slow computer after system restore
Thread poster: Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker  Identity Verified
United States
Italian to English
Mar 16, 2007

Yesterday I did a system restore to settings from March 10 in Windows xp Pro. I was having connection problems, and the technician from the call center recommended system restore (probably bad advice, but I have used system restore in the past for other issues, and never had any problems).
Now, aside from sending Dragon Naturally Speaking into tilt (which I have figured out how to deal with by searching the forums), my computer is running slow. The mouse is slow and bumpy, commands are de
... See more
Yesterday I did a system restore to settings from March 10 in Windows xp Pro. I was having connection problems, and the technician from the call center recommended system restore (probably bad advice, but I have used system restore in the past for other issues, and never had any problems).
Now, aside from sending Dragon Naturally Speaking into tilt (which I have figured out how to deal with by searching the forums), my computer is running slow. The mouse is slow and bumpy, commands are delayed- for example, it takes forever to type into my google toolbar search box, or to delete a word in Word, or to open new windows.
Any suggestions are welcome! Should I undo the restore? should I go to a date farther in the past? Do I need a registry cleaner?
I'm running xpPro and Zone Alarm Security Suite.

Many thanks-
Jennifer

Forgot to mention: my computer has a 1.70GHz processor and 1.99 GB RAM

[Edited at 2007-03-16 09:45]

[Edited at 2007-03-16 09:46]
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Patricia Lane
Patricia Lane  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:21
French to English
+ ...
first suggestion Mar 16, 2007

Hi Jennifer,

Sounds to me like some spyware or malware got in there. Before doing anything else, do an on line scan/clean. www.housecall.trendmicro.com has always sorted me out.

Then reboot and see what happens. Let us know!

Patricia


 
megane_wang
megane_wang  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:21
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
If it's malware, try the Windows parents first Mar 16, 2007

I agree with Patricia: malware can be the origin of your troubles. If you are running Windows XP, though, I would recommend that you downloaded the Microsoft malware removal tool first.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

This tool is not an antivirus nor an anti-malware program, but if your computer is infected it will probab
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I agree with Patricia: malware can be the origin of your troubles. If you are running Windows XP, though, I would recommend that you downloaded the Microsoft malware removal tool first.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

This tool is not an antivirus nor an anti-malware program, but if your computer is infected it will probably solve the problem, unless you got something new

If this does not work, then start looking elsewhere, for example at lavasoft.com, but I would strongly advice that you try the MS thing first. If you just "google" for an exotic solution you may end installing something even worse...

If your computer is VERY SLOOOOOOw, try downloading the tool from somewhere else and copying into CD.

Best luck!


PS: Even if it may work, I would never recommend an "on-line" driven scan. This necessarily opens doors to anyone to access very sensitive parts of your system. If you decide to go for it, make it very sure that you do it on a trustable site. I would NEVER do it...

[Edited at 2007-03-16 14:59]
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Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker  Identity Verified
United States
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
still slow... Mar 16, 2007

Thanks for the advice.
I have an excellent anti virus/spyware/etc. running, but I decided to scan using a second program, and also used the Windows tool as suggested.
No viruses or anything else were detected, so that's good news. My computer does seem to be a bit faster, though not up to par. "Slow" is a relative term here- my computer is usually lightning fast with as many programs as I want running. I'm going to defrag now and see if that helps at all.

Does anyone ou
... See more
Thanks for the advice.
I have an excellent anti virus/spyware/etc. running, but I decided to scan using a second program, and also used the Windows tool as suggested.
No viruses or anything else were detected, so that's good news. My computer does seem to be a bit faster, though not up to par. "Slow" is a relative term here- my computer is usually lightning fast with as many programs as I want running. I'm going to defrag now and see if that helps at all.

Does anyone out there use registry cleaners? I see a lot of conflicting opions about the effectiveness and safety.

Jennifer
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Patricia Lane
Patricia Lane  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:21
French to English
+ ...
registry cleaners Mar 16, 2007

Unless you know exactly what you are doing -- and what the registrer cleaner you selected is going to do -- I'd be darn careful.

