[Daredash]

My Acer Aspire 3050 is apparently too old to even purchase any recovery solutions! But I don't want this machine to be a waist. It is extremely slow, but probably does not have a virus, because I run AVG. My physical memory indicator is always at 80% or more, with CPU only at about 10%, and around 50 processes. It's booting time is no less than 5 minutes, and I already tried lots of tweaks for Vista. I decreased and increased the paging file - nothing changes. I need a fresh start. Please help? Thank you.

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Hello DareDash.... Welcome to
GeeksToGo,


I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.

• Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time.
• Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been
  more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly
  then.
• Please do the following and supply the requested information as needed. If you
  don't understand my instructions please ask and I will try to explain them
  clearer for you.
• Do not attempt any steps unless instructed or ask before to
  make sure they will not cause any further issues.

It is extremely slow, but probably does not have a virus, because I run AVG

This is a foolish way to think as no AV is going to stop 100% of the virus' out there.
Though I do not feel that is your issue you might be careful thinking this.
Lets take a look at few things and see if we can resolve this without having to do a reinstallation at this time.


Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply




Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.








Download Speedfan (The download link is to the right), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
To make sure we are getting all the correct information it would help us if you were to attach a screenshot like the one below of your Speedfan results.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard.

• It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
• Now go to Start and then to All Programs
• Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
• In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
• Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
• Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop
• Attach it to your next reply

[rshaffer61]

Hello DareDash.... Welcome to
GeeksToGo,


I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.

• Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time.
• Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been
  more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly
  then.
• Please do the following and supply the requested information as needed. If you
  don't understand my instructions please ask and I will try to explain them
  clearer for you.
• Do not attempt any steps unless instructed or ask before to
  make sure they will not cause any further issues.

It is extremely slow, but probably does not have a virus, because I run AVG

This is a foolish way to think as no AV is going to stop 100% of the virus' out there.
Though I do not feel that is your issue you might be careful thinking this.
Lets take a look at few things and see if we can resolve this without having to do a reinstallation at this time.


Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply




Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.








Download Speedfan (The download link is to the right), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
To make sure we are getting all the correct information it would help us if you were to attach a screenshot like the one below of your Speedfan results.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard.

• It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
• Now go to Start and then to All Programs
• Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
• In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
• Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
• Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop
• Attach it to your next reply

[Daredash]

Hi rshaffer61!

Thank you for your reply.

I have been trying to follow your instructions, but got only as far as making a screen shot from the compmgmt.msc command which is attached (hopefully). I can't get to internet on my sick machine, it got even slower and barely breathes. I have another perfectly working computer, can I do anything with that?

Any further input would be greatly appreciated!

Daredash

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[rshaffer61]

Use the system you are replying here with to download the Autoruns program. Copy it to a flash drive if you have one and then copy it to the problem system.
If no flash drive use a rewritable cd.
Looking at your screenshot you may have a recovery partition on your system to format and do a fresh install of your system.
Try this and see if it will work.




Acer:
Hard Disk Recovery
should be enabled by default. If it is not, you may need to go into your system’s BIOS by hitting F2 at boot and enable it under the Advanced tab.

Once Hard Disk Recovery is enabled, restart the system and hit ALT+F10. This will begin the system recovery process. You will be prompted to type six zeros as a security step. Type 000000 to proceed.

[Daredash]

Hello there!

Since my last reply, I managed to get the sick machine to work, and I am including autorun with speedfan files. As for the Hard drive recovery, I've tried that earlier today, and there is no Advanced tab.

Thanks!

Til later,
Daredash

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.txt   24.51KB   94 downloads

[Daredash]

In fact, the only tabs I have on F2 are Information (CPU type and speed, and manufacturing info), Main (System's time and date, memory, D2D recovery - all enabled), Security (Password-related where the only thing disabled is the Password on boot, because I don't have one), Boot (priority order) and Exit. That's all.

[rshaffer61]

OK it looks like the D2D recovery is the recovery partition.
Did you try the second set of instructions below?

Once Hard Disk Recovery is enabled, restart the system and hit ALT+F10. This will begin the system recovery process. You will be prompted to type six zeros as a security step. Type 000000 to proceed.

[Daredash]

Yes, so it beeps and bring another black screen with the following:
Edit Windows boot options for : Microsoft Windows Vista

Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Partition: 2
Hard disk: a0736d92

[ /Maxmem=268435456 /NONEXECUTE=OPTIN /NOGUIBOOT /BOOTLOGO

I can only manipulate the last line of this, or Submit, or Cancel. I tried the last two, and they bring me to the same result: normally restarting Windows.

[Daredash]

My response above was after I tried your suggestion with ALT+10.

[rshaffer61]

OK then we need to look in another direction since you have no recovery partition.
Lets see what you have in your startup

Please click on
Start and then to Run
Type in msconfig and press Enter
Now click on Startups
Then uncheck everything and restart.
IMPORTANT! In case of laptop, make sure, you do NOT disable any keyboard, or touchpad entries.
If system boots correctly and is running smoothly and faster then we have a startup problem
Try going back into msconfig and check one item and reboot
Keep doing that till you have found the problem or all are finally checked.
Post back with the results

[Daredash]

Sorry for the delay, it took me THAT long to perform this simple operation. Anyhow, nothing changed in the speeds of startup, performance and shutdown. I am attaching the screen shot of my startup programs, because it seems strangely unpopulated compared to my other computers. Any possible relation to my problem?

Thank you!
Daredash

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[rshaffer61]

OK the only ones you need to have checked are

• AVG
• Microsoft Windows
• Windows Defender

Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop

• Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
• It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
• Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
• Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.

Download Auslogics Defrag from the link in my signature below. Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:

It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged
Please do not run any other Auslogics programs other then this one as they may cause unwanted results.

[Daredash]

Hello there!

I ran the Auslogics Defragmenter, and it seems like there was a lot to fix. I didn't notice difference in my computer, though. It does not freeze after each click like earlier in the day, but it is still slow as [bleep]. Sorry to be such pain in the butt! I probably just have something fundamentally wrong with it and a re-installing option would be great, but, alas...

Many thanks!
Daredash

[rshaffer61]

What about TFC?

[Daredash]

Oops, forgot to mention TFC in my email last night - yes, I did that before the Auslogics. It ran through, and after it said it was completed, I rebooted.