[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

I fully understand you had these three security applications installed and functional before. CCleaner used to reset MSE (by deleting a log), and that caused it to do a full scan all over again. Just say'n.. It's just something I'd look at for about a minute or two if I was hands-on over there. In fact, it would be 1 of probably 300 things I'd check within the hour I typically allot myself when repairing recalcitrant systems.

 

It may be that you need a live technician to do a hands on inspection. Many times something that is missed in conversation through message boards shows up instantly to an in-person tech inspection.

 

At this point we don't have solid confirmation of what is happening at boot time. No trace logs have been run. We don't know the raw transfer rate of the disk. We don't know if the CPU is throttling itself for some reason, thermal or otherwise. Plenty of unknowns to explore. Could even be a drive getting hung up on a marginal sector. Maybe there's bad hardware. Maybe a bad port. Who's to say what's what without continued examination?

 

Could be a BIOS setting. Though CCleaner doesn't change settings there. But it's something I'd be looking over if I was repairing a system.

 

Lots of possibilities to explore.

I get the feeling this is a major task - beyond my capabilities. Thanks for all the responses. I've never had so many from a forum before.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

This indicates your security is not the cause - ASSUMING that you have not updated your security and your A.V. signatures.

But then of course all sorts of nasties can climb on-board if security is not up to date.

 

Sometimes an A.V. signature update can go horribly wrong a kill performance or even delete system files.

All updated regularly

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

What aspect of the system is running slow? Slow disk access? Slow FPS in games? Sluggish mouse & keyboard? Which application has slowed significantly? All? Something specific?

I don't play games so I can't say about that. Mouse and keyboard are fine. Problem is with opening all programs, applications, files, documents, Firefox, Outlook Express etc.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

I see 3 security programs that could potentially conflict with each other. Whether that is actually happening here, I do not know.

As I mentioned in post 20, I've had these 3 security programs installed in my PC for several years without any problem with slow running before.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

 

but decided it was not worth the effort so I uninstalled the Dropbox application.

 

I don't have this option - I've got to have Dropbox to communicate with other members of the group I belong to.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

Having one bad task running, and optimizing and removing others in effort to regain former performance usually doesn't work. You still need to fix the original cancer.

 

Try looking through Process Monitor - from the same guys that did AutoRuns. A realtime view I really like.

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the program but it needs a lot of study and application and I don't have the time for the long learning curve it obviously entails.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

CCleaner....tools...startup.

 

You can take a screenshot of it and either add the jpg or png file to a post by pressing the ''More reply options'' button which appears at the bottom of a post when you are writing it.

 

Or go to an image hosting site, upload it to there and copy and paste the link to it that you are given for it into a post.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

 

 

 

It found that DropBox had hooked into my operating system,

and when I looked at Windows Event Viewer I found the very first event every morning after booting up - long before I could logg on, was a DropBox executable phoning home.

This could possibly be the culprit. I installed Dropbox a month or two ago. How do I deal with it ? I need Dropbox for a group that I have joined.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

Could you tell us how many items you have running at start up. We really want to help but need certain info to do it.

 

Perhaps a screenshot of you start ups in ccleaner would give us some clues.

How do I paste or link a screen shot in a post? Which tab in Start up do you want a screenshot of?

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

Any other suggestions, anyone?

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

If it was me I would use the startup tab in msconfig and untick everything and reboot.

 

Then I would add one thing back at a time to the startup (rebooting each time) til I found the culprit.

I thought CCleaner was supposed to sort out the Startup in Tools

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

It is a tedious process, no pun intended.

 

You need to let the system settle down into a quiescent state.

Then you look at each and every process.

You use google to research each one of those processes.

You make note of the ones consuming high amounts of CPU resources.

 

Also look at overall memory usage. If you have 2GB ram, for example, there should be generally no more than 10-20% ram in use right after the system settles down. Just look at the graph.

 

My system has 34 processes, each one accounted for. And 256mb when the system goes idle.

Each computer is different. So these are guidelines.

 

Report back with any anomalies.

All processes seem to be bona fide. None using high amounts of CPU. % ram low in all instances.

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

All sensible replies. If it were me I'd start with some general stuff:

 

-restore backup registry through ccleaner if possible

-temporarily disable or even uninstall all protection (one by one re-install but like said, Avast alone should be 'sufficient')

-check msconfig / services.msc for unneeded startup-items / processes

 

Also check your task-manager (ctrl-alt-del) for processes eating up too much resources.

How do I know what to remove from the processes?

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

While it's good to have layered security from multiple anti-malware products and since you're on WinXP I'd let Avast have real-time enabled and only Avast. Too many running real-time protection shields from multiple products can slow down WinXP, even if those products claim they won't conflict with each other.

I've had WinXP and the security products for years without slow running until recently

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

IDK.. maybe not. I'd try finding the source of the slowdown and go from there.

That's the reason for my query - how do I find the source?

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

As a test disable you security software and run ccleaner.

Tried that

 

Something in CCleaner might have "reset" something in the mal-ware scanners. And now they're starting from scratch and re-scanning everything. An operation that could take some time.

 

It's never a good idea to run more than one security package. They just end up duplicator or fighting each other's activities.

It's had time to clear. I've been advised that what one security package misses another picks up

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

Running Super antispyware, Spybot search and destroy, Avast antivirus.

 

Not better after defrag. Both boot time and running. 3 mins boot. Several mins opening docs, programs etc

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

Thanks for your replies

 

Latest CCleaner download - Win XP Prof 32 bit

Both cleaner and registry. Every thing that was checked as default

Did not check prefetch or anything in advanced or anything that was not checked in default

Rebooted and defragmented

[PC slower not faster after CCleaner]

I installed and ran CCleaner as my PC was running slow, but it is now running even slower. What have I done?