I used CCleaner some time ago to clean up everything on my system, including the registry. Big mistake... Everything was quirky for some time afterwards....

Have a good evening,

Patricia


 
Rossana Triaca
Rossana Triaca  Identity Verified
Uruguay
Local time: 12:21
English to Spanish
CPU Usage Mar 16, 2007

Have you checked exactly what programs are running in the background? You could have restored some old app that uses a lot of resources, or even just be suffering from the plain old windows update hog.

You can check this in the task manager or even better with more detailed software (such as Process Explorer, freeware, 1.5 MB). If you see anything amiss you can try killing the p
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Have you checked exactly what programs are running in the background? You could have restored some old app that uses a lot of resources, or even just be suffering from the plain old windows update hog.

You can check this in the task manager or even better with more detailed software (such as Process Explorer, freeware, 1.5 MB). If you see anything amiss you can try killing the process and see if things improve; there's nothing you can do here that a reboot won't fix, unlike a registry editor where you really can foul things up.

If the problem is really an offensive app, take into account that killing the process doesn't solve the problem itself since the app will load again on your next reboot; you will have to disable it manually (but at least you know who's responsible!).
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Gazali Amirullah
Gazali Amirullah  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 23:21
Japanese to Indonesian
+ ...
msconfig Mar 17, 2007

Have you tried to disable program or services you don't need in startup and services ? You can check this in the msconfig and disable the startup program and services you don't need and see if things improve.

 
Debi Vaught (X)
Debi Vaught (X)
Local time: 16:21
Swedish to English
+ ...
Agree with Rossanna Mar 17, 2007

The process explorer has been a wondrous tool.

After using that, I did two more steps, though.

Open "My Computer", Open your main drive (usually C), sort by date and look for new folders - if you see a new folder you don't recognize, find out what it is by doing a search on that name.

Then open your Windows directory and do the same sort there, look for new files.

I was able to locate, destroy and delete one folder and one file that were not
... See more
The process explorer has been a wondrous tool.

After using that, I did two more steps, though.

Open "My Computer", Open your main drive (usually C), sort by date and look for new folders - if you see a new folder you don't recognize, find out what it is by doing a search on that name.

Then open your Windows directory and do the same sort there, look for new files.

I was able to locate, destroy and delete one folder and one file that were not only malicious, but missed by all the virus scanners I have in place.

System back to normal!



[Edited at 2007-03-17 04:02]
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Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker  Identity Verified
United States
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
still slow... Mar 18, 2007

Thanks so much to everyone for your suggestions.
I'm still slow- I downloaded the Process Explorer tool, but I am ashamed to admit that I don't really know how to tell which programs look odd- everything seemed to be ok, but as I said, I'm no expert. I also wanted to try Debi's advice, but I can't fogure out how to sort by date, so if someone wants to help me out with that one-
I even undid the system restore, as I thought that my have been the cause, and I changed my mouse batteries
... See more
Thanks so much to everyone for your suggestions.
I'm still slow- I downloaded the Process Explorer tool, but I am ashamed to admit that I don't really know how to tell which programs look odd- everything seemed to be ok, but as I said, I'm no expert. I also wanted to try Debi's advice, but I can't fogure out how to sort by date, so if someone wants to help me out with that one-
I even undid the system restore, as I thought that my have been the cause, and I changed my mouse batteries, as I thought maybe it's the mouse that is slowing things up, but no luck there either. I was even considering going farther back with a new system restore, but at this point I'm afraid that I may mess things up even more. The machine's behavior is quite wierd. It will seem to be running smoothly and then suddenly start this bumpy, halting functioning (especially the mouse).
If I'm working on a large document, it will run smoothly for a bit, but the farther I get into the job, the slower it seems to become. I'll have to hit the wordfast commands twice, or the save button twice. Makes me crazy!
I'm feeling pretty frustrated- my computer is only 6 months old (I'm still paying fo it!). And I'm so overwhelmed with work right now that I can't keep on fiddling with it...
All advice is still very very welcome!

Jennifer
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slow computer after system restore






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