how can I save/restore my laptop...?

ergo

Ok, so last week I started to have 2 problems with my 5 year old HP COmpaq Presario Pentium 4.

It seemed to have a virus (despite McAfee) and I ignored all the pop ups including, presumably some legitimate ones telling me I needed to free up some space. I did a virus scan and it found something and said I needed to restart computer to remove it. Since then the machine has been ultra slooooow. I mean seriously slow. On saturday I managed to get into task manager which told me CPU was running at 100% and then went to try and delete files via control panel and it seemed that 29GB out of 30 gb were being used (now I haven't downloaded anything or installed anything myself recently but possibly temorary internet files etc pushed it right up). But even the process of scanning the computer to find suitable files to delete/compress took, well 10 hours (overight) and then compressing the files was going on for another 24 hours. The files had not been compressed completely by last night and then the machine spontanousy restarted.

Now, today after starting up it is still ultra slow, takes 10 mins for the windows login user prompt to come up and 3 hours so far to load up into windows. (I can see my wallpaper and desktop icons but can't actually do anything) I can't click on anything to try and delete files cos the egg-timer just comes up when I hover over "start"

is there any short cut out of this?

I'm pressing ctrl alt dlt and not even getting the task manager up (unless it's going to do a delayed reaction thing and op up in about 5 hours)

I really need the use of my computer this week for work and obviously wan't to make sure I can access some of the non-backed up files on there currently too

any solutions?

I know I'm a fool for letting the machine get so full (hopefully it's just that and not the added in effects of a virus)

majiktripp

Goto Safe Mode by pressing F8 when the laptop is booting up, and from the menu displayed choose "Safe Mode with Networking" by using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard.
Download Crap Cleaner
http://www.filehippo.com/download/file/db066995b1fb688627ba639411b389c3958f8a8b5c3426253d9e1aab1267e45b/
And installed and run it (right click on recycle bin once its instaled and select run crap cleaner)
Hopefully this should free up some space for temp files that windows needs.
Also I recommend downloading Dr. Web free antivirus scan and giving it a full run through on your laptop to remove all the nasties.
Get that here ftp://ftp.drweb.com/pub/drweb/cureit/cureit.exeHopefully that should sort your machine out a bit to allow some regular use.

ergo

thanks for that advice

am in safe mode now, still painfully slow but not quite as bad as before

is crap cleaner a lot better than the "control panel" option of removing/compressing unnecessary files?

am asking because at this pace I think it would take a long long time to install and run crap cleaner but I'll do whatever it takes

majiktripp

Crap Cleaner deletes all tempory accumulated files from the internet and installations of other programs, which can add up to a few hundred megabytes or even gigabytes of rubbish files.
I just want you to run crap cleaner to free up as much (hopefully a lot) of hard drive space so that you can boot back into normal mode and continue manually uninstalling programs from there.
I would also suggest clicking Start - > Run -> Typing in msconfig -> and unticking all the boxes of the unnecessary programs that are starting up,again this will help hopefully speed the laptop up.

Gadgetman496

ergo wrote: »

3 hours so far to load up into windows.

You'd play 2 LP's on a wind up gramophone faster then that!

You would be as well to restore it to its purchased state.

Most HP machines come with a restore folder/partition which can be activated at startup by one of the "F" keys. It may be F11.

This will rebuild the machine to its original state but make sure you have nothing of great value onboard because it will wipe everything first.

If it hasn't got the restore feature it should have been supplied with the OS on disc.

