Slow & locking up

[BLSAMPLES]

I need help. First of all I do want to thank you guys for all your help already. I have learned so much from this site. I still have a problem though. Over the last month or so my computer has become progressively slower. i can't think of anything I have changed. I ran the ccleaner, disk cleaner, disk defrag, Super Antispyware, anti malware, Spybot, & Win patrol (all showed nothing) I then ran msconfig and found 60 programs running. I tried to stop the ones I "thought" I didn't need, but then my internet didn't work. How do I know which of these programs I don't need as this seems like a lot to be running? Also, I did the control+alt+del and there are 4 iexplore.exe under process and my system is running at 96,000 and 12 svchost.exe. Any suggestions on what I need to change. Thanks

[budz]

try using trendmicro's free online virus scanner. set it to custom scan then check off all your drives/folders.

[lowellriggsiam]

It may be helpful for you to load your pc's task manager and see if your pcs resources are the cause and what programs are using them up.

[HotDamn!]

ccleaner will also show you what startup programs you have and those may slow your PC's performance down. Be sure you have the right things check marked in ccleaner to clear everything that you don't need.

I wouldn't go through stopping programs, that could cause a problem if you stop something you need. Try what you can to find some malware or spyware such as using different scanners or doing what was suggested above.

[sum_guy]

I've had excellent success with malwarebytes. Free version at www.malwarebytes.org

Good luck!

[usually_quiet]

If other suggestions don't help, maybe more RAM is needed. Your profile says 512 MB of RAM.

I recently did a memory upgrade to my sister's computer for that reason. In her case, just running Windows XP MCE, the all-in-one printer software, antivirus, firewall and a resident anti-malware program took up almost 400 MB.

[HotDamn!]

If other suggestions don't help, maybe more RAM is needed. Your profile says 512 MB of RAM.

I recently did a memory upgrade to my sister's computer for that reason. In her case, just running Windows XP MCE, the all-in-one printer software, antivirus, firewall and a resident anti-malware program took up almost 400 MB.

Good eye I would recommend I bit more RAM depending on what you do with your PC.

Press "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" go to the "Processes" tab and click "Mem Usage" twice to show the highest amount to lowest amount and press "Print Screen" (on the keyboard) then open Paint and under "edit" click "paste" and then go to "file" "save as" and for the save as type, drop the box down and just save it as a "PNG file" then upload it here so we can take a look.

I also have an old PC that my mom uses for her Facebook it has 512MB of RAM and it has XP Pro 32bit and uses Avira for an AV and still does ok but she doesn't have any other startup programs or anything running in the background to slow it down too much.

[freebird73717]

Your profile also shows a 40 gig hard drive. If this is an older drive it could be failing. Does the drive make any clicking noises or get really hot? If so replace that drive asap.