Re: angry XP home user
From: cquirke (MVP Win9x) (cquirkenews_at_nospam.mvps.org)
Date: 02/08/04
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Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 16:44:42 +0200
On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 22:50:16 -0800, "John"
>I have just read every post and reply since 12-01-03 that
>had anything to do with CPU usage, page file usage,
>virtual memory, svchost or computers running slow.
Was that your problem; PC sunning slowly?
Were there stability issues as well?
>All the replies are the same. That it is a virus or spy
>ware. Everyone says to update your virus scan, scan with
>ad-aware, scan with spybot. I have done all of this but I
>have never found a virus with any of the recomended virus
>scans, yes mine is updated so don't even ask me that. Ad-
>aware and spybot did find stuff and I had them fixed.
The trouble with the usual advice on malware is posters usually
recommend av scanning approaches that are inherently lame, when used
to detect *active* malware - online scans, scanning from Windows-based
av, that sort of thing. How can you rely on these, when the malware
is already active before the av gets off the ground?
See http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/virtest.htm on formal virus
scanning. Just because the combination of MSware + NTFS is too lame
to do this does not make it any less necessary if you want to be able
to believe the results with confidence.
>So why am I still having problems? Has any of the above
>corrective actions realy fixed anything? I doubt it.
>Is there realy anyone here that knows how to get a
>computer running the way it should?
Yes, but doing it purely via exchange of text messages is a challenge.
>I'm starting to think this is something microsoft has in
>their software to get more money out of people by calling
>tech support.
I don't think so - tech support is rarely a profit center, and OEMs
(including myself) who are obliged to support MSware tend to resent
anything that increases the support load.
>I had my computer for a year and had no problems until my
>warranty expired on Nov. 21. After that date I have had
>nothing but headaches trying to get this working again.
Many things can slow a PC:
- interactions between software
- retries on failing HDs or LAN connections
- bad CMOS settings
- malware and other hoggy software
- connected devices that "don't respond"
- specific MS and 3rd-party software issues
Some of these will slow down without crashes or instabilities, others
will cause crashes as well.
For starters, I'd compare mileage:
- in Safe Mode
- in normal mode, with MSConfig suppression of startup axis
- while disconnected off the network (LAN *and* Internet)
- with peripherals (printer, scanner etc.) disconnected
I'd also do the prelim:
- http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/bthink.htm
- http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/virtest.htm
This is basically what I do when tshooting PCs that are brought to be
fixed - and yes, they go out working properly :-)
Other things less easy to retro-fit include intelligent partitioning
so that data is safer and speed is maintained even when the system
gets fully loaded. In Feb 2004, I'd still avoid NTFS, BTW.
>---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Consumer Asks: "What are you?"
Market Research: ' What would you like us to be? '
>---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
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