Antispy Ware

[Guest peter2b2002]

been using Avast anti spyware for a few months now, but it's been taken longer to load, any thing from 10 to 20 mins to fire up and when I try surfing the net I just hear the hard drive buzzing but nothing happens ,everything seems like going through glue( so far it's taken 5 mins to get this far)broad band speed is 3.2Meg. So I thought enough was enough and un installed Avast using add/ remove - WRONG every thing went t*ts up, isp loaded fine nice and quick ,but nothing else, could not get firefox ( my browser)to load ,it had even taken internet explorer with it, any one know how to get rid of this monkey , even the chap next door is having the same problem with his computer and he is with BT, I'm with talk talk

peter2b

[Guest SEgan]

Sorry to hear of your problems, PC's can be very frustrating:

 

I run Avast on an XP machine, with Firefox and my ISP is TalkTalk, are you sure Avast was the cause of the problems?

 

In the first instance I would use system restore to get everything back to how it was, use Control Alt Delete to see what’s hogging the resources, then I would do a full scan to check for infections. Good Luck!

 

Sean

[Guest Botbuilder]

I'm running Internet Explorer and found Avast apparently taking longer and longer to fire up and taking loads of resources. I downloaded AVG free and installed it. The installation of AVG starts the uninstalltion of Avast. You have to reboot after removing Avast, it worked for me.

[Guest Botbuilder]

System restore should be your first port of call.

[Longboarder]

Malwarebytes is a favourite of mine for troubleshooting. Only about 5Mb and free to download. I have used it today on daughters boyfriends lappy and which had slowed and did some slightly odd things on explorer and produced odd error messages. Found five bits of malware. Removed, rebooted and the lappy was transformed a bit, as its running vista and task manager showed 86 processes running, and it's rubbish cheap, and not enough memory, but at least it does what it's told now.

My XP desktop shows 29 processes running. Is that enough?

 

Nigel

 

AVG and Spybot S&D also running.

[agent_zed]

interestingly i switched from AVG free to Avast about a year ago as i found AVG to be resource hungry and kept trying to get me to buy the paid version (fair enough i guess). Also got a few viruses through with AVG.

 

Avast gets a slightly better rating on download.com.

 

Would also recommend malwarebytes as an additional program but i don't think its a real time virus checker so need to also use soemthing else as well.

 

Ive got into the habit of periodically re-installing windows from scratch as it seems to cure most problems. If you setup a separate partition for storing data then you can just reinstall the operating system without effecting your documents.

 

There is a cynical part of me that thinks that microsoft actually release updates to its operating systems when its been around for a long time to slow it down and make you buy the next version. But its probably more to do with broken bits of registry as you install and uninstall things over the years.

 

hth

[Graham B]

My machine was getting slower and slower to start, I used Malwarebytes and had tried everything.....So I finally turned off Microsofts Automatic Updates ---No more disk whirring for 20 mins !!

 

I do get a warning message --but its only a message.

 

 

Graham B

[Guest peter2b2002]

I have the same set up as Sean, one thing I found is if I stop avast for 10 mins my system works fine, (that is after a warning from avast), but if I turn it off for anything longer my browser stops working and the only way I can get firefox working again is to restart avast so my next plan is to back up all my files on discs and reinstall windows,

Just poping out,I may be some time!!

peter2b

[Grizzly]

Hi All,

 

I have a Degree in IT and have worked in it all my life. I hate Microsoft with a vengence that you could barely imagine. In the past I have spent countless hours on my PC trying to fathom out just exactly what was going on inside XP or whatever the OS was at the time. Wondering why it suddenly all went slow and went into 'Grind Mode' etc. Many would say that actually I was just a thicko and that's why I used to have so much bother.

To tell you the truth, I came to the point where I actually just didn't want to know anyway.

PC's should be here to help us. Browse the net, check emails, listen to our tunes, look at and store our photos etc. Microsoft has turned this the other way around. We seem to be slaves to them and I have better things to do with my life than wrestle with the likes of Microsoft and their mindsets.

I want a PC that I can turn on, not wait to the point where I can visually measure the growth of the hair on my head, get what I need out of my PC and then wander off to do whatever it was that's more important.

Then I discovered another Operating System. It has word processing & spreadsheets etc. It has a browser. It does email. it stores your photos and plays your music. There are many other bolt-ons which you can add on. Most importantly - IT'S FREE! Antivirus stuff etc is all built in and sorts itself out... and it does exactly what it says on the tin - a bit like Ronseal. I do have a copy of XP on my PC but I only ever fire it up in order to update my TomTom or my iPod. There's alternatives to that too, but I can't be bothered at the moment.

True enough, this new found OS is no good if you're into gaming, but I do all my gaming on Her Majestys highways or in the garage, which may be probably where you all want to be rather than sitting in front of one of Bill Gates's infernal creations.

OK, I could rant on and on but I won't. If you want to be freed of the shackles of Microsoft, check out http://www.ubuntu.com/

I'll never go back.

[harvs]

+1 for ubuntu. I've been using ubuntu for a few years now after getting tired of windows always updating or virus scanning etc. I'm more than happy with it and use it 100% of the time (no longer have a copy of windows). Boot time (pressing the on switch to surfing the net) is 30 seconds

[agent_zed]

yep dual boot Ubuntu and Xp on my laptop. Couple of things that do cause headaches in ubuntu, which is why i still use xp as well but if you just want to surf and do bits and pieces ubuntu is amazing. Although its pretty safe its still worth reading how to make it secure as nothing is ever 100% safe especially the more people start to use it.

 

Like most things its a bit of personal choice and i actually mostly like microsoft they aren't doing anything anybody else wouldn't do and the reason peoples computers run slow with third party virus software is becasue anticompetition laws stop MS shipping its own anti virus with it.

 

Mac's are even worse as they pretend to be better than MS whilst charging you tons of money for a shinny white computer with all of the buttons hidden in the wrong places and you can't easily fix if they break. I also laugh when people tell me Mac's dont get viruses or crash! Ive crashed numerous mac's just doing normal stuff and i know people who have had virus's and the more mac's there are the more virus's will be written for them.

 

 

Oh you can give Ubuntu (and loads of other Linux variations) a try without installing it, just look for the 'live' disc downloads.

 

did have to laugh on 'Big bang theory' when sheldon is sitting with his laptop and says to himself 'oh ubuntu you are my favourite linux operating system'.

 

I think iam becoming a geek!

[Grizzly]

Aye, all good comments there.

Perhaps we should vote on starting up our own Geek Squad Section on this Forum!