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Very strange issue, have a few questions

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Yuriman

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2002
Location
The OCFORUMS
I came back from a trip with my grandparents, and my mother had done something to the family laptop. I really have no idea what she did, she said she installed printer drivers (HP), and browsed the web a little. My notes on whats going on with it:

  • antivirus wont start with pc

  • processes using cpu cycles dont match cpu usage

  • sounds are slurred, programs are slow

  • game movies are slow, framerate is good but in-game music is slightly slow, and effects are VERY slow

  • mouse movement is choppy on the desktop

  • windows takes like 15 minutes to load, shutdown is standard speed

  • defragmenting is very slow, as is virus scanning

  • sometimes pasues for up to 15 seconds, does nothing

  • seems slowest by far when doing any transfers on the hard drive

  • unable to connect to the wireless

wtf.JPG


It seems the worst of the slowness is under heavy hard drive activity, but it happens regularly. Any ideas? Would a reformat help? If so, I need help on finding where the game saves are stored for Chaos Theory, and Need for Speed Underground.

Help?
 
Last edited:
I had similar symptoms on my rig 3-4 months ago, most notibly the Task manager pic you're showing. The difference with my system is that it would do it at random and it wouldn't use 100% CPU it would fluctuate between 33%-46%

I ran every Anti-virus/Spyware under the sun and it didn't fix it. I don't even think it had anything to do with any virus or spyware, I think it was windows having a sissy fit. Anyhow the only thing that fixed it was a format.
 
I wonder if it got a rootkit somehow..... anyways a reformat should do the tick.... I'm sure it was probably due anyways.
 
Not really, heh. I sent this laptop off to Kuwait with him (he got activated, is in the reserves), I expected it to be in pretty bad shape when it came back, but it was as clean and fast as the day I sent if off. :p

BUT, if I am to reformat it, I need to know where the saves for Chaos Theory and Need for Speed Underground 2 are stored.
 
I disabled system restore, due to lack of space. :bang head

When I sent him off to Kuwait, he had about 55GB worth of games, on a 60GB hard drive.

Anyone know where to find his saved games?
 
Yuriman said:
I came back from a trip with my grandparents, and my mother had done something to the family laptop. I really have no idea what she did, she said she installed printer drivers (HP), and browsed the web a little. My notes on whats going on with it:

  • antivirus wont start with pc

  • processes using cpu cycles dont match cpu usage

  • sounds are slurred, programs are slow

  • game movies are slow, framerate is good but in-game music is slightly slow, and effects are VERY slow

  • mouse movement is choppy on the desktop

  • windows takes like 15 minutes to load, shutdown is standard speed

  • defragmenting is very slow, as is virus scanning

  • sometimes pasues for up to 15 seconds, does nothing

  • seems slowest by far when doing any transfers on the hard drive

  • unable to connect to the wireless

wtf.JPG


It seems the worst of the slowness is under heavy hard drive activity, but it happens regularly. Any ideas? Would a reformat help? If so, I need help on finding where the game saves are stored for Chaos Theory, and Need for Speed Underground.

Help?

Sounds like a spyware or adware infection.
 
Seems like most of the save games on the newer stuff is under:

C:\Documents and settings\(whatever your login is)\MyDocuments\*

Look for the name of the game there, thats where BF2 and GTASA put the save games, I'd check there if they aren't in the game's root directory.

Edit: Oh yeah, I agree with the spyware/adware thought. Had to fix a few computers here at work because of that, all experiencing the same problems your having. If it has too much on it, a format may be the only way to fix it.
 
I've tried 4 different spyware detection programs, and none of them found anything. I'm rather stumped on this, but I wouldn't have posted this thread had I not been. :p

Also, neither Chaos Theory nor NFSU2 saves are in My Documents, I checked there first, and then in the game folder in Program Files. I couldn't find any files with any names that seemed to indicate they were saves.
 
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