Windows 7: Windows 7 Slowdown

Sorry, I had the wrong tute in my notepad memory. Corrected now

A Guy

Cheemag,

There are many reasons why a PC " behaves" this way.

These annoying " gliches" may be caused by an overloaded hard drive, overworked CPU, Malware, running 2 AV 's, unnecessary data, Browser addons or you may have unnecessary programs running in the background etc....

*Current accepted wisdom with Win 7 is to NOT use a cleaner.

If you ever think your Registry needs to be cleaned, repaired, boosted, tuned-up, cured, tweaked, fixed, or optimized it shouldn't.

In other words, injudicious use of "Registry cleaners" CAN & DOES cause problems.

* Did your computer come preloaded with Anti Virus Software?
If so what was it & how did you remove it?

* Please list ALL of your Current Security software.

* Have you checked in Event Viewer?
Type eventvwr in search.
Go to the Windows Logs > Application / System > in the left hand column.
Note anything in red that relates to the problem.
Please record the event ID, and the Source Code and research Google for answers.

* Some further reading for you...

Use Advanced Tools to Troubleshoot Performance Problems in Windows 7 - How-To Geek

Cheemag,
Let's go at things one at a time.

First, let's rule out some evil malware.

Essential here is run an "offline" malware removal tool.

Please run Windows Defender Offline, WDO. Link in my signature.

Please use that link and not some other, as that link goes directly to a microsoft site to help you with WDO.

I recommend installing to a USB instead of a DVD. Both are explained there.

When you run WDO, the WDO will automatically perform a quick scan.

When the quick scan finishes, then run a full scan over all of your drives. A full scan is not quick but is very thorough.

If WDO doesn't solve your problem, then let us know and we will go to step 2.

I would like to say that I have a magic wand to wave. Instead, we simply keep working thru a procedure until one or more steps solves your problem.

The hard drive has over 900 defragged GB free, so it isn't that.

I've checked the CPU load when this happens, there is nothing hogging it.

Only Avast! running.

About 6 browser addons in Firefox 12.

As far as I know, there are no more background processes active than there were before this problem became evident.

Quote:

*Current accepted wisdom with Win 7 is to NOT use a cleaner.

If you ever think your Registry needs to be cleaned, repaired, boosted, tuned-up, cured, tweaked, fixed, or optimized it shouldn't.

Someone suggested using: cleanmgr/sageset:1

Quote:

* Did your computer come preloaded with Anti Virus Software?
If so what was it & how did you remove it?

No. I put Avast! on myself.

[QUOTE]

* Please list ALL of your Current Security software.[/UNQUOTE]

Avast! antivirus

Malwarebytes Pro

Windows Defender is also running. I didn't ask for it - perhaps there is a conflict here ?

UAC is off.

Quote:

* Have you checked in Event Viewer?

All that there is refers to this:

"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

Quote:

* Some further reading for you...

Use Advanced Tools to Troubleshoot Performance Problems in Windows 7 - How-To Geek

Thanks. I'll see how it goes with Windows Defender switched off.

If you haven't already done this, you can set up exclusions for Avast and MBAM to make sure you don't have a conflict with these on your PC.

Here is an MBAM forum link with instructions
FAQ - Common Issues, Questions, and their Solutions - Malwarebytes Forum

The instructions are for Avast 6, but i expect Avast 7 is similar...

Try swapping out Avast for Microsoft Security Essentials which of the two is gradually pulling ahead in favor here, and because this sometimes solves problems.

If you haven't already established a Clean boot then do that now, and other steps given here to Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

Then work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

I concur!

Suggest you remove Avast via
http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear5.exe

Download Microsoft Security Essentials via link provided above.

+1!

[QUOTE=karlsnooks;1908047]Advice noted, but the problem hasn't recurred since I deactivated Windows Defender, which I suspect was interacting with either MWB or Avast! We'll give it another few days before making more drastic changes. However I will download MSE and run it offline.

Thanks again.

MSE does not run offline.

Your main problem is caused by AVAST not playing correctly with Win 7 which includes Window Defender.