Geek Computer Question ?

F Body · May 25, 2009, 07:30:16 AM

Our home PC is running very slowly, it's fully protected and scanned for viruses, addware & spyware etc.
It's taking about 15 minutes to boot up and takes ages to load programmes.

Any one got any recommendations for fixing it ??

Loads of free programmes on the interwebthingy, but don't want to risk an unknown programme or something that makes it's worse !

NB : No it's not the Porn

Gator · May 25, 2009, 07:46:36 AM

its the aintivirus

HardRockCamaro · May 25, 2009, 08:16:28 AM

Indeed, probably the anti virus scanning every single file that is opened, which includes those by Windows to run itself and files belong to all the launching apps.

F Body · May 25, 2009, 08:27:24 AM

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

Indeed, probably the anti virus scanning every single file that is opened,

OK how do I fix it ?

NB: It's Virgin Media's own virus system, which for the last two years has worked without a problem.

Gator · May 25, 2009, 08:42:57 AM

there should be an option about scanning on startup turn it off but do it manually every so often

F Body · May 25, 2009, 11:53:49 AM

Turned the virus scan completely off and it's no better

If computers were actually clever they'd sort this shizz out themselves

Gator · May 25, 2009, 12:06:08 PM

Quoting: F Body

Turned the virus scan completely off and it's no better

If computers were actually clever they'd sort this shizz out themselves

its called a Mac Martyn get one of them and youll leave all that rubbish behind, PCs are just crap

HardRockCamaro · May 25, 2009, 12:06:40 PM

If the users were clever they'd buy Macs so they would have no shizz to sort out and could get on with their lives instead of having to play computer geek...

I think you secretly love these little "challenges".

If it helps Im sitting here using a 2.5 year old MacBook Pro with no anti-virus, no anti-adware, no anti-spyware and it's running sweet as...

Oh, that doesn't help?

Well at least I tried...

Gator · May 25, 2009, 12:11:45 PM

no Andy it needs saying for their own good

why PCs still dominate the market i just dont understand

HardRockCamaro · May 25, 2009, 12:21:52 PM

I have no idea fella.

If your car was that unreliable and high maintenance you'd get rid of it? (unless you were PhilO

)

I don't know why people think that going out and buying yet another new machine will fix the problem when the new machine is simply faster than the old one and has more storage space. It doesn't fix the actual problem with PC's which is not the actual hardware but Windows. Sure the hardware design and build quality isn't great, but then what do you expect buying a computer for £400 (or whatever)? But most of the time it's not the hardware, it's the operating system.

So buying yet another plasti-clad box that runs the same operating system is not going to fix the issue, it doesnt matter who makes the box.

I mean, do people think that if they switch to a Mac they're gonna have even worse problems? I mean, seriously?

Not that Macs are infallible, but the problems are normally caused by using the same parts as PC's in places (eg graphics card, Sony battery, dodge hard drive). It's a lot less common though and all replaced by Apple over the counter in-store.

I've never understood it...

But my latest tactic to help them is to not help them. If people can buy a POS and get free tech support (worth hundreds of pounds over the years) then obviously they'll keep doing it. A bit like owning a TVR or Alfa is ok if you have the services of a free mechanic. And because they wanted to (theoretically but I don't agree on the maths) save money they decide to make their problem my problem? Yeah I don't think so. I spent a little more to get away from these problems so I don't want yours to make up for that welcome hole in my life...

I do feel sorry for people who spend money and get a s*** product. But when they do it repeatedly against advice from people who know more about it, my sympathy evaporates. At that point they;re just being pikeys.

Anyhow...

Maybe one of the other PC peeps on here who enjoy this pain can offer more advice on getting what you have working?

Gator · May 25, 2009, 12:34:37 PM

Martyn how many startup items do you have checked

btw my puter goes from off to forum in under 20s its nearly 3 years old had a hard drive go south but i fitted a new one (5 mins) and rebooted from the backup that the puter had done by itself every monday evening

hope this helps

Flip Martian · May 25, 2009, 01:39:58 PM

Could be number of apps you have in your startup list (as suggested above).

Could be having lots of items on your desktop - downloaded files for example - that slows down your PC's bootup. Best to have as little as poss on your desktop.

Could be your main hard drive getting full.

Could be having lots of crap in your registry that it would be safe to remove.

Do you uninstall programs properly? Sometimes uninstall routines leave registry entries andd files behind.

Worth getting a copy of ccleaner (wihch is free) and seeing what that marks up for deletion (I moved files off my desktop and ran my ccleaner this weekend and freed up loads of space and sed up my lappy in the process).

F Body · May 25, 2009, 01:58:50 PM

I like the look of the Macs but not the price

This PC is over two years old and was the last of the XP models when Vista first came out, all in it was £199 from John Lewis

The only problem with it is the ..........................

Children who use it

Quoting: Flip Martian

Could be your main hard drive getting full.

Only used 20% of 160gb.

Quoting: Flip Martian

Could be having lots of crap in your registry that it would be safe to remove.Worth getting a copy of ccleaner (which is free)

That's more like it, simple advice which is free without all the bullshit, I thank you Sir

Jamieg285 · May 25, 2009, 02:35:03 PM

I found an old MS utility that logs what's happening during bootup, so you can see what's loading and what's taking the time. Use Google to search for info on the file names, as most aren't obvious as to what they are.

Do a search for 'bootvis'.

F Body · May 25, 2009, 03:14:49 PM

Quoting: Flip Martian

Worth getting a copy of ccleaner (wihch is free)

Done and it found 63mb of stuff

Backed up the registry etc before hand and after a complete shut down it took about 6 minutes to load and opening programmes is a lot quicker

Looking at the start up files 3 files delay the start up :

No.1 - Virgin Media PC Guard.

No.2 - Adware Premium.

No.3 - Spybot.

Yes I could load these manually after boot up, but with the kids going anywhere on the interwebthingy and clicking on god knows what, it's the only way to keep the PC clean ( unless I spend £900 on a Mac

)

Quoting: Jamieg285

Do a search for 'bootvis'.

On the interwebthingy or on the PC

Flip Martian · May 25, 2009, 03:40:39 PM

Cool, glad it helped.

Just d/led bootvis meself... and now windering how I get it to do magic things to my lappy...

Roadkill · May 26, 2009, 12:27:37 PM

Quoting: Flip Martian

how I get it to do magic things to my lappy...

We're not talking about strippers, now, are we ?

Flip Martian · May 26, 2009, 03:30:27 PM

Quoting: Roadkill

We're not talking about strippers, now, are we ?

I should be so lucky...