48 replies to this topic

[philcamera]

hi appleoddity, anymore thoughts on this??? regards phil c

[Doug]

Hi philcamera,

Please pardon me for stepping in briefly.
I will mention one item I noticed from your machine's report and then get out of the way so that you can continue the rest of your work with the others.

You are running Microsoft Security Essentials (I run it too, on a couple of machines).
You also have Windows Defender installed and running actively on this XP machine.

The two do not run well together.
The installation process for MSE sometimes successfully disables Windows Defender, and sometimes not.
In your case, you should Uninstall Windows Defender using Control Panel - Add/Remove

Doing so may improve your machine's performance, by reducing/removing the conflict between the two security applications.

Best Regards

[appleoddity]

I suspect there might be some kind of corruption in IE, but I'm not entirely convince this problem is isolated to IE.

Will you please send me your SYSTEM and APPLICATION event logs so I can see if there is anything going on there?

How to capture an event log and upload it to the forum:

• First, open Event Viewer by clicking Start -> Run -> type eventvwr.msc and press ENTER.
• In the Event Viewer please right click the requested event log (i.e. Application, system, etc...) and click Save Log File As.
• Please save the logfile to your desktop and give it a recognizable name.
• Do this for each log that has been requested.
• When you are finished saving the necessary logs, close Event Viewer.
• On your desktop find the saved log files. Hold the CTRL key and click to select each event log.
• When all event logs are selected, right-click one of them, click Send to -> Compressed Zip Folder.
• A new .ZIP file will have been created on your desktop. Please attach that file to this forum in your next reply.

[philcamera]

hi appleoddity, THE LOG files as you instructed are attached in the zip file!!! on reboot my browser is back to the normal colours at the top i can now read them and not guees !! its still running slow though . as a reply to doug!!! ive looked through add or remove programmes , i can find windows essentials, I CANNOT find windows defender !!!! its not in the list . Idid not install this programme at any time , but you can ob see traces of it when you have looked at my system ???? i cant see it !!!!!!

[philcamera]

sorry guys dont shout !!!!! in my haste forgot to attach , but there on this one SORRRRRRRY

Attached Files

•  system_log.zip   91.86KB   291 downloads

[philcamera]

DOUG hi, i looked once again for widows defender in add or remove programmes and its not showing , ive even done a search for it using the search fscilities inbuilt in to windows and its coing up negative !! do you see something i cant ??? regards phil c

[Doug]

Hi philcamera

Windows Defender appears in your PCPitstop Tests results.
Select SOFTWARE(tab) from the top line of tabs
Then also select PROCESSES(tab) from the second line of tabs below the top line.

The resulting PAGE that you will then see include the actively running applications and processes.
Both MSE and Windows Defender appear as actively running in the "green" section.
__________________-

Microsoft goes a long way to keep Windows Defender out of public view.
Or stated another way, Windows Defender is configured as a "process" and runs from a "service".
All of that, rather than making it an ordinary Application.
________________

What to do? How to get rid of Windows Defender.
(and yes, you should)

First Step:
Start - Run - (type)services.msc - press enter
You are now looking at the SERVICES (local) panel
Scroll down to Windows Defender
You will probably notice that it is STATUS - Started and STARTUP Type - Automatic

Double-click on Windows Defender to expand the item.
Press - STOP
In the drop down box that presently reads AUTOMATIC, drop down to Disable and click on Disable
Press the Apply button and then the OK button.
Exit Services Panel using the "X" in the upper-right corner of Services panel

Second Step
Start - Run - (type)msconfig - press Enter or click OK
You will now be looking at Microsoft System Configuration Utility

Select the StartUps(tab)
In the list (guess what... "Windows Defender" is listed as MSASCui)
Remove the Checkmark/Tick from in front of MSASCui
Click - Apply - click - OK - and then allow your Machine to be restarted.

Are you done with Windows Defender now?
Yes.... But....

Windows Defender will still have a Folder in C:\Program Files\Windows Defender <--- Simply leave the folder and its entire contents in place
It is harmless now that you have disabled the Service and the Startup item.

Let us know if this makes a difference in your machines functionality.
I suspect it will.

Best Regards

[appleoddity]

Hi Phil. I've had a chance to review your logs and certainly see a couple of issues to address.

Please download and install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. After it is installed please find it on your start menu and run it. See if you can find an entry listed called "ProductContext," if so, remove it. Afterwards, restart your computer and see if you still have performance problems.

