Please Help!! What the **** is wrong with my daughter's computer?????

Question

My daughter's computer is brand new. (about 3 months old) She has never had a problem, til now. The computer has always loaded really, really, quickly. When she clicks on something, it comes up in two seconds flat. For the past week, it takes like 10 minutes for her homepage to come up!! It is really really slow now???? Than when her home page comes up it takes another 10 minutes to access her email!! What could it be, what can I do to stop or help it??? Please help, I am not too great with comuters!! Thank you so much!!

Answer 1

It must be spyware. I recommend that you go to http://www.download.com and get AD-AWARE and SpyBot Search & Destory. Install, run, update and scan your computer with both programs.

This double whammy will help keep you safe and running faster

But check the anti-virus software and run a full scan.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 2

My PC was the same way, it worked at lightning speed, until i got an Internet connection at home. First off go to Microsoft .com and get windows defender (its free and I'm assuming that Ur running windows)
install the software and do a virus scan, and follow the programs recommended actions if viruses are found, then defragment vour hard drive(s) using windows disc defragmenter (its in your accessories menu in start).
Next check how many start up and background programs are running using windows defender (could also use the task manager), some of these can be turned off manually(by opening the program in question, going to options and disableing "run at startup" and "auto updates". Be very careful, you should probably have someone familliar with computers with you at this stage.
There will be an improvement in her PC's performance.
You should probably also look for a system optemizer software, I don't use any so I can't reccommend.

Answer 3

Danuitti had the right answer, it's probably spyware, but could also be a virus. anyone using the internet today is risking their computers if they don't have programs to find and eliminate spyware and viruses. If your daughter's computer doesn't have antivirus, that's the first thing you should get. Avast is one of the best free antivirus programs today. I've used it for 3 years and recommend it to anyone.
http://www.avast-2007.com/en/

Then get Ad-Aware and SpyBot from download.com. Both are free, and both necessary to keep the computer free of junk.
http://www.download.com/

If your daughter is on the internet a lot, she needs to run Ad-Aware daily. The first time she runs it, it should be Complete Scan, and then remove everything it finds. After that, run Smart Scan. Always remove whatever it finds.

Answer 4

My first port of call when one of my computers is acting up is to use the online system optimisation scan at http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/ which will flag up any issues with the computer, like does the hard drive need defragmenting........ are there any viruses lurking on it, or Spyware?

If using Internet Explorer, it could possibly be a corrupted cache database file......... my old PC was always doing that
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175722

It could also be a Virus / Spyware bogging the computer down...... my cousin's son is an absolute sod for visiting websites that silently download cr*p onto the computer in the background... and these things often use up stackloads of computer resources (usually to send out SPAM e-mail messages, or be used for "Denial of Service Attacks", etc).

To cure the problems, these downloads should help:

Mozilla Firefox - a web browser that is faster & more secure than Internet Explorer: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

AVG Anti-Virus - a Free Anti-Virus scanner
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-anti-virus-free-edition/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

Spybot: Search & Destroy - free anti-spyware program
http://www.safer-networking.org/

ZoneAlarm - a free Firewall program
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/trial_zaFamily/trial_zaFamily.jsp%3Flid%3Dhome_freedownloads&sa=X&oi=smap&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&usg=__BV3EdgAmhyHwjD2-EVjSKqfbJAc=
http://www.zonelabs.com also do "ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite" which combines all the above forms of online protection in one package...... but you have to pay for it.

Description of terms used
FIREWALL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(networking)

DEFRAGMENT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

SPYWARE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

Computer Virus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

It may also be caused by having over the past 3-months downloading / installing loads of extra programmes to run on it, and they're all loading at once on start up when don't really need them. You can check this by going to:
START > Run > "msconfig" (needs to be typed in) > OK

Answer 5

Try this it worked for me. Plus its fast.
1. Click the start menu
2. Click Run
3. Type in msconfig and press "ok"
4. Click on Services top right, next to start up.
5. Click on "Hide all Microsoft Services"
6. Click on "Disable all"
7. Now click on Startup (top right)
8. Disable All(Disabling all Stupid programs not needed to run windows.
9. Click Apply then close.
10. It will ask you to restart for changes to take effect. "RESTART" You will notice the differance as it boots. If no Differance. More than likely Hardware issues.

Answer 6

She probably installed too many useless softwares. Use System Mechanic Professional 7. It will remove any unnecessary softwares or start up programs. You can download trial version from http://www.iolo.com/. Its free for 30 days, so i am sure that you will be able to fix the problems with it within 30 days.

Read the instructions and help files if you are not sure how to use it.

I hope that you atleast know how to download and install softwares. :D

Answer 7

Anytime you put a kid in front of a computer (especially a girl), they are going to install a bunch of useless software and get it infested with spyware eventually. It only took 3 months for your daughter!

I'd suggest setting up a VMWare instance with Windows installed, so that no matter if they screw up the computer, you can just reset the VMWare instance to a fresh clean slate.

Answer 8

First, your daughter's computer is not brand new as it is already three months old!
Maybe the service provider has technical snags which affect the flow of information! By the way, are you using broadband?

Answer 9

reboot it in safe mode then run an anti virus on it, also run a spyware prog on it.... You can use disk clean up to remove old temp files then defrag it. Hope this helps you

Answer 10

1. Scan for virus and remove (free online scan) with BitDefender

http://www.bitdefender.com/site/home/

2. Scan for trojans and remove (free online scan) with Ewido

http://www.ewido.net/en/

3. Scan for ad/spyware and remove (free download) with Spybot Search & Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html