my computer is messing up like crazy!!!

[AFIsoldier]

somehting odd has happened to my computer and i have no clue what it is!! i had left my computer on when i went to school...i came home that day, my computer had rebooted it'self and when i signed onto windows it was slow as mess...i tried to open aol and it took 10, yes! 10! minutes to open...i guessed that maybe i had left it on too long so i cut it off and left it off for 2 days and when i turned it back on it was still slow! i have a 2000+ amd pally, 512mb 333mhz ram module, a western digital 80gb 7200 hard drive, and some oddball msi kt3 ultra2-c ms-6593 motherboard, i have overclocked the ram/cpu in the past so that may be the problem but as of now there is no overclocking on the computer, i deleted about 10 gbs of songs/movies off of my computer guessing that might be the culprit and it did nothing ot help the computer...does anyone know what to do? i have windows xp home...(also how do i delete EVERYTHING off my hd except the programs that came with the computer when i bought it form Cyber Power Inc.)

[AFIsoldier]

i really need help! please give some suggestions..

[stan03]

did you try a format?

[Deathknight]

Hrm well first problem is aohell. Nasty stuff ;) Seriously though do you have any virus protection software on there? Do you have a dedicated connection to the internet or dialup?

[AFIsoldier]

not any virus protection, direct connection(roadrunner/cable), and idk what ya mean by format...

[Deathknight]

Hrm if you have a dedicated internet connection and you leave your pc on all day I hope you have a firewall at least? Starting to sound to me like maybe you got hit with a worm or something while you were away. How religious are you about installing security patches?

[rUfUnKy]

Try shutting down all open programs and then open windows task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del then go to Processes) and look under CPU and mem usage and see if there is something in there bogging your system down. If so let us know what it is.

[AFIsoldier]

yea, i do have a firewall, a srtict one at that, i will go try to check for somehting bogging it down...but i tcould take a while...i am thankful for my sister having this crappy HP computer and lets me use it when mine has problems

[Deathknight]

What firewall do you run?

[AFIsoldier]

a netgear cable/dsl prosafe firewall router
i am installing the update crap on my computer now so it will take a while longer ot tell ya if there is anything boggin me down...btw, what would be grounds for "bogging down"

[AFIsoldier]

well, nvm i found the culprit i think....system32 was using a whopping 98% of the cpu....but how do i end this problem permanantly?

[Deathknight]

Uh yeah looks that you got a virus. I found tons of hits on system32.exe. Hopefully you don't have too much trouble getting it off your system. Here is one site that listed a solution to the issue but you may want to do your own homework on how to get rid of it. I would HIGHLY recommend some antivirus software in the future ;)

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/n1059190110

[AFIsoldier]

yea, guess you're right...norton..here come 40 bucks...lol
damn that is alot!

[Deathknight]

Hrm looks like multiple trojans use system32. you will definatly need to do your homework to figure out which one you have and how to remove it.

[Deathknight]

Actually I think norton system works 2003 is really cheap right now(I saw it just now for $23 but have seen it below 20 before). Sure its getting close to 2004 but you still get 1 year free virus definitions and you get all of the other tools that are in system works. If you don't need the other features of the norton internet security then either buy just the anti virus or the system works.

[AFIsoldier]

hmm...well i will check it out..thanks for the help, compy seems to be doin fine

[stan03]

actually you can get system works for free very often... i did, go to compusa or bestbuy and check their rebates... i always get my system works for free except for postage and tax :D

[AFIsoldier]

i tried that link and couldn't figure it out...any SPED walk throughs on how to delete it? lol...it takes me a while to understand new things and i am scared to mess around with crap like that or else i would change a whole lot of stuff that i can't fix

[Evil_Eye]

I'm not too sure if this virus scanner will work, but here's a free online one.

LINKY (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp)

[Jognt]

oof, good luck m8 ...........

maybe you want to use windoze 98? ;) since all those pesky virusses......... are to new for 98 :lol:

a lot of those new virusses cant infect 98, cuz of the different code... :D:D


anyway, hope u solve it, mcaffee has a free virus scanner on the site i believe