Next, please open My Computer and navigate to C:\windows\minidump. There should be several minidump files listed. If you sort by date modified you can find the most recent 3 files. Please hold the ctrl key and click to select the three most recent minidump files. Then, right-click one of the highlighted files and click send to -> compressed zip folder. A new .zip file will be created that contains the three minidump files. Please upload those as an attachment to this forum.

Thanks.

[philcamera]

hi doug , you first ive done as you asked and there is no windows defender llisted at all i also looked in extended list as well its not listed anywhere. i also tried to do your second part and cut and pasted your msconfig and also typed it in just to make sure and it came up as file not found !!!! what do you think ?? and now on to appleodditys instructions regards phil c

[philcamera]

hi appleoddity, caried out your instructions the first part i removed that file using the programme downloaded, restarted , and explorer has gone back to how it was before the top 3 toolbars are all black and i cant see any text there now and it seems to be running a little slower if anything and more sticky on opening the web page. the second part there was no mini dump file or folder in c windows folder?? i even did a search using mini dump and it came up zero found?? regards phil c

[appleoddity]

Hi Phil. I'm definitely getting concerned here based on what you are telling us.

Your PCPitStop test indicates this is a custom built computer with Windows XP Professional. Can you please indicate if you have the original, genuine Windows XP Professional installation disc for this machine?

Can you please search your computer for msconfig.exe and see if you find it?

If you have the original Windows XP Professional disc, please put it in the drive and click start -> run and type sfc /scannow and press ENTER. Please let the command finish and tell me any results that you get.

[appleoddity]

Phil, on second thought, please disregard, temporarily, my previous instructions to run sfc /scannow.

I just realized we have not addressed possible hardware issues and several things I am seeing suggest a hardware problem.

Please click start -> run and type cmd and press ENTER. At the command prompt type chkdsk /r and press ENTER. Answer Y to schedule the scan during the next reboot. Then shutdown and restart your computer. Let the scan finish, it will take a while. During stages 4 and 5, please keep your eyes open for any messages about windows replacing bad clusters. This is indicative of a failing or problematic hard drive or is a good sign we may be resolving issues.

[philcamera]

hi appleoddity, well there are some strange things happening thats for sure when i booted up at the start of this morning the explorer had gone back to its original state no blavk bars at the top however it was very slow . i did the scan disk as instructed i watched it go through its 1-5 sections and nothing to report it said all is checked and fine with dsk. two things have happened on reboot , explorer has gone back to having the three black bars at the top, its running a little quicker from going from my mail to this page was the fastest its happened for ages . on its boot up all the programmes on the page came up quick but ive noticed that the two moitors in the bottome right toolbar , to indicate that your on line dont come up for about 4-5mins after like a kind of delay and wont let you do anything else on the machine until they appear , dont know if this is siggnificant or not , just thoughtid tell??? regards phil c

[appleoddity]

Yes, that is significant. There is no doubt you are having multiple issues going on here which is why this is going to be difficult to deal with.

I'm glad the chkdsk came back OK.

We need to also check your memory, and I think it would be a good idea to inspect internally the fans and heatsinks to make sure everything is clean. Have you experienced any spontaneous reboots on this machine? It appears to me in your log files that your machine has blue screened or spontaneously rebooted fairly regularly, sometimes very late at night. Do you just forecefully turn the power off on this machine sometimes?

Please have a look here about how to test your RAM: http://forums.whatth...ms_t103823.html

If you are confident enough to take the computer cover off it would be a good idea to follow through with all the instructions in the above link as well as inspecting all the fans inside the case looking for any fans that aren't spinning or a lot of dirt plugging things up. If you find some dirty stuff in there, I suggest you purchase a can of compressed air, or find an air compressor with a nozzle. Disconnect the cables on the computer and carry it outside and blow that sucker out.

One last thing to look for here is bulging or leaking capacitors on the motherboard which is a common problem still today, especially if you have heat problems in the computer also:
Leaking Capacitors
Capacitors do not have to have visible crust or fluid leaking out of them. Their tops should be perfectly flat. If they are bulging up at all they are bad.

All of these things should be checked to make sure we aren't running around like a chicken with our heads cut off. Ok?

Edited by appleoddity, 05 June 2010 - 08:24 AM.

[philcamera]

hi appleoddity , ok here we go , i did the taking off the sides and hovering, reseating , there was a bit of dust but not to much i hovered it up made sure the two fans were spining i then powered up and saw the two fans spining free . i then powered down , reconnected all the peripherialsand powered up again , it was immeadiatley noticeabley much faster . i then did the the iso cd rebootable into the mem test i ran this test from 7pm until 11.30 pm and its come up as no faults found .?? regards phil c