My computer has been getting worse and worse lately.
I’ve defragged it, run scandisk, run the self-fixit thingy it does. I took it to pcpitstop and ran the tests there, and didn’t find much to fuss about except that my “PING” number was in red and was over 700.
Yesterday, I found a couple of nice spanking new downloads, too–2nd Thought and Lycos Sidesearch. This all happened after my browser somehow got changed to globe-finder and I couldn’t change it back.
So, off I went to Pest Patrol, paid my $45 bucks and proceeded to dance a little jig while it found and eliminated some 500 items of spyware and adware.
That helped a lot, at least in that that I don’t keep getting fatal error screens. It’s not typing as slowly as it was, but the text on the screen still doesn’t keep up with me, which drives me nuts and prevents me from posting on beloved Dope.
Any ideas? I haven’t run scandisk or defragged it since I downloaded PestPatrol. Should I keep fiddling, or is this as good as it gets?
And if I install the Google browser, will it kill the one that keeps overriding my changes?
Vitals: Compaq presario. Windows 98, dialup. If any other info would help, just tell me how to find it and I’ll post again.
Try, in Internet Explorer, “Tools, Internet Options, Delete Files.” Sometimes this helps speed up things. Also, you should be running a good Anti Virus Program and perhaps a good Firewall to prevent interference from outside of your computer.
Also, (and I can’t stress this enough), check your hardware, especially for heat. I lost my last computer to incredible heat build-up due to -both- fans dying at once. It all started with incredible slowness and occasional BSOD’s…
Hi Karol
Sorry you spent the $45 for Pest Patrol. Ad-aware and more, are free.
How much ram are you running?
Have you eliminated excess apps from loading at start up through msconfig?
As robcaro has said…have you deleted your temp files…then did a scan disk…then a defrag…then rebooted? ArrMatey! has a good point as well. Do check in your device manager for any icky yellow splats, to see if you’ve got a hardware conflict happening.
Have you done a recent and updated virus scan?
I can’t tell by your post if Lycos is still there but here is a link that outlines how to remove it. Link I would also recommend installing Spyware Blaster. I have found this helpful and it is only a one time installation. It helps prevent known spyware from being installed in the first place.
You need to see what processes are using the cpu cycles. I can’t recall if Win 98 has any utility that will show process cpu usage, but if not you can get free utilities that will show the info.
For example, when I run Spybot Search & Destroy it uses between 80 - 100% of the cpu. Even so, I could generally do other tasks without much of a slowdown. But after I installed some new anti-virus software, my machine would become very sluggish when Spybot was running. By looking at the process cpu usage I could see that my anti-virus software was sucking up cpu cycles when Spybot was running. Temporalily disabling my anti-virus software solved that problem.
You may find something similar with your computer when you identify what (if anything) is using up your cpu cycles. Or you can eliminate cpu usage as the culprit and can concentrate on other possible causes as others have suggested.
Use ad-aware and spybot: search and destroy. Run those two scanning things at least once a week. Also go to start -> run -> type in msconfig. Then click on startup and uncheck all boxes.
I have to type this quick, before yet another hijacker downloads itself. AFter I posted the OP and noodled around for a few minutes, I checked the desktop to find FIVE new icons. I can’t figure out how t o get rid of any of them, either.
I’ve been running spybot and adaware and pest patrol–the first two at least weekly, and just added PP.
Tried to run scandisk and it won’t run because something else is writing to that disk.
What the heck is going on here??? How do I fix/install/whatever a firewall?
Scandisk won’t help with the popup problem. Go To Run>msconfig>Startup tab and see if there is a program running there. You could Cut and Paste the startup here and we could advise on what each program is and if it is needed.
sigh
I can’t cut and paste it, for some reason, although perhaps I need to do something different than my typical highlight-drag cp? There are a LOT of programs running in Startup, and many of them I know are crap–I just can’t get rid of them by unchecking and applying. I did go through it, unchecked all that I recognized as non-vital, and restarted. Checked again, and it’s all back on the list.
If I read the OP correctly, your start page in Internet Explorer was changed to “globe-finder”. It sound you have a similar infection like the CoolWebSearch problem. You might try a program CWShredder that worked when I had the latter problem. Googling should work to find it. Here is one link.
The program enters through a bug in the MS Java engine. If you want to avoid a repeat, you’ll have to upgrade the engine. There are patches at MS and elsewhere, I think.
There is also a largish discussion of your problem over here. I’ve not read it entirely, but it looks like they make a similar connection to CoolWebSearch and CWShredder.
Well you have a bit of a problem. I would go through the msconfig again, uncheck the same ones, restart the computer in Safe Mode and delete the .exe files that are starting. You will have to note the file names and locations and then do Search for each one to delete. Safe Mode starts with minimal drivers so your computer should not load those programs on startup.
to incredible heat build-up due to -both- fans dying at once. It all started with incredible slowness and occasional BSOD’s…