Dell Smells

[Kaorichan]

My computer is a dell and it keeps killing programs and protocol errors keep appearing then there are many runtime errors. The dell is old but its been kicked alot. its a demention 2400 with 256 ram... the memory was upgraded, its not the original memory... its a maxtor... and it has 74.4 gb... i just repaired it, searched viruses, malware, adware, spyware... None could be found. the computer runs slower... but the hd lost most memory to dled stuff... yea... i have still half the memory... but it couldnt of been wiped out that much!
so how can i make the computer faster and it stop them stupid protocol errors!

 

[Kaorichan]

oh yea forgot to add 1 thing... i want to fix it with out reinstalling the os

 

[Tedster]

When you say "kicked", I assume you mean handled rough. If you're constantly losing software (and it's an old computer) It's possible your hard drive is starting to fail. You may want to debate the cost of replacing the hard drive vs. getting a newer computer.

Now if you're saying the HD is losing storage space.... perhaps you need to clean it up. I suggest getting a copy of norton systemworks 2003 or earlier and run cleansweep and registry repair.

 

[Kaorichan]

ya... um.. handeled rough... meaning... it does get KICKED! alot... right where the hd is... I have norton everything... and basically im about to kick it... theres many games and music packed... the computer does get a once a year dumping but thats it...

 

[Spike]

actually, if you want to speed it up, try UNinstalling norton! Really!

The number of people that have been amazed by how much quicker their machine is aftwerwards is amazing. It's a good starting point anyway. If your machine is getting physically kicked by the HDD, I would first recommend that you stop kicking it, I would then recommend that you run "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes) from the command line (assuming it's XP), and then posting back. Depending on what you mean by "loosing" disk space, you could have downloaded a lot, you might have installed lots of programs, you might have a program creating lots of large logs, or you might have a virus infection.

If your version of NAV/NIS is pre-2003, it's best gotten rid of anyway as Symantec no longer supports it.

 

[Kaorichan]

it does check disk when it reboots but it repairs a load of files... and there were none, if there were polymorphic viruses that hid... then i'd know where they were anyway...

 

[Spike]

it does check disk when it reboots but it repairs a load of files... and there were none, if there were polymorphic viruses that hid... then i'd know where they were anyway...

If it repairs files, then files have been repaired, so they must indeed be there.
As for polymorphic virii, I didn't actually say polymorphic. lol

You still haven't described what you mean about "loosing" disk space, and the above, as a result, is really the only advice you can be given. We might be able to be more helpful if you didn't dismiss it so quickly.

 

[Kaorichan]

as far as i know, calculator, ie, and paint are missing

 

[Spike]

what happens if you type "calc" at the command line, or at start -> run?

 

[Kaorichan]

cant find it...

 

[Kaorichan]

i mean the computer cant find it

 

[Spike]

OK. I suggest, just to start this off, you post a HJT log in the Security and the Web forum, just to make sure. If there's no problem with it, it can be taken from there.