Help Please! Browsers freezing, computer slow

Hi All,

Hoping to find some help on here. I was referred over here by Spybot Search & Destroy Forum after they had me remove some spyware, but they said that wasn't the main issue as my machine was pretty clean (yay!)!.

Specs:
2009 Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop, Windows Vista (hate)

160GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM
Sybot Search & Destroy, Malware Bytes, Ad-aware
AVG 2012 Antivirus (love), PC Tools firewall (which keeps closing itself when I restart due to an error)

I try to turn my laptop off at night & run all the malware removal tools once a week. AVG has found some trojans and other crud in the past few months and I think one was a WIN. something.

Help is greatly appreciated!!! I'm so very, very frustrated!!! I'm including the link to thread on Spybot so you can see what they had me do.

http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=63830

Hi, Sorry to hear of the problems with your machine. I took a look at your logs and it looks as though Ken is awaiting to hear from you with an updated DDS Log. It really would be best to continue with your topic with Ken until he "signs you off" then if you are still having issues with your computer come back here to this forum and we'll do our best to help… If by any chance you are running two antivirus products ( resident in memory) then please tell Ken of this ( they have the potential to conflict with one another) Regards paws

Hi, Ok . He had signed off a couple posts back., but I'll wait till I get the results from DDS. I don't think Im running 2 antivirus programs. Ive only downloaded AVG. Thanks

Good Morning all, From the scans we have run I dont see any malware or rootkit activity, so I am leaning towards a system repair that may fix this

much obliged Ken

Hi Joyfuljourney,
There are just a few things that I think might be worth trying before going ahead with a repair install….
if you are game to try them then here's the steps for your consideration.

I am assuming of course that you have checked that your backup/copy archive of everything that is important to you on your machine is 100% accurate, up date, reproducible and with at least one extra copy kept safe offsite on removable media. If by any chance you find a weakness in your back ups, or your address books/contacts, emails, drivers, documents, videos, music, user names, passwords, product serial keys, downloaded executable files…in fact anything on your computer that you wouldn't like to lose has not been included then now is to time to put things right….. Whilst you are checking this, take the opportunity to get together all your applications installation discs, your Windows Installation discs and or any Manufacturer's driver or installaion or Recovery discs…. If you made a disc image when your machine was running fast and smooth then post back here with the name of the application you used to create the image and advise the location of the disc image file (External hard drive, DVD's separate partition on the hard drive etc.)

1 check your System Restore Points …do you have any that pre-date the start of the problems in July?
2 if so then its worth trying the earliest one you can find and then see if that improves matters…. post back and let us know if that helps.
3 You have a lot of protections running on your machine and there could be a conflict going on between them…. you have:

AVG
Adaware live watch
Spybot S&D
Windows defender
PC tools firewall Plus

4 To try and see if there is any conflicts likely to happen please boot into safe mode with networking and being very careful to only visit the following site:
www.bbc.co.uk
use each browser in turn and see if there is any improvement….
NOTE your protections will not be up and running during this exercise so be brief,( but thorough) stick only to the above site and only connect to the Internet by a cat 5 or 6 cable into a router or other device that has a hardware firewall included in its circuits.

Let us know if you notice any improvements'
Regards
paws

Hi sorry for delay in replying-Ive been traveling. I'm locating my discs that came with it. I've never done a real backup just moved my important files extra to a flash drive. Ill try the safe more boot. As I remember Google Chrome works in safe mode. Ill double check. will also check system restore points and report back burning don't think I have one prior to the issue. Thanks for your help! And thanks to Ken too for all he did!!

Yes…OK, Safe mode with networking is the one you want ( the" networking" is what allows Internet use in safe mode) Regards paws

Ok so.. Google Chrome works fine in safe mode as does FireFox and IE. I have no system restore points prior to Sept. 8th. Thanks!

Hi Joyfuljourney,
It was good to hear that your computer and your browsers all work OK in safe mode with networking….

