vrs
Member
Reged: 04/20/00
Posts: 1290
Loc: Allen, Texas
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I have Windows XP on my laptop.
Last night before I left work, something was hammering the disk and CPU. Like a backup running or mail file rebuild or a virus scan - reallllllly slowing things down. I shut it down and went home and, when I booted up - same thing.
When I looked at the task manager, nothing unusual was going - the system idle process was fluctuating wildly, but it was like 84-90 percent, so there was lots of capacity. Looked around on the internet a little - to the extent the darned thing would let me - and I got educated on the System Idle Process, but no help. 
So then I started shutting all the processes down that I could - one by one - and then did a restart and it is okay for now.
Is there anything I should look at to help me if this happens again?
Thanks!!
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Maurice
Member
Reged: 12/03/01
Posts: 786
Loc: Allen, TX
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Sounds like Spyware, it's the culprit of many computer issues today such as you're reporting like slowdowns and lots of disk access.
Go to lavasoftusa.com and download a copy of Ad Ware personal edition, it's free so you don't have to worry about paying. Install it, download the latest definitions and run the scan. Once you're complete then delete all the objects it finds (right click on one of the items, click 'select all' in the pop up window and click next) and you should be ok. To be a bit more sure, without going into too many involved steps I would also recommend clearing your temp folders as these are where a lot of these buggers reside and reinstall themselves.
In XP go to "C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Local Settings" and delete everything out of the Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders. If it groans at you and says it can't delete something (only file it cannot delete is the index.dat file if that happens to be in there) try rebooting and starting in safe mode (hit F8 as it's completed the POST) and deleting the files then.
It's a real pain in the butt, spyware. If I didn't explain myself correctly shoot me an e-mail and I can try to do a better job. :) Hope this helps!
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vrs
Member
Reged: 04/20/00
Posts: 1290
Loc: Allen, Texas
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Thanks for the suggestion. I have Ad-aware installed already, but it did not occur to me to run it when I was having the problem. It has been a couple of weeks so I ran it just now and found five "data miners." Sheesh!
Thanks!
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Webmaster
Member
Reged: 01/24/00
Posts: 991
Loc: Allen, Texas
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Sounds like Spyware to me also. 
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Allen finds it on. . . . Allen Online.Com!
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Maurice
Member
Reged: 12/03/01
Posts: 786
Loc: Allen, TX
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That's not bad, get the latest version (if you don't already have it installed) and run a deep scan of everything on the machine including within archives and host files. Make sure you dump those temp folders though, I'd also run a virus scan afterwards with latest definitions also.
Hope you get everything cleaned off!
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Gary
Member
Reged: 06/25/01
Posts: 276
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In addition to Ad-Ware6 you should also run The Cleaner by Moosoft. It found 93 'things' that Ad-Ware missed. http://www.moosoft.com/products/cleaner/download/
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V-Girl
Member
Reged: 07/12/01
Posts: 1125
Loc: Allen, TX, US
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I just tried to download that and got a message that Internet Explorer encountered a problem and had to close. I get that message a lot.  About a month ago I ran a Yahoo search and clicked on a link that apparently downloaded a bunch of crud onto my PC. I had the same thing happen at work this summer but my IS guy was able to fix it. Hubby and I have done everything the family IS guys (my brother and brother-in-law) have told us to and it hasn't worked. Just when I think it's fixed, something else shows up.
It may have to visit one of my computer doctors (big brother or brother-in-law dearest).
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Will work for shoes (& purses)!
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Nando
Member
Reged: 02/20/01
Posts: 463
Loc: West Allen
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Replace Internet Explorer as fast as you can with Mozilla Firefox. Much better web browser! http://www.mozilla.org
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Censored. Do not speak freely, your opinion is not appreciated. Bug off.
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Maurice
Member
Reged: 12/03/01
Posts: 786
Loc: Allen, TX
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You probably still have a bunch of junk in your temp and temp internet folders, make sure you delete those manually as well Veronica.
Try Mozilla or Avant at least, they do lessen the garbage you will get for sure.
