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Hi, my son built his own PC 2 years ago...the box got infected with virus, etc. He reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP. It took hours to reinstall, which didn't seem right.

Now, the machine is slow as molasses and whenever we bring up the TaskManager, the CPU is at 100% -- showing taskmgr.exe as taking up the entire load.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Mark

:smiley: Hi Mark,

Welcome to PCHF. We have a wonderful team of techs here, and I am sure we can figure out what is causing your slowdown.

Can you please post the specs for the PC?

Also, please click on Start, Run, and type in MSCONFIG. Hit OK, click on the Startup tab, and carefully go through the list to see if there is anything running at startup which is unnecessary.

Then, just to rule out a new malware infection, can you please follow the instructions for PreWork in my signature, and post the resulting two logs back here.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

What virusscan are you using, I recommend using AVG and Ewido Security Suite in conjunction with one another, they've kept my PC clean for a long time now. Make sure they are up to date and if you reformat make sure you install Service Pack 2 and all your updates right away if you are connected to the internet.

My first PC repair job, I reformatted the person's drive and reinstalled Windows XP for him and there were viruses present right away...not usual. I used AVG free edition to clean that up and his machine is still going strong.

What are the machine's specs. Most relevant would be the Processor type, brand and clockspeed (or teraflops if its an AMD Athlon); How much Ram and what speed, video card and Hard drive space.

Other problems I've seen on the internet like this don't seem to indicate a malware problem but we shouldn't rule that out based on what I've found.

I recommend posting a Hijack This log for the experts here to analyse and I also recommend following LadyGreenWitch's prework instructions to which This link will take you.

Download and install both AdAware Se and Spybot Search & Destroy, update and run them. This problem is familiar to me but I won't pretend to know all about them but these caould very well help...now where's Joe5 when you need him

Thanks for the assist DAR,

Just for the record, the PreWork instructions include, HijackThis and ewido.

I like using a variety of software for scanning too, but we don't want to overwhelm the user from the get go, until we have a better opportunity to see what is going on in thier logs.

TTFN

LGW

The task manager or system idle process will always take up all your cpu cycles when brought up. It really doesnt but it tells you on every pc that it is. Go ahead LGW try it. But it should not be slow as molasses in winter after a new install. Maybe a start up list should be conducted?

:smiley: Ah, Mr. Wizard? My CPU shows 14% in Task Manager.

I agree with you about the StartUp list, would Silent Runners be a better option here, doesn't it show absolutely everything that is starting up?

TTFN

LGW

actually this is the best tool for find everything...

http://www.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip

Can read about it here.

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html