Computer Issues-Need Advice

[Makiru]

I need some advice from the Playground with regards to my computer. I've had it for about five years now, and it's been generally good throughout. The entire time, I've had McAfee, but it hasn't always done the job and I've gotten Avast to supplement it. Recently, my computer has gotten randomly slower and locking up for minutes at a time. Just getting to this point in the post has taken nearly ten minutes.

I think that this may have something to do with McAfee eating up all my ram. So, the question is if Avast is good enough to stand on its own, or might this be another issue?

[AlterForm]

Are you running Avast and McAfee at the same time? That's probably your problem. Antivirus programs don't play nice with each other.

[Makiru]

Yes, but it's never been as bad as it is now. Which one do you recommend I hold onto, and why?

[Eldonauran]

I run Spybot Search and Destroy and the AVG free version. Keeps my system nice and clean.

[factotum]

Yes, but it's never been as bad as it is now. Which one do you recommend I hold onto, and why?

I don't have either personally, but every test I've seen shows Avast performing better than McAfee at actually finding and blocking viruses--so I'd stick with Avast.

[OracleofWuffing]

Go ahead and check if McAfee or Avast have been keeping logs of all their scan results, and if so, you'll probably want to clear them out. That usually isn't a problem unless you're running on FAT32, but it's not going to hurt otherwise.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to run a memory test and a hard drive test, just to make sure your internals aren't failing you. I'd grab an Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html), that's got everything you should need. Just to make sure things are clear, make sure you write the image to a CD-R, don't copy the iso file itself to a disk.

Boot off the UBCD and run Memtest86+, it'll run through all 8 of its tests as soon as it starts up (and then loop through them again repeatedly). Press Esc once it's done all 8 tests, and assuming no errors came up, you'll want to boot a Hard Drive Diagnosis tool. If you know what brand of hard drive you've got, run the corresponding program. Otherwise, try running SeaTools for DOS 2.2, DLG Diagnostic, Drive Fitness Test, then SHDiag in that order until one of those recognizes your drive. If there are startup options, just go with the default values. Regardless, you'll want to do an "Extended", "Full", "Advanced", or "Complete" test using those tools. They'll tell you if there's a surface error on the drive.

If all of that comes up good, you'll probably want to scan for malware on your computer in Safe Mode (I prefer Safe Mode With Networking, so I can get any additional tools I need from the internet). Press down F8 as soon as you turn on computer, you'll get options on what to boot to. If you are unable to scan using McAfee or Avast, you could use something like Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) or SUPER AntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html). Feel free to use other known-good programs, some people like running the Windows Live Safety Scanner (http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm) because it removes invalid registry entries. TrendMicro (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/?cm_re=Threatbox-_-Consumer-_-HouseCall71) has a free online scanner, as does Panda Security (http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/), though I know Panda likes to use the latter as part of a bait-and-switch to get you into buying their product, so be wary on what you click on there.

Aaaaand just for the record here, mind telling us how much RAM your computer has?

[ThePhantasm]

Get rid of McAffee and keep Avast. Two virus programs together will make your computer super slow. The idea mentioned above about having Avast and Spybot was a good one; that's what I've done.

[junglesteve]

I havent used an anti virus since 2002, if something ever happens I usually just cleanse it with fire and reformat. Or get lazy and just do another windows install over-top the current.

[Makiru]

Actually, having shut down my computer for a few hours, it seems to be running fairly smoothly now, but I won't be renewing McAfee when that comes around Dec/Jan.

Also, I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to clear my logs for McAfee. It has records back to May and it would be nice to get rid of those.

[factotum]

I havent used an anti virus since 2002, if something ever happens I usually just cleanse it with fire and reformat. Or get lazy and just do another windows install over-top the current.

And how do you know that your machine isn't, right now, being used as Slave #34812 in a spam botnet? Not all viruses do obvious things to your machine...