Big Problem with XP Home.

[fifi]

Its a COmpaq Presario bought onlt 9 months ago. Very slow to boot (5minutes). Tried to run msconfig wouldnt run even as administrator. Is msconfig available in XP home Ed. I am cleaning up temp folder. I think this may be related to installing a new printer HP 1200 and Kodak photo SW recently. I trying to disable them from running during start up but cannot launch msconfig. Any other way to do it? What else could I check. Also user cannot get on the web but could get email. I dont know why.

[rjfvillarosa]

What antivirus and spyware checkers are you using?

[fifi]

I plan to install Stinger and Spybot today. None installed right now.

[rjfvillarosa]

If you can get the machine onto the internet I strongly advise you to go to www.trendmicro.com and do a "housecall" antivirus scan, after that download the latest version of adaware (adaware personal version1.05) and run this in safe mode. Once you have the machine connecting to the internet and receiving emails ok, go to www.grisoft.com and download their free antivirus software. You will need your email program working to do this because they send you a link to the download site and an activation code after you have downloaded, and these are obviously sent via email.

[fifi]

Does anybody know why I can't run msconfig?

[sdkfz]

2 ideas

1) Compaq does not trust their PC owners to use it so they stripped it from the OS they give you

2) You have a virus/trojan etc that is doing the same thing to stop you from getting to it so you can remove it

The first can only be proved by trying to get an answer from Compaq or do a restore from the disk/partition and see if it is there or not (also see below)and the second by following the advice above.

Yes msconfig is in the a Home version and to run it you go to Start - Run and type in msconfig (I am assuming you know this but am including it anyway)

My copy of it is in a couple of places:
C:Windows\ServicePakFiles\i386
C:Windows\PCHealth\HelpCTR\Binaries

[nubbler]

Originally Posted by fifi I plan to install Stinger and Spybot today. None installed right now.

Stinger just removes popular or big threat viruses, you are best to get AVG instead.

[Panama Red]

Try booting to Safe Mode and see if you can run msconfig from there. On start up, tap the F8 key repeatedly until the screen displays a DOS like text with several boot options. Virus infection sounds like the most likely culprit. The suggestions for online virus scans and using Adaware and Spybot should clean things up for you. AVG is a good, free antivirus. I use it on all my personal machines and those I build/repair for customers.

[fifi]

Still couldn't run msconfig in save mode. The hourglass was busy for about 20seconds but never came up. But I was able to delete everything in the startup folder in safe mode. The other problem is that Ad-aware Se get stuck every time i ran it. Both in safe mode and normal. Dont know why. Stinger ran OK. Said it find bagle virus. Will try adaware again. Otherwise will do a sys restore. Does "sys restore" to factory setup, or last good boot. I am afraid of doing it and carrying over the virus again.

[thorlo6]

Originally Posted by fifi Still couldn't run msconfig in save mode. The hourglass was busy for about 20seconds but never came up. But I was able to delete everything in the startup folder in safe mode. The other problem is that Ad-aware Se get stuck every time i ran it. Both in safe mode and normal. Dont know why. Stinger ran OK. Said it find bagle virus. Will try adaware again. Otherwise will do a sys restore. Does "sys restore" to factory setup, or last good boot. I am afraid of doing it and carrying over the virus again.

It shouldn't carry the virus over. Also, since your having problems with Adaware, try using Spybot S&D. Just a little personal info, I was having problems with a trojan on my PC last week, and I tried using AVG. It kept telling me there was a trojan in a particular file and never could find it myself, and every time I ran AVG as it told me to, AVG couldn't find the trojan to delete it either. I had Avast! AV on my PC so I uninstalled AVG, so Avast! could run without any problems. Avast! found the trojan in less than 5 minutes and deleted the file. No more problems after that. Just my personal experience with AVG. I defintely wasn't impressed with AVG. thorlo6

[raftero]

EasyCleaner from toni arts (latest version) has a startup that works like msconfig, EasyCleaner is a good reg.cleaner tool and has several functions, just don't mess with duplicate files unless you really know what you are doing. it's free. it won't solve your problem , just information.

[fifi]

Thanks everybody. I was able to run spybot S&D after many tries. At first it just blinks and nothing happens. But it ran after I disabled sys restore. It seems alittle better. Will try trenmicro today

[fifi]

Still sluggish. Is it much better to just wiped out the hard drive (NTFS) reformat and re-install from the restore CD than doing a sys restore inside XP. I dont particualrly trust the XP syst restore. Any help.

[glc]

If you have your data backed up, or don't care, yes - just use the restore CD and get a fresh start. It's drastic, but there's no better way to wind up with a clean operating system.

[Electric Gnome]

I have to say Avast is the best free antivirus I have found. It sounds like you have got a complete mish mash on your hands. As said earlier if there is nothing too important the best course of action in my humble opinion is to re format the HDD and re install the lot, hassle I know but a nice clean system is always nice.
Lessons learnt though, do install good firewall/antivirus and sweep regularly with spyware, adaware se from lavasoft is free and pretty good.
Good luck.