[wendy518]

I originally posted this in the malware/virus section because i thought that it was a virus causing my problems, however the person I was talking too said that you guys in here may be able to help me because it's not malware.. all is clean??? I did seem to find out that iTunes was taking the majority of my space on my harddrive, however not sure why iTunes has decided to save songs in two locations on my computer causing my songs to take double space.. anyone know about this either?

Here's what my original post said:

I am not sure where to start with my computer! My computer is sooooo slow and freezes a lot. Also, when I try to restart sometimes it won't boot up... It just shuts down and then eventually it will restart. The last time I restarted it popped up at least 16 of those black command windows with the command.exe and cmd32.exe files being prompted... I don't know if there were more screens than that, that's just what saw when I came back into the room. I started questioning things when I noticed that my computer was running low on space. I have a 100GB hard drive (79.4GB for the C drive and 12.6GB for the D drive) and my C drive is showing as only having 28.5GB free after I've cleaned everything up! I have pretty much emptied every file that I could off of the computer that was mine (i.e. photos, videos, games, word files, etc) and have them stored on a disk. I don't understand HOW I could have used that much space on my computer or where it went!

I have ran a virus scan (Trend Micro) and nothing came up to be fixed. I also ran Spybot Search & Destroy and fixed what came up (nothing was major except the koobface virus thing from facebook... grrr) I have disabled some things for the startup and it still doesn't make my computer boot up any faster or run any faster... I really need help in getting this cleaned or fixed. My brother also had me run Partition Wizard Home Edition to check my C drive because he thought maybe this was why it was showing as so much space being used (that some of the blocks or sectors were bad on my c drive..) after 21 hours to check the C drive, it all showed as working properly.. no errors... I was gonna just crash my computer and start it over from scratch, but I've been told that that still won't help find out how or why my hard drive is showing as having so little space, etc.

I've been having these problems for a while, but it got worse after I did windows updates two weeks ago... and Yes, I tried to go back and restore, but my computer wouldn't go back to a restore point... gave me errors... :-(

Also, when I bring up the Task Manager and look at what is using the CPU a lot of times it shows HIGH usage for the "System" (Not System Idle Process) Just wanted to note this too...

Can anyone help me fix my computer? I really need to get my computer back up and running so I can work on creating my baby shower invitations! Right now it would never be able to run Paint Shop for me to work on stuff! Ahhhh!!! Help!!!
(Thanks in advance!!!!)

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Wendy518, Welcome to Geekstogo!

Since your computer has been declared "clean" by one of our malware experts, you can rest assured, it's not a virus causing your problems. You may have a system cluttered full of temporary files, programs not being used anymore, and a fragmented hard drive.

I suggest you do everything this guide suggests... How to Maintain Your Machine by Artellos.

If this fails, you may have a hardware problem. i.e. bad RAM, or bad Hard drive, etc. Report back how the system is acting once you have completed that guide, also, can you tell me your system specs? This is how:

• Click Start
• Right Click "My Computer"
• Select Properties
• Make sure the "General" tab is forward.

Post what the system specs are in your next reply. Thanks.

[Ferrari]

Wendy518, Welcome to Geekstogo!

Since your computer has been declared "clean" by one of our malware experts, you can rest assured, it's not a virus causing your problems. You may have a system cluttered full of temporary files, programs not being used anymore, and a fragmented hard drive.

I suggest you do everything this guide suggests... How to Maintain Your Machine by Artellos.

If this fails, you may have a hardware problem. i.e. bad RAM, or bad Hard drive, etc. Report back how the system is acting once you have completed that guide, also, can you tell me your system specs? This is how:

• Click Start
• Right Click "My Computer"
• Select Properties
• Make sure the "General" tab is forward.

Post what the system specs are in your next reply. Thanks.

[wendy518]

Hi Ferrari!

I have already done those things (deleting old files, temp files, etc...) I did find tonight after searching in depth some more about my space being taken up majorly that even after I restored my computer last year (total system restore) that it did not delete a bunch of files... like old users documents & settings, etc... got rid of all those and now have much more space...

My major problem seemed to have occurred after i did the last windows updates... my video & sound files aren't playing correctly... sound choppy, etc... last time this happened i did a system restore (last year) and it fixed it, but I don't want to do a total system restore this time... I am going to set my computer to defrag tonight and see how it is in the morning, then possibly have to figure out how to restore the Windows XP program back to original then update??? What do you suggest?

My specs are:

System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Media Center Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

HP
AMD Turion 64 Mobile
1.79GHz, 1.00GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

Hope that's what you wanted! :-)

Thanks again!

[Ferrari]

I have already done those things (deleting old files, temp files, etc...)

