Computer s-l-o-w loading programs.

[BarrieNoodles]

MY Vista OS has slowed down and it takes ages to load a program. I have 4Mb of Ram and only 67% is being used (max) but there must be program running in the background that I can't find. I thought it was a defrag program so I uninstalled it but the problem was not solved. How could I see what programs are loading during boot up. I remember doing it in DOS but can't remember how. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mgorman87]

Type MSCONFIG in the start search bar and hit enter. Go over to the startup tab at the top and it will show you what is loaded at startup. You can also go to the general tab and choose selective startup and uncheck load startup items so it only loads system services and reboot and see if the slow down still continues.

 

[Commodore Pet]

If you haven't already, remember to run a malware protection scan using a product such as Superantispyware. Malware has been know to slow a machine down to a crawl. Also run an antivirus scan just in case.

 

[BarrieNoodles]

How do I choose selective startup?

 

[mgorman87]

Run MSCONFIG and make it look like the screenshot below and then hit apply
View attachment 146736

 

[BarrieNoodles]

Good call Commodore Pet, Superantispyware found PUP.Whitesmoke and I'm still working on getting rid of it. I run AVG9 Internet Security but it did not pick it up. I don't have a clue how Whitesmoke got loaded on my computer but it's an sob to get rid of. Thanks.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

AVG won't help with this particular virus. Whitesmoke is suspected of being associated with RootKits - you need to run the TDSS Root Kit remover in the first instance:

How to remove malware belonging to the family Rootkit.Win32.TDSS (aka Tidserv, TDSServ, Alureon)?

Post the results of the run here once it has been completed.

Next, download, install, update and run Malwarebytes. Post the reuslts here too.

Have you downloaded any translation/writing software recently? There are reports that Whitesmoke has been attached to this type of software recently.

Regards,
Golden

 

[BarrieNoodles]

TDSSKiller.exe

Ran the Rootkit file and it only found;
"Suspicious Object"
Locked File
ServiceName: SPTD
Service Type: Kernel Driver (0x1)
Service Start: Boot(0x0)
File: C:\windows\system\drivers\sptd.sys

I have been checking out sptd.sys and it does not seem to be a malware, I think.

I deleted Whitesmoke and ran Malwarebytes in safe mode and it found and cured some malware. The computer still seems a bit slow loading programs. Now that I ran TDSSKiller.exe I am running Malwarebytes again in safe mode. Will let you know results.

Thank you

 

[mgorman87]

Ran the Rootkit file and it only found;
"Suspicious Object"
Locked File
ServiceName: SPTD
Service Type: Kernel Driver (0x1)
Service Start: Boot(0x0)
File: C:\windows\system\drivers\sptd.sys

I have been checking out sptd.sys and it does not seem to be a malware, I think.

I deleted Whitesmoke and ran Malwarebytes in safe mode and it found and cured some malware. The computer still seems a bit slow loading programs. Now that I ran TDSSKiller.exe I am running Malwarebytes again in safe mode. Will let you know results.

Thank you

SPTD is related to Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%. I would recommend removing Deamon Tools/Alcohol because it is a well known BSOD maker in Windows 7. You can use the tool found here to help with the removal process

 

[BarrieNoodles]

Malwarebytes did not find any more problems but the computer still takes it's time loading programs. It took about 2 minutes to load PeretoLogic PCHealth, Internet Explorer 9 the same thing it takes ages to load and then it runs fine. The site you gave me to delete SPTD actually installs a version of it, or am I reading it wrong. Let me know.
Thank you.

 

[mgorman87]

Malwarebytes did not find any more problems but the computer still takes it's time loading programs. It took about 2 minutes to load PeretoLogic PCHealth, Internet Explorer 9 the same thing it takes ages to load and then it runs fine. The site you gave me to delete SPTD actually installs a version of it, or am I reading it wrong. Let me know.
Thank you.

You want to chose the option to uninstall it when you run the program

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Good job of cleaning the malware. You might want to try free Soluto to get an accurate picture of what is laoding and how long each item takes. Watch the demo video on the site to see how it works. I found Soluto to be very useful to map out the boot and startup picture.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Commodore Pet]

I would run both Superantispyware as well as Malwarebytes. Sometimes one will find something that the other will miss.

The big question is, what damage was done while you were infected. I am looking into it to see if that is why you still have delays and if we can fix it. If you find any other forms of infection, let us know.

 

[Commodore Pet]

From what I have read. This pup.whitesmoke is very difficult to get rid of. People think they have removed it and they haven't. You may want to try running an online virus scan such as the one from ESET - Free ESET Online Antivirus Scanner because the anti-virus program you have installed on your machine could be compromised. Again, let us know if you find anything.

 

[BarrieNoodles]

I have run both Superantispyware as well as Malwarebytes several times and they did not find anything. I am running SOPHOS Anti-Rootkit right now, it looks like it will take most of the night to finish but up to now it has not found any hidden files that it recommends to "Clean up", I did not realize how many hidden files there are so far Sophos has found about 60. Will try ESET and let you know the results.

Thanks

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Malwarebytes rarely misses stuff, so I don't think ESET will find anything more. Try the Soluto software to see what is loading during bootup : not all large/long boot times are due to malware.

If it is malware related, you need to tackle it BEFORE Windows startup : the way to do that is through a bootable rescue disk, but lets see what Soluto finds first before we go down that route.

Regards,
Golden

 

[BarrieNoodles]

Ran Soluto and nothing new found. I wonder if it's AVG 9, I think it had an update not long ago. I read that people were having problems with AVG 2011. I'll just live with the problem for now, I just have to boot the computer more often and it seems to work fine. I have to do a pile of tax returns between now and the end of the month so don't really have time to spend on de-bugging. My Excel 2007 and my tax program are running OK so I can get the work done. Thank you for all the help and will chat later.

Thank you again

 

[Vertex]

Having a malware removed doesn't mean that the problem is solved immediately especially if they still left behind things in the Registry. You could try CCleaner's Registry cleaner to clean some but of course there's always some risk on using Registry cleaners so do a system restore point or a backup.

You can also try doing computer maintenance tasks like disk cleanup, disk defrag and diskcheck. Or perhaps, try cleaning the inside of the computer. Dust is a killer and can slow down the machine.

 

[Golden]

Ran Soluto and nothing new found

Hi,

Soluto doesn't "find anything" - its not an anti-malware program. Its sole function is to capture what loads at bootup, and how long each item takes. The intention is to show you what contributes to the total boot time, to help you troubleshoot your startup times.

If you get the time, load a screen capture of the image Soluto produces, and we can help you decipher it.

Regards,
Golden

 

[BarrieNoodles]

Thanks Commodore Pet, I ran ESET Online Antivirus Scanner and it found 34 spyware. I only have the name of two "a variant of Win32/slowPcFighter and Win32/Toolbar" it took over 6 hours so I let it run at night and in the morning it was completed but only told me that it corrected 34 errors. Still pretty good scan since the other spyware did not pick them up.