Help requested from computer-savvy Dopers

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m posting this in IMHO because I need advice. If it’s not right for this forum, my apologies to the mods.

In short, my computer is driving me round the bend. It’s a desktop IBM clone, has Windows ME as its operating system, and I’ve had it nearly three years. It’s got a number of irritating problems, but I’ll try and summarise.

When I switch it on, it’s fine for a certain amount of time. It’s slow, but it only has 60MB RAM and I’m used to its ordinary slowness. But if I leave it on for a while - say a couple of hours - it starts getting slower and slower until it’s taking ten minutes to bring up the Start menu. Symptoms include the mouse pointer shaking randomly when my hand isn’t even on the mouse, and if I click and drag the scrollbar, the entire window shakes up and down. When it gets too slow for me to cope with, I reboot, and the cycle begins again - it’s all right for a while, and then slows down.

Other problems - I can’t make System Restore work. It seems to have stopped making check points. I can’t open a Microsoft Word document unless Word itself is already open - otherwise it gives me an “invalid path or filename” message. I keep on getting pop-up adverts (including the horrible full screen ones) on websites that I know don’t do that, and I did actually try AdAware, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. The taskbar icon that shows you’re online (with the two computers overlapping) randomly disappears even when I know I’m online.

I’m sure there’s other little things, but I can’t remember. I’ll post again if anything else becomes apparent. For now, can anyone help? I’m not really good with computers myself, so I’d prefer words of one syllable or less. :slight_smile:

Oh, in case it’s relevant - the computer has a broadband connection with an ADSL modem.

That’s it. And quite enough too.

2

That one sounds like you’ve got several spyware / trojan / virus programs al running at once. In effect, the damn thing’s haunted. It definitely has a bunch of demons.

As to system restore, that proved to be a pretty weak technology in WinME. Most installations quit working after a few months. So that symptom isn’t too significant.

Th eproblem with a system that’s been infected for a long time, or multiply -nfected is that even removing all the malware won’t undo the damge they did. So your Windows installation is at least partly crippled.

The best answer is to reinstall Windows after zapping the hard drive. But that’s a major pain in the butt and assumes you’ve still got all the CDs that came with the machine. That also will erase all yuor own files, so you’ve got to back them up somehow (CDRW?) before clearing the hard drive.

Bottom line, for someone of your stated expertise, it isn’t fixable.

Can you con a friend or neighbor or coworker who’s more PC-skilled to take a look at it in person? The danger here is that most folks who aren’t professional PC techs are more confident than they are skilled; there’s a good possibility they’ll break it worse while trying to fix it. And if they break it to the point it won’t boot, well then you’re pretty much stuck as to getting your old files back.

Sorry not to be more helpful, but you’ve got a tough problem, probably more than can be safely diagnosed via the sdmb.

Good luck.

3

I reccomend trying to back up everything, and doing a reinstall. And getting more RAM(RAM is cheap - you can probably get a 128 meg stick for ~$20 or less), and switching operating systems if possible.
WindowsME is the worst piece of crud to ever come out of Microsoft - even going back to Windows98 would be a large improvement, though Windows 2000 or XP is what I would reccomend.

When you do get it back running, get a Firewall (I like Zonealarm -free version is good enough) and make it a habit to check for spyware(using ad-aware, which you mentioned you have, or Spybot),

4

I second the spyware-sweeping advice.

First things first, hie thee forth to www.spywareinfo.com and follow links from their programs section. I used to exclusively recommend Ad-Aware, but lately it’s seemed its updates are lagging increasingly further behind the spyware-mutation rate. Spybot Search&Destroy is a good option; I haven’t tried any of the various other detection-and-cleaning utilities there.

Anyway, get one or the other, make sure it’s updated, and run it. Odds are it’ll find an obscene number of spyware components on your system; remove them all, reboot, and run it again. If you continue to find components, or continue getting pop-ups, ask nicely for help on their forums; they’re chock-full; they’ll likely want you to run the Hijack This! utility and post the log (only post logs from it and other spyware-detection programs after reading their FAQ, though). They’ll guide you through how to manually remove any lurking infections.

You’ll probably find your system running rather more smoothly after that. Afterwards, use a browser other than IE (Mozilla or Opera are fine choices), as IE’s frequently just an open invitation for spyware’s evil.

5

Thanks very much. I’m actually tempted to just re-install everything, as I have backups of all my files already, and Drastic, the site you recommended seems extremely helpful, thank you.

Will keep you posted. Although if I disappear , you’ll know it’s because I’ve beaten the computer to death with a meat cleaver.

6

Definetely get more RAM, at least 256 MB and if you can afford it go to 2000 Pro. You will be much happier and if you are student you can get a reduced price.

7

Three programs that will help you out. All of them are free for home consumer users. (Read the EULA if you are concerned).

Ad-Aware 6.1

Spybot - Seach and Destroy

GriSoft Anti-Virus

I strongly suggest downloading, installing and updating these software packages. Then run them. They are incredibly awesome at solving the problems you’ve outlined without have to go through the hassle or reinstalling everything. I have had great success with these programs.

Also, I agree with all the other advice here. You need to get more memory. At least 96 to 128MB for slow performance, 256MB for decent performance. I also agree that WindowsME is the largest piece of crud available. Windows 98 is better. However, if you can, I’m a large advocate of Windows 2000 Pro, it has been very stable for me. I am not yet a fan of Windows XP Home, nor Windows XP Pro.

If you do choose to reinstall everything, I still highly suggest you download and install these three programs. They are lifesavers in my line of work.

Six-O

8

Ack, I just thought of this as well. I am in no way affliated with these products. I just think they are great products. I receive no gain or benefit blah blah blah blah (IANAL).

6-0

9

Ok, I’m going to try to help you instead of telling you how sucky ME is and how badly you need a memory upgrade.

First off, you definitly have trojans, worms, adbots, and probably a few viruses. Go to Housecall.com. The nice thing about housecall is that even if your current anti-virus program,(I’m giving you the BoD and assuming you do have an up-to-date anti-virus progam) has been compromised the online virus scan will still work.

After you do that d/l, install, update the definitions and use Adaware and Spybot, Search and Destroy. The reason is, both work very well, but because of variations in when the updates come out, one may catch something the other missed. And they’re both free, what the hell? Why not get 'em both?

On a related note, and all of you might be interested in this, Spyware Blaster. This program,(free of course), from Wilders security will actually prevent spybots from being installed. That’s much better than having them and removing them.

Moosoft doesn’t provide this for free like they used to, but a 30 day trial is enough to find and remove all trojans and worms.

And finally, if you have an anti-virus program update it regularly and keep it updated. Other wise it does no good. If you don’t have an antivirus program, any of the ones all ready recommended are good, but I personally like Avast!. The home version is free, it will update it self automatically. On the down side, you will have to go to the site and renew your accout every six months. That may be to much trouble for you, but I love this program. I’m in more websites every day than most people visit in a month and I’ve never had a problem.

Now, some of your problems may be the result of lack of memory/poor memory management by your programs. Many programs don’t release memory the way they should. You could go to AnalogX.com and download MaxMem. Everything from AnalogX is free and works great!! Or, just reboot a couple times a day.

I don’t make anything off any of these, I’m just a Tech TV junkie and a bossy problem-solver type. I am a foreman on a construction crew, I boss people around all day long and solve problems, it’s what I do. :smiley: