My computer keeps on resetting itself and is very slow

[daisyd0477]

Recently, my computer has become alot slower than normal. We had a freind tell us it was the memory and we needed another hard drive. He installed an E: drive onto our computer and transferred alot to it. Shortly after, my husband logged onto his desktop and the picture that he set as his background was gone. Also, some of his files had moved to different locations. A few days later, my desktop did the same thing. The other thing that happens is we start getting pop ups that say "Welcome to Windows XP" And then I will log on to Internet Explorer and it also welcomes us. It was like several things were reset on our computer making it seem like it is a brand new computer. It also runs very slow. I have Windows Live Care One that I am using for an antivirus. The otehr day my computer had froze up and started saying there were viruses. So I had Windows Live Care clean them out. Supposedly everything was OK. Can someone please help me and let me know what the problem may be? Is it a virus or maybe we have overloaded the C: drive? HELP! Thanks.

 

[B00kWyrm]

Hello DaisyD... and welcome to Techspot.

maybe we have overloaded the C: drive?

always a possibility on a slow system... you need a minimum of about 10%-15% "free space" in order for windows to function well.

Is it a virus ...?

Possibly, especially since you had an alert. I would strongly suggest going to the virus and malware board,
here... https://www.techspot.com/vb/menu28.html
Start at the top with the three stickies by Julio...
Then proceed to do the eight steps, here... https://www.techspot.com/community/...lware-removal-preliminary-instructions.58138/
If issues are found, start a new thread as directed in the steps. Start it here... https://www.techspot.com/vb/menu28.html
Once you have been given a clean bill of health by the malware experts evaluate your performance, and then repost here to let us know how things are going.
Good Luck.

 

[AndrestheBean]

nice bookwyrm, great reply.

i was just going to say, go to the malware board hahaha.

 

[Bobbye]

Nice B00kWyrm!

Daisy, about that friend who helped out. It is not unusually for settings to get changed when a computer is turned over to someone to 'fix'. Whether it's the tech at the store or a friend who appears to know that they're doing, sometimes the system comes back to the owner in worse shape that before!

It sounds like you might have malware in the network since you mention your computer and your husband's desktop. RAM-memory- could be part of the problem, but with 2 computers in the same household being affected, it is most like malware and if you're using a router, it might need to be reset.

Suggest you follow B00kWyrm's excellent guidance and move over to the Malware forum, follow the steps given and attach the logs for review.