Computer Running Slow

[Hedgehog]

So what can I do....

New machine (approx 1 year old), very reasonable spec.

Running XP home, seems machine has significantly slowed down since I added an additional 'user' account for my kids.

Can't help thinking Norton is 'strangling' the software some where along the line.

Was lightening fast not so long ago, now painfully slow....

Now viruses or spyware detected...

What can the problem be.....?

Any idea's welcome.....

[Natra]

does it run slow all the time, or when you are doing certain things?

it could be you have loads of applications running in the background, these will slow your computer significantly as the proccessor is trying to do so many things at once, check that out and see, oh, and have you fed the mouse, they slow down when they get hungry, so i am told

[Hedgehog]

I feed the mouse every two weeks with freshly recharged batteries, cheese & bread...

As far as processes running in the background, when you press the cont-alt del thing there are 54 things running using memory, though I have no idea what they are or what they're supposed to be doing.

Is this normal....?

I run updated anti-virus scans every week and nothing untoward is reported so I guess there harmless.

[Gary_M]

Do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete and see what's causing the bigger memory overhead.

[girlyglide]

If your kids have been using it I'd plump for your machine being full of spyware. What anti virus/spware programs do you use?

Second thing, do you kids log off their account when they've finished or just switch user and leave their own processess running? I would suspect the latter. Get them to log of completely when they have finished using it. Better still disable their account all together and don't let them near the thing.

I've had loads of problems similar to this which I traced to my daughters use of the internet and downloading everything and running the programs in start up.

Do some system maintenance. Defrag, desktop cleanup, etc.

Don't save files to the desktop either, that will really slow it down as when Windows refreshes the screen ( which it does regularly) it will take longer with files saved to the desktop.

[Hawkeye]

Try useing Adaware software, really good at finding spyware.

Yes norton does slow the machine quite a bit. It runs and monitors all your processes in the back ground. Personally i dont like or use it now. It used to be the best piece of software around but it is a shadow of it's former self and does not do that much now.

I also switch off auto updates for XP as well, these are big to download sometimes and not always good either. You never know what they are installing.

Go for the spyware removal first.

You could do a fresh install, always a good way to clean the crap out

[Hedgehog]

Cheers guys,

I've done may of the things suggested ad there is a marginal improvement. Having discussed this with other people in general it does seem Norton could be the problem.

It's not up for renewal for another couple of months, but who do you reckon gives you the best protection without strangling the operation of the machine.

[Natra]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog

Cheers guys,

I've done may of the things suggested ad there is a marginal improvement. Having discussed this with other people in general it does seem Norton could be the problem.

It's not up for renewal for another couple of months, but who do you reckon gives you the best protection without strangling the operation of the machine.

GIRSOFTS AVG, Its free, and seems to work very well

[boogiefool]

AVG is good as is AVAST. Both free and neither seem to fool with the system the way Norton does.

[Natra]

Originally Posted by boogiefool

AVG is good as is AVAST. Both free and neither seem to fool with the system the way Norton does.

Only boogiefool gould get a pirate phrase in a thread about computers

Avast behind