Computer running slow, mainly IE

I've been noticing for a while that my laptop responds slow. For example, if I click on IE, the computer just seems to sit idle for 4-5 seconds then will open up IE. It was never like this when I first got it and curious on what it could be. Any ideas? PS - My fiance's desktop was running slow like this too but ended up finding out she was infected with the ddayw.dll trojan/worm (whatever it's called). Thanks to the site, I was able to get rid of it unlike Mcafee that couldn't (useless). I don't think I have any viruses on here.. any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance. PS- I'm not extremely computer literate. I have a 1 yr old Dell Inspiron 8600 with windows home edition and Windows SP2 loaded.

(you will want to shut down all other programs before running System Security Suite so you will be ready to reboot).

Please download System Security Suite. Extract it from the zip file into a folder.
here.

Run 3S under “Items To Clear” tab place a checkmark in all of them but the last.

Reboot

I did what you posted. After the reboot and windows up I clicked on IE. It took 11 seconds just for IE to open and an additional 10 seconds that it sat on a white box before it loaded. Still having the slow issues with IE.

I suggest you go here and read how to post a HijackThis log in that forum.
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/index.php?showforum=27

It might be spyware thts slowing the system down. Have you scanned for that? The log experts shud help you on cleaning out the nasties. How much RAM u running on? HDD space? And have you done the maintenance stuff like clearing ur internet cache, temporary files etc? If not run the Disk cleanup. Junk combined with a badly fragmented drive can be a reason for slow program response. Run chkdsk and defragment as well.

Ok so I ran a disk cleanup and then a disk deframent. Once everything completed, the internet now doesn't let me go to websites besides my main page. I double click on IE and it loads to the dell website. Once I type in an address and hit enter.. it freezes then comes to "not responding" and I have to Ctrl+Alt+DEL to shut it down. I D/L'd Spybot1.4 prior to this and ran it. It found the following problems FunWeb 16 entries FunWebProducts 19 entries MyWay.MyWebSearch 37 entries MyWebSearch 22 entries Windows Security Center AntiVirusDisableNotify 1 entry Windows Security Center AntiVirus Override 1 entry Windows Security Center FirewallDisableNotify 1 entry Are all these bad? Should I remove them all? Oh.. and I have 512 memory and 60 Gig hardrive (really 55.89 with 42gig free)

Update: I deleted all the problems I posted above. HAd to reboot which it scanned again and deleted 1 that it couldn't delete (it said it was probably running). After that, internet seems to work fine now. I will have to play with IE a little to see if I can produce the slow delays again. Also, I updated my McAfee viruses protection and ran a full system scan which didn't find anything. Also ran the AVG Free version which didn't find anything either. I'm going to run a few more programs that this site recommends for cleaning/killing spyware etc.

HI cruzniz, EVerytime new updates are are found for Adaware and Spybot, download and run scans.. you can configure them to delete the problems found. It wud be a good idea to shift to Firefox or Opera as internet browsers. Dont run both AVG and McAfee on ur system! it can really eat up resources, stick to just one virus protection program. Good luck.

Orion, I just uninstalled Mcafee and relying on AVG solely (going to download one of the recommend firewalls on here. I can't believe the difference in speed now on IE. No freezing, no lockups (not responding). Removing this and the help of removing the spyware seems to have fixed everything so far. Thanks for the help

thts great Be regular with ur maintenance, run spyware scans frequently and also install the firewall. Clean out and defrag weekly or so to keep the system fit:)