BellaOnline Forums Computers PC Advice What do you make of this - ??

Please understand first and foremost that I have as much technical knowledge as an earthworm with a missing head - all advice, counsel and solutions will have to be written to suit the comprehension of a technical Fudgewit and computer-age doofus - words of no more than two syllables would suffice - !! thank you!!

Now...


OK...
here's the daily ritual:

Start up the PC.

AOL automatically comes up, but the little sand/eg-timer just sits there, and then the window tells me 'AOL does not respond'.
I shut it AOL down.
the AOL re-start option box comes up. I click 're-start'.

And off we go....

During the day, even with no window open, no search engines active, the PC is constantly whirring and occasionally clicking, as if a spyware programme were running...though to all intents and purposes, nothing is....

I have every conceivable spyware/firewall programme possible, as follows:

Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Javacools SpywareBlaster
Panda ActiveScan -IE
BitDefender Online Scanner - IE
ZoneAlarm
AVG latest edition
HJT
Ewido
Webroot Spy sweeper

Things are pretty well up to normal speed during the day, except that submitting posts can be a pain - nespecially on 'bigger' websites, (such as this one) sometimes it even times out, even though if I go back in, my post HAS been submitted.....


In the evening, I close everything down, and click on shut down.

I get nothing happening but the sand/egg timer just sitting there...

I know through experience that if I turn off the screen, it will still be there in the morning, so....
I select 'Cont+Alt+delete'
wait for the finish tasks box to come up....
(There's nothing running because i've closed it all down....so the 'finish task' box is empty) go to the stop/finish/close? option (it's in French, so it's 'Arreter?')
select 'disactivate'

Everything closes as normal, except that I get two grey boxes telling me specific programmes are closing down, but once these complete, they tell me the programmes are not responding, and to finish now. I select this option. In fact, I now select the 'terminer maintenant' option before they finish closing down, because I know what will happen....The PC then resumes closing down - until I get to the 'Windows is closing down' blue screen....

Then I have to unplug the PC, or that too, will stay up all night.

So....
What does any Technically-minded genius make of all this?

(I have also posted this above poser elsewhere, to cover all my bases - !!)

I need to get some additional information:

What version of Windows are you running?
Are you running all of those spyware/firewall programs together?
When the two grey boxes appear - do they list a specific program that is not responding?
What type of Internet connection (DSL, Dial-Up, etc.)

Allison

Sounds like the AOL application you have is playing up. Horrible stuff, take it off and just use a normal browser.

Windows XP

Yep, but not simultaneously....
AVG is automatic and runs itself first thing...
ZoneAlarm is always active.....
The others, I implement a couple of times par week....

Yes, but I don't recal what they are.....

ADSL



Everything is super speedy first thing in the morning....
By last thing at night, the PC is running so slowly, I occasionally give up on posting.... It takes so darned long....

<img src="/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wall.gif" alt="" />

Which AOL application....?
I am using Mozilla Firefox...But AOL is my internet connection device/system/thingy.....
You can see how technical I am....
What do I do....? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I'm NO expert but I'd hazard a guess that your temp internet files are bogging down your system. Do a search for them and clear them out. (Start, Search, *temp* and then you're off and searching)

My husband and I do this periodically on all our many computers and have been amazed to find thousands of temporary internet files.