Computer slow after getting rid of virus.

[jutthenut]

hello

I installed a tool bar, i scanned with multiple virus scanners and they found the a virus. They got rid of it, but my computer was still really slow. So I re-installed windows twice, i formatted both partitions, and relized that my computer was still being really slow. So i did a DBAN (darik's boot and nuke) and also reset CMOS on my motherboard. I then re-installed windows, but it still is not as fast as before. I think that it may be a hardware problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. It also boots up slowly, i also don't get as many FPS as i did before.

My specs are:
AMD FX-4100
8GB DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD 7750 1GB DDR5
Toshiba 500gb HDD
ASrockk N68-VS3
Unbranded 500w power supply

 

[JefferyD90]

I would suggest it is software issues. Usually when hardware is bad, it doesn't work at all. Try doing a clean install with all the drivers and such by the manufacture.

 

[jutthenut]

I would suggest it is software issues. Usually when hardware is bad, it doesn't work at all. Try doing a clean install with all the drivers and such by the manufacture.

I have mate. Thanks for replying. anyway

 

[nostall]

Couple things to try.
Check the quarantine or log of the virus scanner that caught the bug, note, if it is listed, where that file was on your computer(Progarms Files, Program Files (x86) ), then go to that place or those places and make certain there are not files with the virus name on it. If there are, delete them.
Run a MalwareBytes anti-malware scan and see if it finds anything. If it does it will put it into quarantine and you can delete it from there.
I don't have the names handy but there are antivirus programs/companies that will let you use their on-line scanners; run one of those and see if it finds anything. Preferably from a different company than the one you already used. Trend Micro might have such a link.
Sounds like there is still some malware trying to load.
If Malware Bytes doesn't find anything, download, install and run Spybot Search and Destroy and see what it finds.

Perhaps before any of the above open Task manager (cntrl+alt+delete), make sure there are no strange applicatons running, and also check out all the processes (hide microsoft processes to make this simpler); You can Bing or Google anything you don't recognize or know about to find out if it is unwanted. Anything obviously unwanted, note where it is located on your PC before you stop it so you can hunt it down

Download and run CCleaner from Piriform (free version). Run the cleaner first, then click on the left menu for registry and run that. Saave a copy of the registry (It will offer to do so) before you nuke what it has found.

Good luck, hope this all helps. Sorry if you have already done all of the above.

 

[nostall]

Thanks. Did you find it, or get it back up to speed??

 

[jutthenut]

Thanks. Did you find it, or get it back up to speed??

Thank you for replying, but i have tried all of them and they didn't do alot. I think that it could be a BIOS virus.

 

[nostall]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

 

[jutthenut]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

No it said that all my processes were safe and everything was ok. It has to be a BIOS virus or a hardware problem, the reason being is that i have done a DBAN on my HDD and no viruses can survive that. I really apprieciate you helping me thank you. I am getting to the point of just getting a new computer when i can.

 

[nostall]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

No it said that all my processes were safe and everything was ok. It has to be a BIOS virus or a hardware problem, the reason being is that i have done a DBAN on my HDD and no viruses can survive that. I really apprieciate you helping me thank you. I am getting to the point of just getting a new computer when i can.

Sorry, you're right. If you think it might be a problem with BIOS, have you tried flashing a newer BIOS, or even re-flashing with the current one? If your mobo is an ASUS board, you can actually buy a new BIOS chip that can be installed on the board; They told me you just remove the old BIOS chip (apparently not soldered to the board) and push in the new one.
Regarding slow boot, I just solved a 4 month old problem on my wife's PC by (and I can't believe this was the problem, but it worked) changing the boot order; something to think about.

 

[jutthenut]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

No it said that all my processes were safe and everything was ok. It has to be a BIOS virus or a hardware problem, the reason being is that i have done a DBAN on my HDD and no viruses can survive that. I really apprieciate you helping me thank you. I am getting to the point of just getting a new computer when i can.

Sorry, you're right. If you think it might be a problem with BIOS, have you tried flashing a newer BIOS, or even re-flashing with the current one? If your mobo is an ASUS board, you can actually buy a new BIOS chip that can be installed on the board; They told me you just remove the old BIOS chip (apparently not soldered to the board) and push in the new one.
Regarding slow boot, I just solved a 4 month old problem on my wife's PC by (and I can't believe this was the problem, but it worked) changing the boot order; something to think about.

I will look into flashing my motherboard ,but im not to sure an AS-rock motherboard would work.

 

[nostall]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

No it said that all my processes were safe and everything was ok. It has to be a BIOS virus or a hardware problem, the reason being is that i have done a DBAN on my HDD and no viruses can survive that. I really apprieciate you helping me thank you. I am getting to the point of just getting a new computer when i can.

Sorry, you're right. If you think it might be a problem with BIOS, have you tried flashing a newer BIOS, or even re-flashing with the current one? If your mobo is an ASUS board, you can actually buy a new BIOS chip that can be installed on the board; They told me you just remove the old BIOS chip (apparently not soldered to the board) and push in the new one.
Regarding slow boot, I just solved a 4 month old problem on my wife's PC by (and I can't believe this was the problem, but it worked) changing the boot order; something to think about.

I will look into flashing my motherboard ,but im not to sure an AS-rock motherboard would work.

Not quite sure what you mean by the last part of your sentence (bolded).

