sue&bob

Hi,
Has anyone else had a problem with a virus lately, our pc has just locked up and it keeps saying not enough memory,but theres not much on our pc so i know the momery isn't full,and wont load any programs, lucky we have 2 pc's so still been able to get on,can anyone help or know of a good pc shop,(we live in currambine,perth).
sue&bob

Bob

Ray posted a good site that does a checkup, www.pcpitstop.com That could see what's wrong if it isn't a virus, though if it is a virus, and you don't have a anti virus software, there's plenty of free online scanners out there..

Wol

Have you tried CTRL > ALT> DEL to see what's running on the machine? It might be a program is looping or locking up.

Another way would be to run "EnditAll" - free program that shuts all programs down. i use it every time I install something - just make sure you re-boot to start your virus things before going online again!

I can send a copy if you want one: it's quite small.

sue&bob

Hi,
thanks for your replys, we have tried ctrl,alt,del but nothing happens,it just makes things worse,we have had problems before but nothing as bad as this,anything you can send would be a great help as we dont really want to take it to a shop for them to repair (and get ripped off..lol) but it might come to it if we cant sort it..
thanks

Flying Banana

A very good online virus scanner is Pandasoft's activescan, http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

Run this and see what it comes up with, sometimes being a free prog it won't clear everything out but just tell you what it is, if that happens go to www.symantec.com (look under Security Respose) and look up whatever virus it is and there are always either clear instructions for removal or removal programs.

Another thing that can make your PC slow down drastically is spy and adware, not harmful as such but still undesirable.

Go to www.lavasoft.de and download 'Adaware SE Personal edition' also free, update the the definition file when you first run the program and this should clear out all the rubbish you collect from surfing the net.

Another good program to install is Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html does a similar job to adaware and again is free, however, runs a process called 'Teatimer' in the background all the time which will monitor and inform you of any program that tries to change the registry.

At the risk of sounding patronising, when was the last time you emptied/cleared all the internet explorer temporary files, cookies, temp files etc? And how about defragging the hard drive?

What antivirus software and firewall are you running? (I'm assuming you're on Windows XP?)

So try:

1/ Run the online virus scan above and clear out anything it picks up

2/ Run Adaware and Spybot to clear out spy/ad ware

3/ Run Disk Cleanup ( [Start][Programs][Accessories][System Tools])

4/ Open Internet Explorer, select [Tools][Internet Options] and delete cookies, delete temporary IE Files and delete history.

5/ Run Disk Defragmenter [Start][Programs][Accessories][System Tools])

6/ Reboot PC and see how that is.

If you're still having problems drop me a PM and we'll see if we can dig a bit deeper.

Hope this helps

LuTziE

go to start, run, type in msconfig.
click the tab startup. uncheck anything that you do not need when the computer starts.
you may just have alot of things starting that you really dont need until long after the computer boots.
(no not uncheck anything you are unsure of,- you can look at the pathname to see where everyhing is starting from)

rossifumi

If you're going to try an online virus checker try this one:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Hope all works out.

Rich

sue&bob

Hi,
thanks everyone ,but tried several things with no luck,i cant run the internet through the pc it just locks up completely,all cookies etc have been removed. I just keep getting warnings saying virtual memory too low! dont really know what that means..and sometimes it just shuts down..i think its well and truely knackered!!!
(by the way its a windows xp laptop)

Wol

Sounds to me as if you have used almost all of the hard disc and Windoze can't grab enough to page virtual memory in and out. This could cause apparent "freezing" as the operating system chases its own tail trying to fit all its requirements into RAM and insufficient HD space. Perhaps deleting a bunch of unwanted stuff and defragging might help?

rossifumi

With computer problems unfortunately time and patience is needed, I know you want to throw your laptop out of the window at the moment but perservere with it, check these out:

background information

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxpvmem.htm

Have a look at this link and come back with the figure it states that you have set aside for virtual memory, to get this figure go to:

My Computer/Control Panel/System/Click on the Advanced Tab/Select settings on the Performance part of the Advanced Tab/Then click Advanced, then at the bottom of the page you will see a figure that is set aside for Virtual memory.......mine is set to 768MB


and this,

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;826513



Rich

Phoenixuk2oz

I had the same prob about 2 weeks ago. I've had loads of probs in the past but nothing as bad as this time. Everything I tried wouldn't work. It wouldn't even let me download virus checkers or virus get-rid-ov-ers....so it was a particularly evil virus

This was confirmed by the computer shop I took it to. They reckoned it would not be a problem and it would be fixed the same day. In fact they ended up having to save everything to disc and starting from scratch. Took over a week

Cost me an arm and a leg [$130...not too bad all things considered ]

....I'm now typing with my tongue

<")))><

If you can't get to the web, run stinger.

Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.

Download it here and put it on a 3.5" disk.

Click

Also, echo the above statements about Ad-Aware.

Sounds like a running process is hogging system resources, so run it as soon as you can offline. Then go online, update definitions, run it again.

Flying Banana

There is a great guide to going through your computer to ensure it's clean here:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Also on your computer that is working, go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html and download a program called 'HijackThis', unzip it and run it and it will produce a detailed log of everything running on your PC. Save this to a logfile which will be a notepad/ .txt file

Then go to http://hjt.iamnotageek.com/ open the logfile and cut and paste the HijackThis logfile into the space on the webpage, click on [Submit] and have a look at what it comes up with. Most stuff will be OK and the log analyser page will give links to info about most of the stuff that you may not be familiar with/sure about.

Siren & Brian

I suggest you do a System Restore on your computer, say going back 2 weeks or so..... its probably the best thing about Windows XP....

Wol

I'll second that! Having just had to restore because of a bad install....

Does restore actually make the system go back without the virus though?