XP Pro Bogged Down

[PanchoC]

I have a Dell laptop (Inspiron 2600) that I am using and it is horribly bogged down.

When I turn it on, it sits at the XP loading screen (not the splash screen after the POST but the first screen you see when XP loads) for about 2-3 minutes saying "Windows is starting up..." (or whatever).

After that, it gets to the log in screen (where you have to hit CTRL ALT DEL and then enter the username/password).

The first time that I noticed this problem, it just sat there after I tried to log in and eventually I gave up and reset. The other time, it loaded in fast but then it just sat at the blank desktop window for a few minutes before it finally brought up my icons.

The computer isn't making any noises while it's loading, so it's not like it's "struggling" to load that I can tell.

I unplugged the WiFi card and connected via regular Ethernet in case that had something to do with it. It did seem to load a bit faster but still took forever.

One time when I was rebooting, it came up with two "Not Responding" windows: one for a program called "P2PNet008" and another for a program called "GatorIcon". These sound like spyware to me.

I am currently planning to run a scandisk, disk defrag, virus scan, and adware scan... however, I just wondered if anyone had any other ideas?

[Markoman01027]

Yes, it does sound to me like it's a spyware issue.

I would download the latest version of SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY, ADAWARE, aboutbuster, and CWshredder.

For Virus scan, I use www.trendmicro.com and AVG.

Do you have another computer to download these applications and put them on a disk so you can run them from the bad computer(perhaps in safe mode?)

[PanchoC]

Yes, I can do that... is it ok to install and run stuff like that in Safe Mode?

[rjfvillarosa]

Pancho if you can manage it, download to your computer, disable system restore and then carry out all the virus and spyware scans in safe mode.
After you have done this restart your computer and before you open any programs at all, do a highjackthis log and post the results here.
If you have the time, have a read through these two threads, there are some excellent tips and plenty of help for dealing with viruses and spyware.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=103171

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=14437

[glc]

Please do not advise people to disable system restore until it's indicated that it's necessary. It is NOT necessary in order to run your scans.

Best way to approach system restore is this - get the machine totally cleaned up, and verified clean. Then make a restore point, label it "Clean" or something like that. Then run Disk Cleanup. There is an advanced option in there to delete all but the latest restore point.

The only reason to disable system restore is if your virus scans indicate a virus in \system volume information\ that is uncleanable.

[rjfvillarosa]

Pancho system restore is only of any use if you are sure that you do not have any malicious code in your computer. If you do have malicious code this code will simply relaunch it self the moment sysrem restore is finshed, therefore rendering the restore useless. Personally I prefer to run a full scan with with restore disabled and making sure all malicious code is erradicated and then maybe setting a restore point. But that is a matter of opinion.

[glc]

You will only restore malicious code if you USE system restore to restore it back to an infected point. It does NOTHING if you just let it sit there. The minute you disable system restore, ALL your restore points (of which not all are necessarily infected) get wiped out along with any malicious code - and there may be a time when you are trying to clean stuff up where you HAVE to restore a clean or infected point just to get Windows to run. It's a safety valve that should only be killed if you have no other choice, or your machine is running fine. If you want to advise advanced users to disable it, fine - but let's keep it there for the inexperienced and worry about cleaning it up once the immediate problem is solved, ok?