I'd buy a dell or hp. Avoid buying cheap brand computers they sell at walmart and other stores. compaq sucks by the way.

[jbennet]

compaq = hp