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SeanKelly
Member
Reged: 09/21/02
Posts: 611
Loc: Allen, TX, USA
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Quote:
Replace Internet Explorer as fast as you can with Mozilla Firefox. Much better web browser! http://www.mozilla.org
Faster, more secure, less buggy, stops popups, supports tabbed browsing, better adheres to web standards ... really, there's no reason to keep using IE!
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Insert Pithy, Non-Advertising, Non-Offensive Remark Here.
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shlubo
Member
Reged: 03/20/01
Posts: 76
Loc: Allen, TX USA
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I love Mozilla. However, I can't come into the forum here. It says I need a missing plug-in. I search to download and I get a message no plug-ins found. This morning I went to use Mozilla and all of my bookmarks came up as not found. I try to update and it shows as updating but nothing ever happens. Until things like this stop happening, I have to use IE.
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SeanKelly
Member
Reged: 09/21/02
Posts: 611
Loc: Allen, TX, USA
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Quote:
I love Mozilla. However, I can't come into the forum here. It says I need a missing plug-in. I search to download and I get a message no plug-ins found. This morning I went to use Mozilla and all of my bookmarks came up as not found. I try to update and it shows as updating but nothing ever happens. Until things like this stop happening, I have to use IE.
Try Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
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Insert Pithy, Non-Advertising, Non-Offensive Remark Here.
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shlubo
Member
Reged: 03/20/01
Posts: 76
Loc: Allen, TX USA
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Quote:
Try Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
What do I do there? I already have downloaded the program.
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SeanKelly
Member
Reged: 09/21/02
Posts: 611
Loc: Allen, TX, USA
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Quote:
Quote:
Try Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
What do I do there? I already have downloaded the program.
Install it!  
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Insert Pithy, Non-Advertising, Non-Offensive Remark Here.
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shlubo
Member
Reged: 03/20/01
Posts: 76
Loc: Allen, TX USA
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Either you didn't understand or I didn't make myself clear enough. I have it installed. I use it already. 
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SeanKelly
Member
Reged: 09/21/02
Posts: 611
Loc: Allen, TX, USA
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Quote:
Either you didn't understand or I didn't make myself clear enough. I have it installed. I use it already.
Oh, you said you used Mozilla.
Mozilla is a browser/news client/mail client/chat program/HTML editor from the Mozilla Group.
FireFox is another browser from the Mozilla Group.
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Insert Pithy, Non-Advertising, Non-Offensive Remark Here.
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toglancebehind
Member
Reged: 06/02/05
Posts: 28
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I know this is a some-what old thread but just so everyone knows. For those who have a legal copy of Windows you can get Microsoft Anti-Spyware for FREE! It is still beta but I have it on all my computers and it runs great. Now you might be saying..Adaware is free too...well let me tell you that MS Anti-Spyware gives you real-time protection and free updates. So it is like getting the service of a Anti-Spyware program that you would normaly pay for...FOR FREE! I highly suggest everyone looks into it! And as one last note...you need to use Internet Explorer for this download because it has to go through a verification proccess using ActiveX which only IE has. Hope you all have time to try it out!
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JeffB
New Member
Reged: 10/22/02
Posts: 48
Loc: Cottonwood Bend
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I second this sentiment. I've run adaware and spybot previously, but microsoft's anti spyware beats them both. I've found things the others missed, and it also prevents things from getting there in the first place. I give it a big
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50Cal
New Member
Reged: 06/26/04
Posts: 23
Loc: Allen, TX
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vrs,
Heh man that kind of problem can really make someone say "jumpin junipers". The adware programs are great. Somebody in this thread or some other thread in this board mentioned running two or three counter-spyware programs to eliminate the problem. That is a tried and proved method that works. During my consultant days a good one that worked wonders....really worked a whole lot, was Ad Aware. The MD that the program was used to clean his computers loved the final results. You can find it at download.com to be rated quite high. It is shareware too.
Now you would have to download it and install it, then boot your computer to "Safe Mode" and and run it from there. It would run much faster and can catch the "phantom" spyware that would normally not be visible in normal mode.
Also, be sure to disable your high speed connection before you do this because there's a good chance that the more intelligent spyware elements try to update themselves automatically once they detect installation of a "counter-spyware" mechanism. Depending on the size of your hard drive it could take anywhere from 45mins to 1hr to run a "full" scan.
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.....fortune favors the brave.
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