Quote:
herfrds,
the question of using dodgy sites is just refering to ones which are at high risk from viruses,malware,java drive bys etc.
torrenting and downloading files from peer to peer clients are high risk for introducing malware as well as unknowingly opening up computer access and control to blackhat hackers,there is one particular major torrent site which is also badly infested with infected files by these hackers,not sure if we are allowed to name such sites so will stay on the side of caution.
-its good that there isnt any clicking noise,as along with the other symptoms,this can indicate a failing hard drive.
sometimes hard drives can just die with no such warning,but they do tend to work up to it,the clicking that is often heard is the needle struggling to read the little disc inside the hard drive.
due to its age,and the fact there are no BSoDs,it sounds like the hard drive has just gotten bogged down with files,so this doesnt sound like a physical problem.
woud recommend downloading:
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
^defraggler is made by piriform,whom also develop ccleaner [aka crap cleaner],it gives a deep defrag; squashing all possible files together to make it easier and faster for the hard drive to read, will probably notice a slight speed difference once fully defragged.
as FireTigeris said,download ccleaner to-it gets rid of all temperary files and bad registery keys-just all the pointless crap that takes up space.
http://uk.trendmicro.com/uk/products/personal/free-tools-and-services/
^trendmicros housecall has always been a reliable, free anti virus and malware scanner,its worth sticking it on scan if are not doing anything else right now.
their other free program; RUbotted is worth a download also,it runs in the background but uses very little resource.
itll warn [and am assuming,will delete] if a botnet server is ever downloaded,easily done if botnet servers are FUD [fully undetected] and binded to an innocent file.
http://www.coranti.com/
coranti is possibly the best AV on the market,it makes use of hefty multi engine power,and is far more lightweight than nortons AV has ever been.
its got a months free trial,great for removing the tough dirt.
had used it a long while ago,and as a hacker [not in the blackhat/immoral sense] had quickly deleted it due to how brilliantly disruptive it was to all hacking files and programs.
memory is another possible issue here,and woud recommend doing an indepth memory scan to check for bad sectors.
memtest86+ is a quality program,takes ages to do a scan but its worth the wait if memory was an issue.its fully free-and the website is at:
http://www.memtest.org
-to download it,go to:
>download [pre built and ISOs]
>pre compiled bootable binary [.zip] -[thats if want it to boot inside windows].
if want to copy it to a CDR,download the pre compiled bootable ISO [.zip].
one of the easiest,and laziest ways of solving this issue [assuming memory is not an issue] is to format the hard drive and reinstall the operating system,copying any needed files to a external HD/discs etc first of course.
if have not got the operating system on disc,theres always linux which is *cough cough* far superior and mostly free.
,there are linux operating systems better suited to linux newbies such as ubuntu.
it honestly isnt worth the money paying IT guys the money to sort it out,as all they are going to do is run norton,AVG free,spybot,and perhaps recover windows from a restore point if need be.
pity are not local as woud have sorted it for free.
herfrds,
the question of using dodgy sites is just refering to ones which are at high risk from viruses,malware,java drive bys etc.
torrenting and downloading files from peer to peer clients are high risk for introducing malware as well as unknowingly opening up computer access and control to blackhat hackers,there is one particular major torrent site which is also badly infested with infected files by these hackers,not sure if we are allowed to name such sites so will stay on the side of caution.
-its good that there isnt any clicking noise,as along with the other symptoms,this can indicate a failing hard drive.
sometimes hard drives can just die with no such warning,but they do tend to work up to it,the clicking that is often heard is the needle struggling to read the little disc inside the hard drive.
due to its age,and the fact there are no BSoDs,it sounds like the hard drive has just gotten bogged down with files,so this doesnt sound like a physical problem.
woud recommend downloading:
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
^defraggler is made by piriform,whom also develop ccleaner [aka crap cleaner],it gives a deep defrag; squashing all possible files together to make it easier and faster for the hard drive to read, will probably notice a slight speed difference once fully defragged.
as FireTigeris said,download ccleaner to-it gets rid of all temperary files and bad registery keys-just all the pointless crap that takes up space.
http://uk.trendmicro.com/uk/products/personal/free-tools-and-services/
^trendmicros housecall has always been a reliable, free anti virus and malware scanner,its worth sticking it on scan if are not doing anything else right now.
their other free program; RUbotted is worth a download also,it runs in the background but uses very little resource.
itll warn [and am assuming,will delete] if a botnet server is ever downloaded,easily done if botnet servers are FUD [fully undetected] and binded to an innocent file.
http://www.coranti.com/
coranti is possibly the best AV on the market,it makes use of hefty multi engine power,and is far more lightweight than nortons AV has ever been.
its got a months free trial,great for removing the tough dirt.
had used it a long while ago,and as a hacker [not in the blackhat/immoral sense] had quickly deleted it due to how brilliantly disruptive it was to all hacking files and programs.
memory is another possible issue here,and woud recommend doing an indepth memory scan to check for bad sectors.
memtest86+ is a quality program,takes ages to do a scan but its worth the wait if memory was an issue.its fully free-and the website is at:
http://www.memtest.org
-to download it,go to:
>download [pre built and ISOs]
>pre compiled bootable binary [.zip] -[thats if want it to boot inside windows].
if want to copy it to a CDR,download the pre compiled bootable ISO [.zip].
one of the easiest,and laziest ways of solving this issue [assuming memory is not an issue] is to format the hard drive and reinstall the operating system,copying any needed files to a external HD/discs etc first of course.
if have not got the operating system on disc,theres always linux which is *cough cough* far superior and mostly free.
it honestly isnt worth the money paying IT guys the money to sort it out,as all they are going to do is run norton,AVG free,spybot,and perhaps recover windows from a restore point if need be.
pity are not local as woud have sorted it for free.
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