 

[JefferyD90]

Should have got a better board... as BIOS viruses havent been a problem since the mid 90's... there are tons of features available now to make sure that isnt the case. (I just have to assume either A) its not as bad as you may think or B) you didnt do a clean install of Windows correctly. If you format the drive the ONLY issues can be hardware related as ALL of your software is reconfigured from the ground up. And if it is working at all, usually 99% of the time the hardware is fine. The 1% of the time, you just start RMAing suspect parts)

 

[jutthenut]

O.k., thought you probably had done all those things.
Below is the link for a program called HiJackThis.
I know your PC is slow right now, but do a little research as to how it works (to satisfy yourself that it isn't some BS program) and then submit your HiJackThis report.
The volunteers who work with this will review that report and help you weed out (and get rid of) maleware.
I have never had to use it, but have read many instances where people were helped.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

I may be mistaken, but either MalewareBytes or Norton suggest this.
Can;t hurt, and maybe they can get you back up to speed.

No it said that all my processes were safe and everything was ok. It has to be a BIOS virus or a hardware problem, the reason being is that i have done a DBAN on my HDD and no viruses can survive that. I really apprieciate you helping me thank you. I am getting to the point of just getting a new computer when i can.

Sorry, you're right. If you think it might be a problem with BIOS, have you tried flashing a newer BIOS, or even re-flashing with the current one? If your mobo is an ASUS board, you can actually buy a new BIOS chip that can be installed on the board; They told me you just remove the old BIOS chip (apparently not soldered to the board) and push in the new one.
Regarding slow boot, I just solved a 4 month old problem on my wife's PC by (and I can't believe this was the problem, but it worked) changing the boot order; something to think about.

I will look into flashing my motherboard ,but im not to sure an AS-rock motherboard would work.

Not quite sure what you mean by the last part of your sentence (bolded).

Should have got a better board... as BIOS viruses havent been a problem since the mid 90's... there are tons of features available now to make sure that isnt the case. (I just have to assume either A) its not as bad as you may think or B) you didnt do a clean install of Windows correctly. If you format the drive the ONLY issues can be hardware related as ALL of your software is reconfigured from the ground up. And if it is working at all, usually 99% of the time the hardware is fine. The 1% of the time, you just start RMAing suspect parts)

I have reinstalled windows about 5, i have formatted the drives each time and on both partitions. I ran a scan (kaspersky) last night and it said that AVG was a virus, so i clicked remove and then my computer crashed and then screen went black, giving me a message that windows has had an error. I don't know what virus it is , but it keep coming back after i have done all of that.

 

[nostall]

Juttthehut, I think you have done everything you can to find out if it is a virus or software problem. You mentioned it earlier in the thread and Jeffery says it above, it looks like a hardware problem.
Depending on how frustrated and tired you are of troubleshooting (I would have had it by now) the solution probably lies in seeing what part failed or is failing or as you mentioned earlier getting a new PC.
If you are still willing to troubleshoot, then I would start with a new reputable brand name PSU: Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, XFX. If you have access to a known working PSU, borrow it and use it to see if the PSU is your problem; THIS IS THE BEST method for testing as new PSU's have been known to be DOA.
I gather from your earlier response (JUly 27, 8:37) that you ran HiJackThis and the report came back clean. If it was clean then there are no viri on the PC, especially after all the reinstalls (BTW one virus scanner will often report another virus scanner on the same machine as a virus or maleware. My Norton frequently tell me my MalewareBytes is such), it has to be hardware. That it started crashing after a virus attack has to be coincidence.
If you would like us to continue with help and/or suggestions, might help if you post the configuration of your PC, especially anyinformation you can about your no-name PSU - that may verywell be the culprit here.

 

[jutthenut]

Juttthehut, I think you have done everything you can to find out if it is a virus or software problem. You mentioned it earlier in the thread and Jeffery says it above, it looks like a hardware problem.
Depending on how frustrated and tired you are of troubleshooting (I would have had it by now) the solution probably lies in seeing what part failed or is failing or as you mentioned earlier getting a new PC.
If you are still willing to troubleshoot, then I would start with a new reputable brand name PSU: Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, XFX. If you have access to a known working PSU, borrow it and use it to see if the PSU is your problem; THIS IS THE BEST method for testing as new PSU's have been known to be DOA.
I gather from your earlier response (JUly 27, 8:37) that you ran HiJackThis and the report came back clean. If it was clean then there are no viri on the PC, especially after all the reinstalls (BTW one virus scanner will often report another virus scanner on the same machine as a virus or maleware. My Norton frequently tell me my MalewareBytes is such), it has to be hardware. That it started crashing after a virus attack has to be coincidence.
If you would like us to continue with help and/or suggestions, might help if you post the configuration of your PC, especially anyinformation you can about your no-name PSU - that may verywell be the culprit here.

I really appreciate the help, thank you. I do not know alot about the PSU, apart from that it is 500w (thats what the seller said anyway). I am saving up to get a corsair cx 500m, and hopefully that will fix my problem.

 

[nostall]

Man! you have more patience then I think I could muster up! That PSU (the Corsair) will serve you just fine and i am sure you will search around before buying: they go on sale a lot and even regular pricing varies a bit.
Forum would probably like to know if it solves the problem, I know I would. Looking forward to that time when your PC is back up and running.

 

[JefferyD90]

Well, considering you are running several antimalware programs I simply HAVE to assume your not installing Windows right. You should never run multiple anti malware programs. But back on the hardware side of things, if you had a specific type of malware it could have been causing unusually high Hard Drive activity, severely degrading its life span. In short if the malware was constantly reading and writing on your drive your disk could be damaged.

I could not fathom, in my wildest dreams, that ASrock (who I don't really like but am willing to admit they don't make garbage) would give you a board where the BIOS and be rewrote at will. So I HIGHLY suggest that it is not a BIOS issue.

As far as the computer "crashing" AVG is well known for changing many registry keys, THUS by another program removing it the computer may not function correctly.

I would suggest you reinstall Windows, correctly with all drivers and everything (top to bottom). If that doesn't work, I would start with HD replacement, then move to RAM replacement.