[seanca]

I have an older PC (800 Mhz/512MB RAM) running Windows 2000 Professional. At one time it ran well, now it runs painfully slow. It takes almost 15 minutes just to boot to the desktop. Initially, this PC had 256MB so I upgraded to 512MB with no improvement in speed. I have also done the following:

Full System Virus Scan (BitDefender)
Full System Spyware Scan (Ad-Aware & SpyBot)
Run ScanDisk
Run Defrag
Removed non-essential Startup folder programs

I am not particularly familiar with Windows 2000 and don't know if this is a common problem. However at this point I am frustrated and perplexed. Any assistance you can offer will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

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a hijackthis log might help so we can see what is runnning at startup

Also, consider defragging your harddrive
right click MY COMPUTER,

choose MANAGE

go to defrag in left hand pane, click defrag in right pane

[gerryf]

a hijackthis log might help so we can see what is runnning at startup

Also, consider defragging your harddrive
right click MY COMPUTER,

choose MANAGE

go to defrag in left hand pane, click defrag in right pane

[gerryf]

Gerry,
This is the first time I have used your website and I read that I should not reply to my own post??? You replied to my post this evening and asked me to send a hijack this log to see what might be slowing down my Windows 2000 computer. I appreciate any input you might have.

That means please don't needlessly bump your threads...the reason is that we look for 0 response threads first and when you bump your thread, a helper may think you are already being helped....bumping hurts your chances of getting a response It does not mean you should not post in your own thread when asked for information Can you tell me a little about this computer. WIndows 2000 is usually a work computer, and I can see you connect to a netware server. Is this a work computer? One reason windows 2000 will take a looong time to load is reconnecting shared or networked drives, looking for servers, etc. I also see by your log that you once had an antivirus program that has missing files now....any light you can shed on that?

[seanca]

That means please don't needlessly bump your threads...the reason is that we look for 0 response threads first and when you bump your thread, a helper may think you are already being helped....bumping hurts your chances of getting a response It does not mean you should not post in your own thread when asked for information Can you tell me a little about this computer. WIndows 2000 is usually a work computer, and I can see you connect to a netware server. Is this a work computer? One reason windows 2000 will take a looong time to load is reconnecting shared or networked drives, looking for servers, etc. I also see by your log that you once had an antivirus program that has missing files now....any light you can shed on that?

Gerry,
You are correct, this is a PC in a small office. It is part of a peer-to-peer Windows network of about 10 PCs. However, there is no dedicated server, Netware or otherwise. The PC in question does however share it's harddrive with other users. At one time, McAfee anti-virus was on this PC, however that has been replaced with Bitdefender anti-virus. Incidentally, in addition to the slow boot, it will hesitate quite some time before loading most programs. However, it is not consistent in this regard. Thanks for any additional thoughts you might have.

[gerryf]

Given that information, it appears your antivirus program is broken at the moment

Relevent sections of hijack highlighted



R3 - Default URLSearchHook is missing
delete this

O16 - DPF: {4ED9DDF0-7479-4BBE-9335-5A1EDB1D8A21} - http://bin.mcafee.co...72/mcinsctl.cab
O16 - DPF: {BCC0FF27-31D9-4614-A68E-C18E1ADA4389} - http://bin.mcafee.co...,16/mcgdmgr.cab
old mcafee stuff delete

O20 - Winlogon Notify: nwprovau - C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\nwprovau.dll

nwprovau.dll is the Client Service for NetWare Provider and Authentication Package DLL. It is used for connecting to netware servers/printers, etc. It could be contributing to your startup issues. I would suggest removing this if you are SURE you do not need it. I'll post how you do that in a few moments

O23 - Service: BitDefender Scan Server (bdss) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Scan Server\bdss.exe" /service (file missing)
O23 - Service: BitDefender Desktop Update Service (LIVESRV) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Update Service\livesrv.exe" /service (file missing)
O23 - Service: BitDefender Virus Shield (VSSERV) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender9\vsserv.exe" /service (file missing)
O23 - Service: BitDefender Communicator (XCOMM) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Communicator\xcommsvr.exe" /service (file missing)
something wrong with bitdefender here--you should reinstall it.

[gerryf]

right click MY NETWORK PLACES, choose PROPERTIES, when the window opens, select LOCAL AREA CONNECTION, right click it, choose PROPERTIES.

What is listed here?

[seanca]

right click MY NETWORK PLACES, choose PROPERTIES, when the window opens, select LOCAL AREA CONNECTION, right click it, choose PROPERTIES.

What is listed here?

I am now back at my home, not the office where the PC is. I will be return to the office tomorrow morning and do as you have suggested. I will respond back to you then to let you know what PROPERTIES shows under LOCAL AREA CONNECTION.

Thank you for your diligence; I'll touch base tomorrow.

[seanca]

I am now back at my home, not the office where the PC is. I will be return to the office tomorrow morning and do as you have suggested. I will respond back to you then to let you know what PROPERTIES shows under LOCAL AREA CONNECTION.

Thank you for your diligence; I'll touch base tomorrow.

Gerry,
I followed your advice removing bitdefender, reinstalling it, as well as the other entries you specified from the hijackthis log. I am now back at the office and Right-clicked on the LOCAL AREA CONNECTION and the following dialog box appears:

Local Area Connection Properties
SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter

The following items have check marks:
Client for Microsoft Network
File & Printer Sharing for Microsoft Network
NetBEUI Protocol
Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

Please let me know if this information is of use. I've instructed the user to let me know how her computer operates in light of the other changes that were made. Thanks again.

[gerryf]

what other operating systems are on this network? Windows 98/me/95?

If these are all 2000/xp machines
NetBEUI Protocol

is not needed
You can uncheck it (you can reinstall later if needed)

Back to
O20 - Winlogon Notify: nwprovau - C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\nwprovau.dll

From what you have said, this is not needed---and it shouldn't be there. I would use hijack to clear it--if needed, you can use the backup/restore feature in hijack to restore it.

Next steps:

have you run a disk scan on this lately?
If not,
start > run
cmd
<enter>
in the box, type
chkdsk /f
<enter>
say yes to do at next boot
reboot


Then
defragmentation

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose MANAGE, go to defragment on the left side then run a defragmentation

[seanca]

what other operating systems are on this network? Windows 98/me/95?

If these are all 2000/xp machines
NetBEUI Protocol

is not needed
You can uncheck it (you can reinstall later if needed)

Back to
O20 - Winlogon Notify: nwprovau - C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\nwprovau.dll

From what you have said, this is not needed---and it shouldn't be there. I would use hijack to clear it--if needed, you can use the backup/restore feature in hijack to restore it.

Next steps:

have you run a disk scan on this lately?
If not,
start > run
cmd
<enter>
in the box, type
chkdsk /f
<enter>
say yes to do at next boot
reboot
Then
defragmentation

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose MANAGE, go to defragment on the left side then run a defragmentation

Thanks so much for all your help. It is really appreciated. So far, the PC seems to be running faster.