Health of My Windows XP

Health? What did you do a tune up for? Tune up programs for Windows are usually if not always a waste of time and money.

What's more is that tend to actually break things.

The best programs to clean up your systems is ccleaner and defraggler, run these on a regular basis. Both are free.

Next what is the model of your system? How much RAM does it have? Do you have a Dell Windows XP Reinstallation disc such as one of the 3 below?

Attn.  natakuc4

Re post:  Health of My Windows XP

If you received a reply from me on 5-12-12, please note, I thought I was replying to Malwarebytes.  I do not want all that info to appear on the Dell forum.  I would appreciate it if you would remove it , but first send me a copy of my post so I can send it to Malwarebytes.

If necessary I will get back to you with a more appropriate answer to your questions.

Thanks.

Hi Sallie I have not received a reply from you and judging by all your posts on the Dell forum there is not a large amount of information about you on the Dell forums. I don't know what 5-12-12 is.

Re Health of My Windows XP.  This answer is actually meant for Delltalk.  I did a tune up because my computer was running slow.  I was going to use Speedy PC Pro but was told that I had a virus and needed a tune up and the Malwarebytes Pro.  I had the work done then thought may be running a little slow again.  I could not tell from the transcripts if I actually had a virus.  

I called another vendor just to chat and they accessed my computer and I was told I had a polymorphic virus so I then called back the company that worked on my computer in the first place and they accessed my computer and ran more programs, cc cleaner, iexplore, Kaparsky, Temp file cleaner.exe and did some work with those programs and supposedly finished the work.  At this point the computer does seem to be running faster.  In addition I removed some large programs.  I do know know if I actually had a virus.

I spoke to someone i believe from Malwarebytes and was asked what proof I was given that I had a virus.  I told him the vendor I called after having work done by another vendor ran a PCHealth scan.  I believe for some reason it only completed to around 22%.  The other thing they checked was my Event log where I had a long list of errors, one after the other.  That info. is no longer shown in the Event log since the vendor who worked on my machine worked on it a second time.

I asked how to check the health of my PC at this point just to make sure computer is clean.

After doing these tune ups, I was also told by McAee that tune ups  are not recommended.  At this point; however, computer seems OK-   I was also told by Malwarebytes that if I have a polymorphic virus it's best to reinstall.

Honestly it's hard to know who to believe and what programs are or are not good.  I had the fre version of Malwarebytes on my computer and I also had SuperAntiSpyware.  I removed the SuperAntiSpyware when I purchased the Malwarebtes Pro then I read somewhere else that SuperAntiSpyware was better.

Note I have the free McAfee Security Center that comes along with my MSN Premium.  It does not find anything and Malwareware Bytes Pro is also working.

0Wht would you do at this point since the computer does seem to be OK.  I have paid Safecart for the tune up and the Malwarebytes Pro.  I am entitled to get another tune up this yr.  I probably will decide to do so if I see the computer continues to work well but now I am leary about tune ups.

I have the orange reinstallation DVD as shown on the pictures you sent me.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

Microsoft Windows XP

Media Center Edition

Version 2002 Service Pack 3

Intel R

Pentium R  D CPU 2.80 GHz

2.79 GHz  1.00 GB of RAM

Dell Dimension D

I am wary of all tune up programs, except the free ccleaner and defraggler as mentioned earlier, I would not of paid for it and I would not use it.

You have installed alot of programs to try and fix this issue. You shouldn't have so many security programs installed. I usually have Malwarebytes' Antimalware Pro (a very good program) and Sphinx Windows 7 Firewall Control (XP free version), finally I have Microsoft Security Essentials also for security.

Since you have the XP CD it should be easy enough for you to perform a Clean install. In your case I would perform the additional step with DBAN which will completely wipe your hard drive and should get any virus. I have wrote a wiki A Clean Install of Windows XP. When carrying out step 1 and backing up all your data ensure that you scan the external hard drive with Malwarebytes.

P.S. you still haven't sad the Model e.g. Dell Dimension 5150?

Thank you.

Yes, I noticed I forgot to enter the Model.  It is Dell Dimension 5150 as shown in System Properties.  On the tower it is marked E-510.  It is my understanding tha they are the same thing.

They are indeed the same, it was a good guess! I have worked on one of them before.

For drivers and updates you should install, in order:

• Windows XP Standalone Service Pack 2

• Windows XP Standalone Service Pack 3

• Internet Explorer 8

• Windows Media Player 11 

• .Net Framework 2.0 

• R121089 Dell Desktop System Software

• R114566 Chipset

• R126542 Intel GM 945G Chipset

• R103446 Intel GM 945G Graphics or R118968 ATI Radeon X300 Driver or R129651 nVidea Geforce or ATI Radeon X600 R119714

• (R73044, R133743, R72270 and R98291) Conexant Modem Driver, Application, Utility and Diagnostics or (R133743, R69300, R98295) Intel Modem Driver, Utility and Diagnostics

• (R105478, R105788, INPENUXP.cab) Intel Ethernet Driver, Diagnostics and HTML

• R138111 Wireless Card (if you have it)

• R114282 Sigmatel Audio or R126205 Creative Labs Driver

• Dell Support Centre

• TV Tuner Drivers (if you have them will be listed under Video Drivers)

For the options (marked in bold) you will have to put your service tag into the drivers and downloads page. You will see immediately what drivers you have under Comms, Video and Audio. This should give you the correct drivers for Comms, Graphics & TV tuners and Audio.

Once you have your drivers installed you should be able to download Malwarebytes' AntiMalware and unlock it to pro with your purchase code. I would personally install Microsoft Security Essentials alongside it but not McAfee or any other security program. Some other useful software may be found here.

One additional note, it is worthwhile going here and purchasing a 2 GB kit. Going by the assumption you have 2 × 0.5 GB RAM modules installed this will give you 3 GB but the websites scanner will tell you for sure. 3 GB will however make your system quite a bit faster than 1 GB.

Note the system can fit 8 GB of RAM so you could buy 2 × (2 GB × 2 kits) but unless you plan to upgrade your Operating to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit you will be unable to use more than 3.5 GB of RAM so having 3 GB is the best value for money for XP. 

A Windows 7 upgrade license would be far more worthwhile paying for than any tuneup software however Windows XP with 3 GB of RAM also works great for this model.