PC Help

Since being laid off, I’ve had a laptop get infected so bad we don’t use it anymore, and now my home PC is moving very slow.

The PC is new within last two years, HP Touchsmart, all in one.

What can I do to check the PC to see if the slowness is on the part of the PC? Is there a program I can run or view to see the speed of my incoming signal or signal strength from our cable company?

I need to diagnose if the problem is the feed or the PC. Help!!

If you haven’t figured it out from my syntax, I’m not well versed in the guts of a computer.

ET

Do a post here, I had the same deal as you and they are great free help. Make sure to read the FAQ etc.

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showforum=27

Otherwise, the easy or not so easy way is to start all over again, reinstall OS.

Comcast has a way to check your speed, just need to look around on their site. I would start off with running a good virus program like super antispyware and then defrag the PC.

here ya go use this – it’s free

speed test

this is just for interent speed

like above said – since U got the time RELOAD the OS

u can also delete all your interent history and defrag PC
to see if that will give your PC alittle more SPEED

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Since being laid off, I’ve had a laptop get infected so bad we don’t use it anymore, and now my home PC is moving very slow.

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Spending all day watching porn or what?

If the computer is fast opening programs but slow browsing the internet then it is your internet connection. If it is slow all the time, even when not browsing the internet then it is your computer.

Be very sure you have everything BACKED UP to an external drive or burned to CD/DVD before you do an OS restore using the mfg’s software.

After you have your files backed up you can easily do a factory restore on the HP.

Speed test was interesting.

Ran it three times.

Upload speed was consistent between 1.05 and 1.11 mbps. Download speed was inconsistent. Once 4.23, 4.31, and 2.77 mbps.

Next step guys, are the above scores good or bad?

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Speed test was interesting.

Ran it three times.

Upload speed was consistent between 1.05 and 1.11 mbps. Download speed was inconsistent. Once 4.23, 4.31, and 2.77 mbps.

Next step guys, are the above scores good or bad?

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They are… not good. Are you on wireless or hooked directly to your modem/router?

Its an off time right now, most people in the midwest are not surfing the web. As of right now I am getting upload of 1.99 mbps and download of 18.10 mbps. If I do the test at 5pm I get around 1.3 up and 9-10 down. This is wireless through my router which is connected to mediacom cable internet.

The PC is wireless. Does having multiple wireless devices in the house slow this down?

We would have one PC, one laptop, 4 Iphones, and an Ipad going, though any number of the phones could be out of range at any given time.

ET

Forgot to add the Wii and AppleTV!

Yes. Your connection gets split up between all the devices if they are all sending/receiving at once. But I wouldnt imagine the phones would be using hardly anything, not nearly enough to slow you down. If you had say 4-5 computers running at once, playing videos or games then it would slow you down. Take 30 seconds, terminate the connection on all devices and run another test to the closest server to you. See what you get with just the computer running. I would imagine it will be about the same as you got before.

http://www.speedtest.net/

I like this free program(advanced care system)
http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare/3000-2086_4-10407614.html

here is another one that might B better for your area

Speed test ll

First thing is what do you have for internet access, Cable, DSL, and what speed should it be? Your provider can tell you what speed you should have and they can test it all the way to your router.

My guess is spyware, maleware, virus of some type. What do you run for Anti-Virus?

Download, install, and update this program and scan your PC, it’s not 100% at finding everything but none of them are.

Use the free download. Feel free to contact me offline

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

I like Spybot better than Malwarebytes. Free also. Finds stuff that malwarebytes doesn’t.

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Speed test was interesting.

Ran it three times.

Upload speed was consistent between 1.05 and 1.11 mbps. Download speed was inconsistent. Once 4.23, 4.31, and 2.77 mbps.

Next step guys, are the above scores good or bad?

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They are… not good.

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Speed is relative.

You need to find out from your internet service provider what speed you are paying for. Then take that and multiply it by 80% and that should be the average speed you’re seeing from the tests.

80% because you are operating wirelessly.

I have cable internet. Am paying for a package with 8 meg download.

They did indicate that some hardware is going in tonight in hopes of fixing it in our area, but my slow computer has been in place for a few weeks.

I’ll see if things are different tomorrow.

Eric

Eric,

I’d still run the malware and spybot programs recommended above against your PCs. They find most stuff. Malware especially if you run in Safe Mode.

I have Microsoft Security Essentials and this runs a quick scan every Sunday night. I ran a full scan yesterday and it did not indicate a problem.

Still run the above?

Yes, I would. Those are the best two tools I’ve found for cleaning up “stuff”.

Yes run as many other scanning programs as possible, none of them are 100%. Here are some other good ones as well.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/13-antivirus-rescue-cds-software-compared-in-search-for-the-best-rescue-disk/

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I have Microsoft Security Essentials and this runs a quick scan every Sunday night. I ran a full scan yesterday and it did not indicate a problem.

Still run the above?

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I do not trust any anti-virus, anti-spyware, or firewall program from microsoft. Hackers and bug creators all try to make them get past microsoft because that is what most computers come standard with. I have 3-4 sweepers on my computers, I run each of them every week. It has happened before where something got in my system past the anti-virus and then it was caught running weekly checks.

The one a few posts up is a very good one. Will take only a couple minutes to install and run.. you cant be too safe with your computer.

Go to the Microsoft site and download Microsoft Essentials and have that program run a test on your PC. After it has run a test then defrag your Pc, so whatever program your running it can find the information on the hard drive easier.

More then this and its too complicated but download the essentials program and defrag the hard drive, its free from Microsoft and use it from now on. It checks your PC all the time. If you’ve never defraged your PC’s hard drive it may take several hours for the information to be rearranged, don’t shut it off and let it do its thing. When we got our first PC with windows 98 on it, we didn’t know beans about what to do, it was all touch and go. It took over 10 hours to defrag my hard drive the first time and we were frustrated and thought something was wrong but we let it run and it finially did what it was supposed to do.

Microsoft Essentials and then defrag the hard drive if you know how. Go to control panel by lower left clicking on the very first icon in your tool bar assuming its on the bottom of your screen. After you’ve entered control panel look for system securitys or anything similar, then look for any maintainence program that will find and fix problems and then run each one of those. It will help you and keep searching for the (defrag your PC or hard drive) and do that. Let us know how it works after you’ve done it. Ours was to the point it almost quit working, done and dead PC type of thing.

Your right Kevin but its a good place to start for the novice. I run it all the time and there is no complete anti-virus program that wortks 100% of the time but Microsoft does do daily maintainenece on this program to find bugs daily. A good hacker can find ways around it but it does work for the novice and a good place to start. If something goes wrong with mine I have a relative that comes through the back door of my pc and fixes anything thats wrong with it from his PC at his house, lucky I guess.