In explanation….safe mode with networking makes your computer boot up using only a minimal set of drivers, and services… the stuff that usually loads in normal mode being temporarily inhibited from running.

We can deduce from this therefore that something that is normally included in normal startup (but not safe mode with networking) is the culprit….. so this is the next job to tackle. to try and find the culprit!

I can provide detailed instructions on how you can achieve this, but I do get a fairly strong feeling that it may be some of your protection products that are "fighting among themselves" and maybe causing a system conflict that is at the root of the problem.

If you are game to uninstall all of your protections with the exception of AVG then this might provide a short cut to a solution…. but as always there are no guarantees…..

Before you start, create a new System Restore Point… and if you want to reinstall any of the uninstalled products later on… ensure you have either the install disc or downloaded executable file and the serial (product licence key safely copied to removable media)

Then using the products uninstaller from Programs or by the Control Panel if you cant find the uninstaller) uninstall the following :

Spyybot Search & Destroy,
Ad-aware
PC Tools firewall
Malwarebytes
Note please uninstall each one using its own uninstall procedure in Programs if available, (only moving on to Control panel if you can find no uninstaller in Programs.
Please remember to reboot your computer after each product is uninstalled and BEFORE moving on to uninstall the next one….
From Control panel turn on your Windows firewall after your PC Tools firewall has been uninstalled (dont forget the reboot as the uninstall will not be completed 100% until the computer has been rebooted)

Then perform another test this time in normal mode visiting only www.bbc.co.uk to see if things are better or worse….
Post back if you hit any problems with the uninstalls
Regards
paws

Thanks Paws! So far I've been able to uninstall Ad-aware, Spybot and Malawarebytes. Google Chrome now works!! (yay!)!!! I'm so happy. But, i was trying to delete some pictures and the status bar just says "uninstalling" and when I cancel it just says "cancelling" and never goes away. When I open Task Manager to foce close the program it acts like I'm trying to put it into sleep mode and then it'll force close the program but also tell me Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close." Everything will go away - icons, tray, start menu and then come back. I was unable to uninstall PC Tools Firewall. Tried to do it through the program and then with Add-Remove programs. I keep getting this message: C:/Program Files/PC Tools Firewall Plus/unins000.msg is missing. Please reinstall the program or obtain a new copy of the software. I even restarted the computer and tried again. When I booted it back up it appeared in the tray and said it was "initializing" which it never did and then it said it had encountered an error and had to close. It hasn't worked since I installed it a month ago. I should probably say all my issues started back when I had Comodo Firewall. Thanks Edited: to add info

Like a lot Internet security programs PC Tools Firewall Plus can be very difficult to remove. In fact, along with Comodo, it is the most difficult to remove.

This is worth a shot -

Download and install Revo Uninstaller Freeware.


If PC Tools Firewall Plus is no longer running due to a failed un-install, re-install it and click on the "repair" option that will be offered. Reboot.

Security software should always be disabled before trying to removed it.

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete.
2. Click on the Task Manager.
3. Click on the Processes tab.
4. Highlight PC Tools Firewall Plus and press End Process.

Run Revo uninstaller and select "PC Tools Firewall Plus" and then hit the "remove" button. As it goes through the steps it will bring up registry entries that need removing. Tick only those that are in bold lettering and then click "delete" and then next. It will again bring up reg. entries for PC Tools Firewall Plus (only). click on "All" / "Delete" and then next.

Reboot when finished.

You can use the same process with Comodo, but it must be re-installed first.

See how you go.

Cheers,
Lee

Just wanted to let you know I'm working on all that!! I've been traveling so I'm working on it as I have the internet connection to do so. I'm about to reboot after reinstalling PC Tools so I can uninstall - hoping it doesn't freeze after the reboot!! Will let you know how it goes! Thanks!

Hi all, I've successfully removed PC tools!! Working on comodo. Firefox is still freezing up all the time but Google chrome is working!! I'm still getting notices that Firefox is using something like 450MB of memory when its open. Can you also recommended a good firewall? Thanks!!