Exorcizing the demons from Win XP

[Bonehelm]

While Spy Sweeper is no doubt one of the best anti-spyware solutions, I find your comment regarding the system resource usage of the program an overstatement. I ran it on a budgeted AMD Sempron 2600+ and 512MB PC2100 ram and my system cut through it like butter.

[BorisG]

I have an old XP machine--Pentium IV, 512 Mb Ram, etc., and it seems to have accumulated a lot of crap recently. I'm trying to put off buying a new machine for another six months or so. Upon startup (yes, I do turn it off at times), and logging in, I get a half dozen or more of these "Program Tweak Interchange Packet Router Subroutine Module X7864ao has encountered a problem and needs to close" messages (that's not the actual message, just a sarcastic variation of a typical one!). Most of these programs are things I've never even heard of. I usually just say "whatever" and click OK, and nothing more ever seems to come of it.

Recently I got the blue screen of death, and supposedly it was Norton Antivirus that caused the problem. Lately however, I've been having a bit of trouble with this one thing called "Port Module Resolver" which pops up every ten minutes or so (has encountered a problem, blah, blah), driving me crazy .

Anyway, I hate Norton Antivirus and will replace it with a free program (probably Sophos) soon.

More to the point: I regularly run disk defragment and disk cleanup, but I'm wondering what more I can do, short of reformatting my hard drive (which I refuse to do!), to clean the crap out of my system. Are there any other utilities built in that I should be using? What about these programs I see that advertise: " Washes Windows!" Any recommendations?

Thanks,
XB

Some options for consideration.

'Puter hogs are things like Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, so get rid of them.

Use XP firewall and pop-up block. Use XP disc clean and defrag daily. Internet Options Security, set everything to default. Start-up with AVG only (Start, run, msconfig, startup, check AVG). Set Win updates to auto with whatever reservation you want.

Install Ad-Aware basic and AVG basic. Manually check for Ad-aware basic updates once a week. Set a time for AVG basic updates to do its thing.

Start, run ,chkdsk may solve some disc problems.

I would be wary of registry cleaners, and any costly fixers. If the 'puter is that screwed up, one is often better off putting that money into a new 'puter.

Happy travels.

[Holden]

Some options for consideration.

'Puter hogs are things like Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, so get rid of them.

Use XP firewall and pop-up block. Use XP disc clean and defrag daily. Internet Options Security, set everything to default. Start-up with AVG only (Start, run, msconfig, startup, check AVG). Set Win updates to auto with whatever reservation you want.

Install Ad-Aware basic and AVG basic. Manually check for Ad-aware basic updates once a week. Set a time for AVG basic updates to do its thing.

Start, run ,chkdsk may solve some disc problems.

I would be wary of registry cleaners, and any costly fixers. If the 'puter is that screwed up, one is often better off putting that money into a new 'puter.

Happy travels.

Agree about the computer hogs  but you need a decent AV and free is exactly what it says. NOD32 is one of the top two AVs and is very lite.

If you go for something like AVG you can set a schedule within the program without using the 'run msconfig' command which could cause more damage than any of the registry cleaners mentioned!

Defragging daily will not make any difference, in fact defragging doesn't really do that much for speed. It's your registry you have to get at and therefore you need to clean this regularly. I help other people 'clean' their PCs and can vouch for the fact that this works. If you're worried about it, just set a restore point before cleaning and you can go back top that if necessary.

From the sound of it you definitely need to run this  Choose the second option (2.1Mb)

If not use CCleaner but one scan of JV16's registry cleaner will solve a lot of your problems and you can then use CCleaner later on a daily basis. This is the combination that I use and it works well. CCleaner is very safe.

Finally, when you do scan your PC for nasties, do it in safe mode - it's far more effective.

So, in this order here is what you should do:

1 Set a restore point.  ALL PROGRAMs/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS SYSTEM RESTORE

2. Download a decent AV and install it. NOD32 2.7 is on free trial for a month so why not give it a go? www.eset.com Then update the virus signature via the Internet.

3 Reboot into safe mode (from the point of reboot Hold down the F8 key until then beeping stops, select 'safe mode' by using the up down arrows and select by pressing ENTER. Log on as Administrator or yourself if you have the admin rights.

4 Run your AV in full scan mode with automatic cleaning. (This could take a while.

5 Reboot, download CCleaner and JV16 Powertools 2007

6 Run JV16's registry cleaner - I use aggressive mode but normal should be OK if that worries you. It'll give you a health rating out of a 100 before you SELECT all files and press the FIX button.

7 Reboot

8 run CCleaner - you have two programs to run. Start with Cleaner and if you're worried about losing stored passwords then uncheck the 'cookies ' box' in both windows and other applications. However, all the other cookies will remain too and you don't want that. Choose run cleaner and don't be frightened if this takes a while and you end up with a Gig or two of stuff. Delete without back up. Then choose Issues/Scan for Issues and delete all files without backing up. Do this more than once until no further issues are found.

This should speed up your PC quite markedly.

I do this on a regular basis and have had no problems. If you do, then you can do a system restore.

Good luck

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks again everyone!

I downloaded and ran Grisoft AVG Antivirus (free version) last night. It found seven viruses / "threats"; it deleted four and quarantined a few others. I then went into Control Panel and sh*tcanned Norton. The error message that was driving me nuts ("Port Resolver Module has encountered a problem...") by popping up every few minutes has since disappeared.

However, I'm still having a bit of a  problem with my new external hard drive. I've successfully copied around 35 Gb of stuff to it, but the latest folder I tried to copy (about 7 Gb) has failed twice now at about the same point (about 30% of the way through). I get an error message saying the drive is screwed up, dead, etc. I can see my folders there, but when I click on them, there is nothing inside. BUT upon turning it off and on again, all the files reappear and seem fine. Given the other problems I had with my other USB devices (printer, scanner--both of which are fine now) I think there is something still screwed up with USB.

In any case, I'll get around to downloading and running JV-16, CCleaner, Ad-aware, and a couple of these other ones this weekend / early next week.

[M forever]

You may have an issue with conflicting USB speeds. Connecting an USB 1 and a USB 2 device often leads to problems. Your hard drive is new, so it is definitely USB 2, and typically, if you send files from a slower to a faster drive or connection, it's not a big problem. But it can be. It doesn't matter if it says all the files are there. The entry for the file is made in the drive's file allocation table as soon as it starts copying the files. You would have to mark everything and select properties to get the exact size of the target folder and compare it to the exact size of the source folder, to make sure all the files made it across completely.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks M. I wondered about that. All of my peripherals are USB 2 and my machine is USB 1; They all seem to work fine (albeit a bit slowly at times) except for the external HD.

I am looking for a new machine, but everywherer I look, vendors always insist on bundling a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other stuff with it. I don't want their damn monitor. Where can one find a good, reputable vendor who will just sell the tower, built to my specs???

[Mark]

Where can one find a good, reputable vendor who will just sell the tower, built to my specs???

Mesh Computers

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks Mark. I should have mentioned I live in Canada. There must be something equivalent here.

[M forever]

Thanks M. I wondered about that. All of my peripherals are USB 2 and my machine is USB 1; They all seem to work fine (albeit a bit slowly at times) except for the external HD.

Aha!!!

If that is a big problem now which can't wait until you buy the new machine, there are fairly inexpensive PCI cards which give you USB 2 connectivity without speed compatibility probs.