No matter how I initiate opening 'My Computer', I get the searching flashlight for about a minute before the drives appear. When I open Device Manager, the window never fills in the hardware list. The title bar and the menu bar appear and are active, but no contents. I waited over 5 minutes to verify that it wasn't just slow. Everything else seems normal with this OS. (Home). The windows open fairly promptly. (Dell Dimension 3000, Celeron 2.6/533, 256 MB ddr pc2700. I do get 2 beeps after POST, but a new stick of memory didn't get rid of that.
This computer was riddled with search bars and spyware when I received it. Girlie sites, file sharing programs etc. I ran adaware from a cd and it found 245 spyware files and removed them all. I couldn't update the definitions because of no connectivity yet. Tried running spybot and it needed a network connection to begin a scan.
I ran a version of AVG that was out of date (Feb), but it didn't find any virus for the definitions that it had.
When I plug in an ethernet cable to the onboard j45 socket, it doesn't show up as new hardware and as of now I haven't been able to connect to the internet through my router as a static IP. I will try to install a network pci card next because when I open Network Connections, nothing shows up. I would think it would still have the connection that he had at his house before he brought it over, (we have the same cable isp, cox, but like I said, there are no network connections listed. I used system restore to bring it back to when it was at his house, no help.
The only process that looks out of place in WTM is a process that is identified by a number, "20051125214317..." The "user name" column lists the registered owner of the computer, 1,276KB. I did a search for this number in Windows C: drive but it didn't get any hits.
Since Device Manager won't display any hardware, I can't confirm if the onboard network hardware is listed or has a problem. He did have a working connetion before he brought the computer over to my house.
I'm at a standstill for now, I just have a network card installaton to try, to do an online spyware scan. But I was wondering, does "MY Computer" not opening and no Device Manager having no devices displayed, sound like a virus or a spyware issue ? Or does it sound like the OS is corrupted ? He was never given an OS or restore disk when he purchaced it from Rentway, so I can't start fresh unless I get a cd for XP home. What are some common causes of 'My Computer being excessively slow when other things open normally ?
I ran sfc /scannow from a cmd prompt and it didn't display any information when it finished, so I guess it didn't find or fix anything.
Any comments or suggestions as to how to proceed will be appreciated.
This computer was riddled with search bars and spyware when I received it. Girlie sites, file sharing programs etc. I ran adaware from a cd and it found 245 spyware files and removed them all. I couldn't update the definitions because of no connectivity yet. Tried running spybot and it needed a network connection to begin a scan.
I ran a version of AVG that was out of date (Feb), but it didn't find any virus for the definitions that it had.
When I plug in an ethernet cable to the onboard j45 socket, it doesn't show up as new hardware and as of now I haven't been able to connect to the internet through my router as a static IP. I will try to install a network pci card next because when I open Network Connections, nothing shows up. I would think it would still have the connection that he had at his house before he brought it over, (we have the same cable isp, cox, but like I said, there are no network connections listed. I used system restore to bring it back to when it was at his house, no help.
The only process that looks out of place in WTM is a process that is identified by a number, "20051125214317..." The "user name" column lists the registered owner of the computer, 1,276KB. I did a search for this number in Windows C: drive but it didn't get any hits.
Since Device Manager won't display any hardware, I can't confirm if the onboard network hardware is listed or has a problem. He did have a working connetion before he brought the computer over to my house.
I'm at a standstill for now, I just have a network card installaton to try, to do an online spyware scan. But I was wondering, does "MY Computer" not opening and no Device Manager having no devices displayed, sound like a virus or a spyware issue ? Or does it sound like the OS is corrupted ? He was never given an OS or restore disk when he purchaced it from Rentway, so I can't start fresh unless I get a cd for XP home. What are some common causes of 'My Computer being excessively slow when other things open normally ?
I ran sfc /scannow from a cmd prompt and it didn't display any information when it finished, so I guess it didn't find or fix anything.
Any comments or suggestions as to how to proceed will be appreciated.
