Virus or Hardware problem? 2

[jazzman111]

Recently my PC has developed some problems. I'm running Windows XP and use Foxfire 3.0 as my browser. I also use Vipre as my anti-virus program. A few weeks ago, I began to notice my performance when loading programs, and even features like mail in Foxfire, was slowing down considerably. It also takes seemingly forever for the computer to boot up. So I ran the "Remove Programs" program and deleted a number of those I didn't use any more. I also ran the defrag program. I checked the history on my Vipre program and found it was scanning daily, as I had scheduled it. It reported no viruses that it had not been able to eliminate.

Recently, I uncharacteristically left my PC on over night. (I usually religiously go through the prescribed shut-down process.) Since then, if the PC is idle for an hour or so, I find that a large, dark, rectangle shape appears in the middle of the screen--and the bottom tray that normally shows the "Start" icon on the left and other programs' icons on the right--is no longer visible.

Sorry for the long-winded description, but here's my question: does it sound like I have a virus problem here? A hardware problem? Both?

 

[jazzman111]

Thanks for that tip. I'm making a note to explore Google to find more pointers on using Vista to its full advantage.

 

[kjv1611]

Oh yeah, I meant to mention there are a couple of "tweak" programs made just for Vista.

One that I found I liked was TweakVI by TotalIdea. They have tweak programs for each version of Windows, and some others:

http://www.totalidea.com/

At least the TweakVI is free, though does have a "pro" version as well.

Also, Advanced System Care by IOBit has some system tweaking built in besides scanning for temp files, etc.

http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?tag=mncol

Of course, as with anything else, be wary of stuff you just Google on the web. Some is good, some bad, and some indifferent. You can very easily land on a malware-laden website from just Googling.

With that in mind, it wouldn't be a bad idea to test around with running a Virtual Machine or "sandbox" setup for web browsing. One just for that purpose that has gotten good reviews, to the best of my knowledge, is

http://www.sandboxie.com/.

Well, we hope it goes all well. If you run into Vista specific questions, you can always post to:
forum1583

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[jazzman111]

Great. Once again, many thanks to you and the rest of the guys for your help and suggestions.

 

[gbaughma]

He said, given the reasonable prices around on desktop deals, I'd be better off buying a new computer.

Pfft. Some tech.

Dell Dimension DV051
Intel Pentium (R) CPU 2.80 GHz
2.79 GHz, 504MB of RAM

Can I have your old one? lol



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com