What programs or utilities did you use? The ones that come with Windows are sub par. There is a lot more there than just deleting files.

I highly recommend ATF Cleaner:

• Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
• Under Main choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
• Repeat if you use Firefox or Opera Web Browser by first clicking on their tab.

Did you eliminate unnecessary programs from running at startup?

• Open Start Menu and select "Run..."
• In the run box type: msconfig and press enter.
• A window will appear, go to the Startup tab.
• In the startup tab, disable all the tick boxes, but leave your Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall, Wireless card, or any other program that may be needed when the computer turns on. i.e. if you disable your wi-fi card, it won't find a wireless signal, or if you disable your anti-virus, your computer will not be protected.

Lastly, use MyDefrag for defragmenting:

• Download it
• install it
• Open it
• Highlight "Defragment Only"
• Click Run

Also, how much disk space do you have left?

• Click Start
• Click "My Computer"
• Right Click C Drive
• Select Properties
• How much used space? i.e. 55gb What is the total capacity? i.e. 160gb

HP
AMD Turion 64 Mobile
1.79GHz, 1.00GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

This is not a very powerful computer.

then possibly have to figure out how to restore the Windows XP program back to original then update??? What do you suggest?

Try all of the above first. Also, do you mean repair XP? Or are you talking about elminating it's current updates? <--which I would never advise... Windows Updates are very important, they provide patches and fixes for common problems and/or security holes within the OS.

Let me know how things go.

[wendy518]

I didn't get to defrag last night because my computer wouldn't restart... it kept shutting down when i tried to restart...

I can't remember what programs off hand that I used for cleaning my computer. They were programs reccommended by my brother (a computer guy) And after I used them I got rid of them... I also did a lot of manually deleting files that were old and unneeded (old music files, etc.)

I will use the programs that you recommend above to see what it finds.

Also, I have disabled many programs from loading during start up... I googled what names are what when I was looking into it so that I would know which i could disable and which i couldn't...I hope i got all of them.

I know my computer isn't the fastest... It's about 4 years old... it's a laptop that i have no idea how to update hardware on (i know how to do it in a desktop) I am not opening this one up, i'll never get it back the way it needs to be. But I can't afford to get a new computer right now, so I need to make this one work.

In reference to Win XP, I meant that take the Win XP program back to it's original factory settings and then do all the windows updates again. I'm not sure why after I did the last Windows updates my computer seems to have "issues" with them because that's when the majority of this crap happened... The sound sounds like it's stuttering any time a sound file plays (or a video) and last time that happened, I had to totally crash my computer and start fresh again with it... I just don't want to crash it again...

I have to go to help my Grandmother out today, when I get back I'm going to work on the rest of the things above you sent Thanks!

[Ferrari]

I googled what names are what when I was looking into it so that I would know which i could disable

Good

my computer wouldn't restart... it kept shutting down when i tried to restart.

This could be a sign of hardware issues... i.e. failing hard drive, or bad stick of RAM. I didn't know it was doing that. Try to complete my previous steps, see if things get better. Diagnosing hardware issues via instructions from me on a forum can be rather advanced, lets hope we don't have to go there. The alternative option would be to take your computer to a professional in your area.

I meant that take the Win XP program back to it's original factory settings and then do all the windows updates again

You can try a repair first, if that doesn't work... then you would be looking at a total fresh install, however, this means you would lose all of your programs, and you would have to back up all of your documents, pictures, music, etc. Or you would loose those too.

Like I said earlier, just try to complete the previous steps I mentioned, we'll go from there.

sounds like it's stuttering any time a sound file plays (or a video)

• Click Start
• Right Click My Computer
• Select Properties
• Click Hardware Tab to come forward
• Click Device Manager
• Any yellow question or exclamation marks? Or, Red X's in there?

Let me know.

[wendy518]

[*]Any yellow question or exclamation marks? Or, Red X's in there?

The only thing with a Red X is the Ethernet thing, which I don't need working for my computer... i have internet through a wireless connection.

I'm back home now and going to work on the other stuff! Get back to you as soon as I can!

Edited by wendy518, 09 February 2010 - 02:57 PM.

[wendy518]

ATF Cleaner done... didn't even find a GB of stuff to delete... just a few MB of stuff....

Defraging now....

Also, Currently I have 39.4GB of 79.4GB Free on my hard drive (started with like 3GB free... ) i found a lot of crap to delete...

I have already backed up all my photos and documents to CD's in case we have to crash it... I'm am leaning towards there being a hardware issue... My guess is the hard drive or power supply... not sure which one... giving symptoms that could lead to either...

I'll be back after this defrags..

thanks again!