Lord Herbert wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 11:39am:


Does your ISP slow your service down when you've reached your quota?

I suspect I've got a virus.

********

I'm closing the computer down for the day. It's just hopeless.

I get throttled, but my use is currently 13GB of a 50GB monthly allowance.

Firefox with automatic update.

Minimal Add-ons.

Windows 7 Home Premium

Not downloading stuff in the background.

I haven't had it running this slow for years.

Thanks Lady Mantra.

It's way too slow whatever website I go to.

I checked with a service that tells you if there are any known faults occurring in your area code ~ none detected.

I'll swap over with my backup computer and see if the problem is still occurring.

If it is, then I'll phone my ISP helpline and see if they can help. I hate calling them because I find it a real struggle to understand their Indian accents.

mantra wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 1:15pm:


I find the Filipino accents even harder to understand.

I've just used CCleaner and Internet Options to empty out all the baggage ... still no improvement.

If it's not a virus I'll eat my cat. I mean hat.

***********

I've swapped my pc over to my backup computer and there's no slow-speed problem at all.

Conclusion: It's either a virus or a very aggressive spy.

freediver wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 7:07pm:


I think Herbert has nailed it.  I am usually in sync with others when there are comments about the place loading slowly.  Today.....not a problem.  Loaded immediately all day.

Lord Herbert wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 8:08pm:


Herb, just wondering what you mainly use your computer for? If it's mainly web browsing and/or word processing, may I recommend trying a linux live cd?

It's a good way to get in and recover all your stuff that you want to keep before you wipe the hard drive with your re-install. Plus, it gives you a go with something a whole load more secure than windows. I had a similar problem about a year ago, so I used a linux live cd to get my junk off my computer for a new install. I ended up liking it so much that I now dual boot it with Windows. 

Try it - download the ISO, burn it to a cd, boot from the cd. Then, you can copy your important files to a usb/whatever. When you're done, either reset, take the disk out, and boot normally into windows (with the same problems) or install linux to your hard drive so the problems are gone for good. Either way, no risk, good reward.

And the best part? It's 100% free (as in, free to use and free to modify) and supported by an active community. If you're interested, links to the ISOs are here. Not sure if you're a 32 or 64 bit system. If you're not sure, use the 32 bit - that'll work on either.

Here's a page full of download mirrors: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2626

Or, if you don't want to have to think for yourself, here's a link to the file: http://mirror.optus.net/linuxmint/isos//stable/17/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-dvd-32bi...

As it says on the link, it's linux mint 17 cinnamon (my personal favourite) 32 bit. It's about a 1.2GB download, but well worth it IMHO.

Hope it helps!

I told you before Herbert, install the free (not trial) version of Revo Uninstaller. It's basically a graphical interface for the various built-in Windows tools with a few privacy tools added. You will be able to properly uninstall anything including registry entries if necessary. You can also easily manage what you want to run at startup. I would never ever use any automatic registry cleaner or program manager with names like 'cleaner', 'hoover', 'buster' etc. Those are usually malware infested hit or miss type programs that can easily destroy your file system and make you have to reinstall Windows.