[stylishjm]

Hello, after having discovered my dell laptop running vista business was ridden with spyware trojans and viruses I decided to perform a clean install.

Upon completion I reinstalled all the main programs I needed which are backed up on my external HDD and also installed Norton 360. After a day or so my computer became very slow so i ran a virus scan and found a few minor trojans so deleted them and still found my computer to be running the same speed.

I went through the whole msconfig process and only allowed a few non-microsoft services to run and also disabled ALL but the graphics card util programs to startup.

Still not happy i uninstalled Norton and grabbed a copy of AVG and everything was still clean and still very very slow so i reformatted my computer for a second time and after installing only 2 programs (FL Studio 8 along with 5GB of audio samples & Adobe CS3) my computer still had over 80% memory free on the HDD BUT still have very slow computer taking over 5 mins to do anything from pressing the start button to minimising a window.

I have installed AVG 8 full version before installing everything and scanned every file i install and have scanned the whole external HDD and deleted all trojans which have appeared (backdoor.hupigon for example).

Now on safe mode everything is fine but cannot understand what is wrong as I have no programs on startup and no non-microsoft services running.

When on task manager when the system is at its slowest it shows around 94% system idle process time but the RAM is almost at its max.

Any solutions please? If anything needs more detail please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks you

James

[maynardvdm]

Hi

Welcome to Free PC Help.

How much RAM do you have installed?

[RandyL]

As maynard said this could be an issue with not enough RAM or it's bad.

Looking at it from another angle I'm wondering why you keep getting infected.

You were infected and re-installed Windows. You installed your old programs and AV (Norton) and a day or two later you're system slowed down and you detected trojans again. Startup items are nil.

Uninstalled Norton and grabbed a copy of AVG. AVG scan was clean (which doesn't say much for AVG). Computer is still slow.

Re-installed Windows again. Installed 2 programs (FL Studio 8 along with 5GB of audio samples & Adobe CS3). You also said you installed AVG 8 full version before installing everything. Is this the same copy of AVG?

Whether or not you have items in the startup programs matters little if your system is once again infected. They would most likely not show up there. There is obviously something that is causing your infections.

Where are you getting these programs?
Are you using P2P or bittorrent?

[Goku]

Hello and Welcome to Free PC Help James.

As Maynard and Randy have already asked, how much RAM do you have? Vista uses a tremendous amount of RAM to operate smoothly and seeing you have no ordinary version of it, I think the demands would be comparatively higher. Another thing is that were you using XP before. Because if you started experiencing problems after an upgrade, then I think you have put your finger on the problem. In that case, I would recommend you to downgrade to XP or upgrade your system. Please clarify the needed details.

-- Goku

[stylishjm]

Thanks for your replies.
Firstly I have 2GB of Ram installed and this seemed fine when i first had the computer and it had all the initial pre install programs from dell - everything was working at full speed! Ive also disabled all the visual effects under the perfomance tab in the system properties section and have increased the virtual memory to 5GB if that helps.

As for the programs I got the Adobe from my friend but did infact get the Fl Studio from a bit torrent site (but scanned it first and installed it on an external drive). The AVG was downloaded as a trial version from grisoft.com and then i paid for it just to make sure i get the full benefits of it.

As my computer was an replacement from one that got stolen from my house it came delivered with Vista Business preinstalled for some reason but as I have said for the first year that ive had it it has been running perfectly. I dont know if this is relevant or not but the computer came bundled with programs which where not compatible with vista and at the time my laptop (with nearly the same specs) was still only being sold in shops under the XP OS.

Thanks
James

[Goku]

Well, with that amount of RAM, I think the problem is not Vista but an infection. Can you please try and scan any external media from which you are transferring your data? I believe the backup source has been infiltrated and infected in some way. Please try and scan it with AVG and see if it has any infections. Our Malware experts will take the case as soon as they come online so please bear with us till then.

Also, post back the results of the scan as soon as possible. Good Luck.

-- Goku

[stylishjm]

Ive scanned the external media before and found backdoor.hupigon4 and have deleted it. Is it correct that trojans cannot spread from the infected file and is just a case of deleting as I have heard? Im in the process of scanning both the computer and the external hdd and so far only a few tracing cookies have appeared.

The virtual memory before i first posted was managed by the system and was at 1354mb, and said that recommended was 1566mb so i changed the min to 2gb and the max to 5gb.
Siince changing the virtual mem size it appears my computer seems to be working normal speed and doesnt show the constant flashing HDD light but im guessing this is a short fix.

I will get back to you once the scan is complete

Thank You

[Goku]

James, you have indeed put up a very good solution to combat the slow speed of your computer. As you say, I think it will be a short term fix but please post back here if the problem occurs again. Once again, congratulations for fixing your problem for now.

As for your question regarding a Trojan, it will not activate itself unless you execute it. Trojans can be removed by deleting them but some of the more stubborn ones need advanced measures to remove them. Deleting the Trojan from your external drive should have removed it unless it replicated itself. However, please continue with the scan for safety purposes.

Once again, Thank you for posting your experience here. It may help us tackle future cases similar to yours.

-- Goku

[stylishjm]

Ok scans complete and apparently everythings clean so hopefully it was just a case of changing the virtual memory size.
Thanks you
James

[Wolfeymole]

P2P Warning!

IMPORTANT

Please note that as long as you are using any form of Peer-to-Peer networking and downloading files from non-documented sources there is a high probability that you will be infested with malware.

Once upon a time, P2P file sharing was fairly safe. That is no longer true. You may continue to use P2P sharing at your own risk; however, please keep in mind that this practice may be the source of your current malware infestation.

References for the risk of these programs can be found in these links:
Malware: Help prevent the Infection
IM And P2P Malware Threats Nearly Triple - Technology News by TechWeb
How to Prevent Online Invation of Spyware, Adware and Malware

We would recommend that you uninstall these P2P programs, however that choice is up to you. If you choose to remove these programs, you can do so in the Control Panel via Add/Remove Programs. If you have Vista it's Programs and Features.

However in order for us to provide future assistance on this matter you must remove the P2P first as it would be fruitless to continue unless the possible cause is ruled out first and to prevent future infestations.