Slower than before - suggestions

[osaddict]

Ok, I fear I may be flamed as newbie or muppet for asking this kinda question, but hey, I will anyway.

I have:


Cleaned out as much hdd space as I can
Removed programs I no longer use or want
Cleaned up the desktop
Kill programs which run in the background but do not need to (i.e. adobe thing that pops up when ever you put in a cf card)
Ran spybot, adaware, zone alarm internet security suite and housecall


And my pc is still way slower than it has been in previous months :(

(It's an old pc - it's never gonna be blisteringly fast - but it was far quicker a few months ago)

Anything else I can tweak / optimise / do besides an xp reinstall and or buy a new machine!??

(Some people have suggested registry cleaners, however, my more knowledgeable IT friends I have said these can be far more trouble than they are worth - and that I should steer clear)

[mtrox]

Ya know I've used the free ZA firewall since Gates was a boy. But I've seen that ZA I Security Suite thing make as many problems as Norton's version. Is that new oss? IMHO that could have gummed you up as much as the stuff its supposed to combat.

[edcentric]

Spybot and Adaware only run when you tell them to.
ZA runns all of the time. For newer machines this isn't a big deal, but it may be for yours.
Uninstall ZA.
You did defrag, right?
Run a Hijack This log and post it to the SVT forum. You may still have some unwanted stuff lurking.

[osaddict]

Yup, I did try defragging, however, for some reason i never seem to see a difference when I defrag! (Yeah, I've tried some O&O software and Diskkeeper or what ever its called)

ZA does seem to hog a fair amount of system resources, however, I have other users using the pc so quite like the whole real time aspect of it re viruses and spyware etc.

I shall post a HJT thread when I get home, never done one of those, so it might turn up some interesting information!!

(I should get be unlimited tonight - www.bethere.co.uk- up to 24mb broadband :D - clearly i wont get 24mb as i dont have a flat above the exchange, but it should be a speed increase :D - hence why I am keen to speed up my pc to match!)

[osaddict]

for the record - someone also mentioned this

http://www.ccleaner.com/

but yet again, despite 45million downloads, and freeware, I am still sceptical that it could bugger things up -

what opinion do you guys have on this tool?

[primesuspect]

i use ccleaner all the time. It's safe. It doesn't really get rid of things that slow your computer down, however. It's more a tool for freeing up wasted disk space.

I'd be curious to see your HJT log.

ZA might be your entire problem.

[osaddict]

Thanks prime suspect, that makes me feel more comfortable with the ccleaner, perhaps ill try that after the hjt.

I'd be curious to see my hjt thread too lol, not that I think ill understand that much of it.

I've had ZA for quite some time - as far as I am aware the build hasn't changed significantly - they prompt you to download a new install when theres a major change.

[Paulfcb]

My PC has been running slow of late. I also have recently installed ZA. Now I've shut it down and switched back to Windows firewall everything has sped up again! So does this mean I can't run ZA on this machine? It's a few years old.

[mtrox]

...does this mean I can't run ZA on this machine? It's a few years old.

When you say "ZA" do you mean just the ZA firewall or the whole Internet Security Suite? I haven't seen the ZA firewall tax a computer that badly. But I've seen their new "hodgepodge" of processes they call a "suite" put a good load on a computer.

[Paulfcb]

When you say "ZA" do you mean just the ZA firewall or the whole Internet Security Suite? I haven't seen the ZA firewall tax a computer that badly. But I've seen their new "hodgepodge" of processes they call a "suite" put a good load on a computer.
I'm talking about only the ZA firewall.

[osaddict]

I have the suite...

Still need to do that hjt post... think that will have to wait till tomorrow now

[Pterocarpous]

for the record - someone also mentioned this
http://www.ccleaner.com/
but yet again, despite 45million downloads, and freeware, I am still sceptical that it could bugger things up -
what opinion do you guys have on this tool?
Terrific little utility. I use it all the time, too.

If you're lookin' for a firewall that is not resource hungry, try Comodo Personal Firewall (http://www.comodogroup.com/). It's fully functional freeware. I threw the towel in on ZA, NIS, NPF, McAfee, etc. a long time ago. Comodo's got 'em all beat hands down. It runs lean and it's effective.