PC so slowwwww

I have a dell and have rarely used it in the last 3 mos but it is fairly new and has the bells and whistles. I am a designer and am fairly PC savy. However, lately when I log into it - it is very slow. I do a ctrl-alt-delete and it tells me I have almost 100% CPU usage with nothing open! I turned off most of my stuff in my start up tray and now it jumps from 11% - 40%- 80% ahhhh!. I am behind a firewall and update my virus software often. I just ran ad aware and it found some stuff so I am cleaning that off now. All temp internet files cleaned out. What else can I do?

 

What process is taking up 100%?

 

Is your firewall Norton? Next time you log on, disable your firewall and see if you notice immediate improvement.

 

I would agree if this was not a 'fairly new' machine. I've put Norton Internet Security on alot of newer machines, it doesn't grab 100% of CPU time. I would suspect adware/malware before I suspect the firewall.

FWIW ... Adware SE and Spybot:Search and Destroy will take care of most of those issues. They are both free for the download.

Spy Sweeper 3.5 just got an Editor's Choice from PC Mag. It beat Adware according to their tests (found 12 out of 13 problems, while Adware only found 10). However, it is $29.95 to 'subscribe' to the program and updates.

Let us know what happens.

Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

MY adware found like 35 items but I am downloading spybot tonight when I get home. I will take a look and run the stuff. I would think it is malware too.

I have blackice defender.

 

PC Mag has given Zone Alarm's internet security package its top rating, edging out Norton's Internet Security by a slight bit. I tend to install the Norton package as its more user friendly than Zone Alarm.

However, no firewall is going to stop adware if people using the machine clicks on popups to close them (always use the X at the top right corner); use free 'search bars'; has P2P Networking or Kazaa on the machine (files are notorious for being infested), etc.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

A better idea is to right click on the task bar entry and go to Close...that way you don't run the risk of clicking on anything by accident. Not to mention some popups are designed ot look like windows with the min/max/close buttons in the top right to try to trick dummys into clicking there to close.

 

Also, stay away from bananaphone.

http://www.lemonizer.com/banana/

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