Ahh the joys of computing. Currently, I work on two main machines- a laptop for "fun" stuff, and a desktop for more serious work (which is still usually only coding)
Wonderfully, both computers have very recently become infected.. My desktop has the ever-present 'Virtumonde' trojan.. which REFUSES to release its hold, while my laptop has something different.. and unknown.
For this topic, I will focus only on my laptop (if it would be preferable for me to post information pertaining to my desktop in this thread, as opposed to a separate one, someone more knowledgeable than I please say so)
A couple days ago, I started to have horrible performance issues... All manors of media files (from AVI's to low-quality MP3's) have terrible lag / stuttering.. I'm getting random freeze-ups, that "cure themselves" after 3-5 seconds.. and no error messages.
As far as diagnosing the cause.. I really don't know. No files were downloaded, nor any new programs installed. No drivers were updated either.. The only updates that I've gotten recently are NAV LiveUpdate.. updates...
In an effort to fix the problem, I have tried restarting, defragmenting, running disk-cleanup, running CCleaner, scanning for viruses.. everything. That is what led me to this site (as none of my efforts helped) I have now followed the '8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware removal' threads instructions.. and was disappointed to see that that alone did not fix the problem.
Also, on a very intriguing note.. I've watched Task Manager during these times of lag (which is always now.. I can't get smooth playback of ANY media file) and my CPU usage isn't even topping 20%... I don't know if there's anything any of the experts here can do.. but it's worth a shot.
Thanks in advance for any help!
[Incase it is of any assistance... COMPUTER SPECS]
Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz
2.00 GB of RAM
250 GB HD / 110 GB free
running Windows XP- Media Center SP3
Wonderfully, both computers have very recently become infected.. My desktop has the ever-present 'Virtumonde' trojan.. which REFUSES to release its hold, while my laptop has something different.. and unknown.
For this topic, I will focus only on my laptop (if it would be preferable for me to post information pertaining to my desktop in this thread, as opposed to a separate one, someone more knowledgeable than I please say so)
A couple days ago, I started to have horrible performance issues... All manors of media files (from AVI's to low-quality MP3's) have terrible lag / stuttering.. I'm getting random freeze-ups, that "cure themselves" after 3-5 seconds.. and no error messages.
As far as diagnosing the cause.. I really don't know. No files were downloaded, nor any new programs installed. No drivers were updated either.. The only updates that I've gotten recently are NAV LiveUpdate.. updates...
In an effort to fix the problem, I have tried restarting, defragmenting, running disk-cleanup, running CCleaner, scanning for viruses.. everything. That is what led me to this site (as none of my efforts helped) I have now followed the '8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware removal' threads instructions.. and was disappointed to see that that alone did not fix the problem.
Also, on a very intriguing note.. I've watched Task Manager during these times of lag (which is always now.. I can't get smooth playback of ANY media file) and my CPU usage isn't even topping 20%... I don't know if there's anything any of the experts here can do.. but it's worth a shot.
Thanks in advance for any help!
[Incase it is of any assistance... COMPUTER SPECS]
Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz
2.00 GB of RAM
250 GB HD / 110 GB free
running Windows XP- Media Center SP3