SLOOOOOOOW computer

Basically, I have a client who has a computer that is running very slow. At boot-up, there is one (or more) applications requiring constant hard drive access, thus thrashing the drive. This continued for the first 35-40 minutes of my analysis, until I closed most of the running processes from within Task Manager. The computer is a Dell 2.66 GHz processor running Windows XP SP3, with 512 MB (reported as 504 MB) of RAM. The hard drive thrashing did not halt completely, but it did seem to slow somewhat as I stopped one process after another. Unfortunately, the anti-virus software, McAffe Anti-virus, which I suspected as the culprit, could not be removed from active memory, but I did access it's control panel, and apparently, there were no active scans running, though on-access scanning was enabled. My suspicion is that, since the comp is running McAffe Anti-virus Enterprise Edition, their system simply does not have enough memory to support it; but I have also taken a HijackThis log, and would appreciate any advisory regarding the apparently installed software. It's a matter of what can be removed, and/or what should be removed, in order to speed up this computer. Here is the log, any advice or commentary will help me and my client. Thank you. – the SASS Man *** HijackThis Log ***

Posting of HJT logs is not allowed in Tech forums. I've converted it to an attachment.

Hi the SASS Man, For clarification: What do you mean by: "Basically, I have a client who has a computer" ? What is your relationship to this person and his machine? Counseling/personal advising client? Computer customer? Associate both working in the same business? As you may already know, XP SP3 is known to require about 386mb RAM just to open and operate. McAfee is known to be a heavy consumer of resources Internet Explorer version 8 is fine improvement, but does not run well on low resource machines Every ToolBar added to any Browser produces load and drag (in the case of this machine MSN, Google) Google updater will also take small nips out of the resources and phone home more often than necessary RealPlayer is a heavy consumer and is known to "phone home" frequently QuickTime is a heavy consumer Adobe Reader/etc. is a heavy consumer of resources Running Messenger\msmsgs.exe is not necessary I'm not familiar with Software602, but PDF editors and creators can be resource hogs Sun JAVA J2re 1.4.2 <– Really? old and critically vulnerable Current Runtime Environment is 1.6.0_22 _____________________- Best course of Action: Install More RAM (The HD thrashing is likely related to access to Paging File due to low physical RAM) Consider a different Antivirus/Antispyware solution (Avira or Avast plus Malwarebytes) Uninstall the browser ToolBars Roll back to IE 7 Consider Foxit, to replace Adobe Uninstall RealPlayer and QuickTime After considering the above… Run CHKDSK /r Run the native Defrag from SAFE Mode Lower priority but still worth considering… if this is a Desktop PC, consider an inexpensive graphic adapter card Best Regards

Okay, thanks for this. I guess the rules have changed since I last posted here (in 2006). My client is the office manager at my church, and, yes, I did avise him to install at least 2 GB of ram in each of their machines. Knowing that McAffe is such a memory hog, I'll go ahead and recommend Avast, I've had good luck with that…. As for the MSMSG.EXE, and the other programs, I'll do a bit of streamlining after their comps are upgraded, most likely. It looks like there aren't any other glaringly obvious memory hogs, and I'm grateful for that. Thank you very much for the assistance. – the SASS Man

As well as following Doug's directions if you are uninstalling the McAfee anti virus, then:
1 uninstall it in the usual way…Control Panel>add & Remove Programs etc,
2 close down the computer wait 30 seconds with a blank black screen, then restart (Reboot )
3 Next run the dedicated McAfee uninstall tool…this will do a more thorough job ( removing any remnants) and ensure that the install of alternative anti virus protections goes smoothly and correctly
details available from here:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507
4 When the tool has run, then reboot again before you install the anti virus of your choice.
5 For Win XP the performance will be OK with a RAM upgrade to 1GB, but more is likely to improve things a bit more…
Regards
paws