Either way I'd suggest it's "Wipe time"

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ergo

thanks a million for the advice

in safe mode I can at least do some things, it remains painfully slow however. I ran crap cleaner, it hasn't made a massive difference as yet, tried logging back in in non safe mode earlier but again it was very slow and then a box popped up saying it had to restart

I have quite a bit of work related stuff and personal non-backed up photos that I'd need to retrieve before thinking of a system restore

for the moment am deleting as much of the music I've ripped onto the computer, it's taking a long time but if I can clear 10GB of the roughly 20GB that's there hopefully that should make the difference

even in safe mode it's really really slow and it's taking hours when I click on contro panel for that to come up (I haven't managed to get into the control panel at all, it's taking so long)

I am planning to get a new laptop in the next few months anyway but not this week and need mine this week! Will keep ye updated

ergo

me again,

Ok, so I deleted some music, maybe 150 albums, not yet able to uninstall programs

tried logging in to Windows in normal mode today


first I got a box popping up saying "An application compopnent is missing . Please re-install McAfee Privacy Servie. Eroor code (7.1.002)"

then a box popped up saying "This system is shutting down. Please save all data..etc. Shutdown initiated by NT Authority/system"
and then further info
"The system process C:/windows/system32/lsass.exe terminated unexpectedly" and gave an error code which I didn't have time to write down cos the whole thing shut down after 59 seconds

any further suggestions? Am going to go back into safe mode to see can I do anything else to solve this

majiktripp

Go into safe mode and remove that McAfee muck off your machine, the Isass.exe error could be related to a virus as it was something to do with the blast virus or something similar, the countdown can be bypassed by opening command prompt (Start->Run->type "cmd")
Then typing "shutdown.exe -a" which aborts the timer.
There is also the possibility that the laptops hard drive is starting to fail and thats why theres the immense slow down.

azezil

Just going to the run command and typing shutdown -a will do the same thing, no need to go into cmd and all that other jazz

Sounds like you've got the sasser virus, download and run this tool: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-050114-1706-99

As already suggested: click start - run and type msconfig, click on the startup tab click "disable all", then click on the services tab, click the box "Hide all Microsoft services" then click "disable all". Click apply, restart yes.

Remove McAfee its clearly not working and install AVG free.

Run a defrag on the system also (start - programs - accessories - system tools - disk defragmenter)

Gadgetman496

I'd have to agree, dump the McAfee crap but only do it using their removal tool. Use another machine to download it from here & run it on yours.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/McAfee_Consumer_Product_Removal_Tool_d5420.html

With the pain you've been experiencing with the slowness? is there any particular reason you are avoiding a wipe & reinstall?

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ergo

gadgetman496 wrote: »

With the pain you've been experiencing with the slowness? is there any particular reason you are avoiding a wipe & reinstall?

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I have at least a GB or 2 of irreplaceable stuff like photos from my digital camera, presentations from work and a thesis and all the stuff that comes with that that I'd need to back up before wiping and reinstall. And also some legally downloaded music and some live rarities (in .flac format) that would take forever to back up. I transferred about 300MB of it onto a USB key earlier and it took a couple of hours

also, it is 5 years old and it was due to be replaced shortly anyway. And I have temporary access to another computer (the one I'm on right now) in the meantime.

also I'm not 100% sure of the location of the original windows discs etc that i may need for a reinstall (they may be somewhere in my parents' house)

as it stands am running the Symantec sasser worm fix tool. It's taken 3 hours so far... After that will go with the other above suggestions and see what happens

again , thanks a million for all the suggestions

majiktripp

It sounds more and more like the hard drive itself is becoming defective or is starting to fail from the length of time its taking for you to do anything. You could just remove the hard drive and use an adapter to hook it up to a regular desktop machine and just transfer the files you want off that way, might save a lot of time. Just another idea.

ergo

majiktripp wrote: »

It sounds more and more like the hard drive itself is becoming defective or is starting to fail from the length of time its taking for you to do anything.

I think this is looking the most likely scenario right now

it took 8 hours to run the Sasser tool and then no worm or virus was found. I changed msconfig as advised but it hasn't made any difference. my main aim now is to salvage what I can off the hard drive in the event the whole thing completely packs up. I have retrieved most of what i absolutely need but can wait a while to take the rest. As I said I had been planning to get a new laptop in early december anyway and after 5 years this machine owes me nothing

when i do manage to clear the hard drive I'll try out a complete wipe and restore: will let ye know if that helps

thanks again!