Computer Problem?

[pwdrive]

Originally it had Norton, I dumped that and installed AVG, I then dumped that....So no anti virus installed at that point, I let the PC run without any anti virus, no increase in speed, I then installed Avast, that's what the PC is running at the moment. As said earlier things improved after I did the msconfig stuff, don't ask me exactly what I did as I haven't got a clue.

Lawrence.

[Nick]

You say you were running AVG and Norton?
There will be conflicts if you run 2  anti virus programs.
As I said before, you will not clear AV programs by deleting them, you need to do a complete re-boot back to the bare op system.

I beg to differ - most modern AV systems uninstall perfectly well. Norton, IMHO, has always been problematic - actually, anything involving Symantec falls into that bracket - AVG uninstalls perfectly well so long as you do it properly, via Add/Remove Programs and re-boot if asked.

Having two AV systems can cause conflicts, but in recent years the effect has tended towards slowness rather than anything nastier.

There is rarely, if ever, a need to re-install the o/s or go back to the bare o/s - almost all issues are resolvable without that rather draconian approach.

In the 15 or so years I've been managing financial IT systems in London involving well over 1,000 PCs and many 100s of servers running Windows variants, there have been precious few times a clean install has been absolutely necessary - normally only due to a catastrophic hardware failure. Since XP, Windows has actually been pretty good, and most recognised applications reasonably well behaved.

Your experience may differ, but I can honestly say that I have never had to do a clean install on any system - its a very drastic measure.

[Skywave]

Post that was here has been deleted by me. It became irrelevant on account of cross-posting whilst it was in composition.

Al. / Feb. 5 //

[Geaney]

I offer the following suggestion purely on the basis that it happened to me and it's easy to check.  A few years ago I had a HP laptop that suddenly became so slow as to be unusable.  I keep my PC's in good shape so I figured this was either a malware infection or a hardware problem.   Since the PC was running too slow to troubleshoot for malware I decided on some very basic stuff.   I removed the battery and ran the PC direct for the charger.  The PC was instantly restored to it's former speed!  A new battery and all was well once again.   I don't know the details but the little monitoring circuit inside each battery can cause various problems including bringing the PC to a virtual halt.

Not all laptops will power up with the battery removed but luckily mine did.  It takes no time to check and might help out.

Cheers,   John