HELP ME FIX MY COMPUTER. wHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?

Question

Now and then it will shut off by itself. Maybe once or twice. It runs fast though. How many GB of ram should a windows xp computer have? I get alot of pop ups. It freezes. Like i dont know should i just delete everything off the computer and install Norton because that is what i am doing right now? What about defragging files an folders? and deleting temporary internet files?? I have alot of viruses and spyware on the computer. It said i have about 977 viruses detected. Please help me out.

Answer 1

Sounds like your power supply is about to fail. It could have something to do with the viruses, however.

512MB of RAM is good enough for Windows XP.  You can run XP with less though.

Installing Norton was a good move.  Hopefully it will help you get rid of some of those viruses.  

You said you were about to delete everything though.  Does that mean you are planning on reformatting your disk? If that is the case, then I wouldn't bother trying to get rid of these viruses.  I would just go ahead with the reformat.  It will certainly solve your virus problems.

Answer 2

Given you have close to 1000 viruses on the system, it might be a good idea to just go with a clean install.  You can certainly try going through and cleaning up all the infected files, but it might be a losing battle at this point.

For XP, 512 MB of RAM is the minimum for typical use and 1 GB or more would be useful for more intense usage.

Answer 3

A clean install is probably your best bet but you can also try doing the below.

Run Counterspy from Sunbeltsoftware.com

Run SuperAntiSpyware from Supwareantispyware.com

Run ccleaner from ccleaner.com

Don't use Nortons - it works horribly - instead uninstall Norton, restart and install avg free anti-virus from free.grisoft.com - it's the best AV for free.

If you're willing to pay for one then buy Kasperky

Go into Internet Exploror - Tools - manager add-ons

Disabled all toolbars or desktop search applications

Disabled Research, messenger and anything bluetooth

Running a Defrag is great do to as often as possible

CCleaner will remove most if not all temporary files on your machine, just make sure to check all the boxes available

Answer 4

You have been infected with some kind of malware. Unfortunately, if you find one infection, it is highly likely you have another one. A virus, trojan or worm are all different types of infections/malware and there are some great FREE programs that can help you.

First, clean up (delete) your cookies, temp files and temporary internet files. I prefer to use Ccleaner (available at www.filehippo.com) to do this, rather than the built-in DISK CLEANUP, as I feel it does a much more thorough job - for example, it will clean out the index files on your next reboot.

If you want to use Disk Cleanup, you can find it if you:

- Double-Click on My Computer to open it up

- RIGHT-click on your C: drive

- Choose PROPERTIES and then click on the DISK CLEANUP button

- When done, reboot your computer.

Delete these files daily or run Ccleaner every day right before you shut your computer down.

2 - You should also have a good anti-virus program to help protect your computer. AVG FREE is an excellent anti-virus program, which can be downloaded from www.download.com. You might also choose Avast or Avira, both also free programs from www.download.com.

3 -Since NONE of the anti-spyware/anti-adware programs are 100% accurate in finding and removing spyware, you need at least two programs which you will run one after the other, not at the same time.

There are three excellent free ones:

--Spybot, Search and Destroy

--Ad-Aware

--Spyware Blaster

All are available FREE from www.download.com

You will need to download, install, update (and IMMUNIZE in Spybot) and run them, one at a time. Be careful with the NAME of these programs - there are "look-alikes" with very similar names, that are in fact spyware themselves! Reboot after you install each one!

After this current infection is cleared up, be sure to run both of the above programs at least once a week if you are on the internet frequently and/or like to download music or files.

NOTE: Some infections prevent your from downloading the above programs. You may have to use a clean computer to download the programs and copy them to a thumb drive or CD. Then transfer the install files to the infected computer and run.

--Occasionally you will not be able to run these programs without being in SAFE MODE. To get there, reboot your computer and tap the F8 key, repeatedly until a menu comes up. You want to choose SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING.

4 -You should also have a good firewall to help protect your computer. Zone Alarm makes a totally free version (watch you don't download the 30-day free trial of the paid version). You can download this from the manufacturer at www.zonelabs.com

Answer 5

I'm thinking if you have that many viruses you are not running a antivirus program.  I would install one..there are many free ones out there, I use Avast and it seems to be fine for me and it's also free.  You first should get a anti virus program, run it, then use disk cleaner, then defrag, also clean out cookies and if you use java alot make sure you clean out the cookies that java stores too.  I run 2 gigs of ram on  both my computers and it seems to work good for me,   using XP operating system.  Also I would delete programs that you do not use.  But make sure you defrag after you uninstall any programs.  And if you have not defraged in a while do it twice.  Hope this helps.