XP sp2 problems

Question

Upon getting my Inspiron 8200 (windows xp home) back from Dell for service, they had updated my BIOS, which is fine with me. The thing is I had downloaded sp2 before i sent my computer off, when i got it back windows update told me to do it again. so, reluctanly i did, only after setting a restore point like was recommended. After downloading and installing the service pack, my computer for one thing is annoyingly SLOW! the other thingS are: when i want to shut down and/or restart my computer I have to ask it to do so TWICE. I didnt have to do that before, ill ask it to restart/shut down, and an hour later still nothing has happened, i ask it to do it again, and it does. upon logging in to my user name, when it says that its loading my personal preferences, i get that error 'boop' sound, and the desktop hasn't even come up yet, nor have i done anything to instigate it. when the desktop comes up,the My Documents folder opens automatically, with out my say so. (now i know i can fix that with changing a few lines in some file...regardless). the other thing is that when the desktop comes up, i get and error message (which may be that boop i was talking about earlier, but i dont know) it says: 'Error loading C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files\bridge.dll ... [and] The specified module cannot be found.' What is all of this carp about, i want to restore to before sp2, but id rather not make another uninformed blind move. can someone help me?

simpswr · Answer

The reference to bridge/dll is spyware . . which is likely what is causing the other problems. I'd download and run AdAware, Spybot S&D and see how much the cleanup improves performance . . you may have to go further, but that is a good start.

Take a look in msconfig startup tab to see what is trying to run at startup . . uncheck anything you do not recognize and see if that helps the slowness.

wrs

overacre · Answer

i dont think its spyware...even though it may be, i do have AdAware and run it very frequently, i dont have spybot (whatever s and d are), if that would help, great, but i dont see the point in having numerous programs that do the same thing. i also run norton antivirus frequently, as well as having sygate firewall (whether that has anything to do with spyware being loaded and or run, im not sure)
ive done the msconfig and unchecked a couple things...i dont think thats helping
any idea on the my documents folder at startup?

simpswr · Answer

Sorry . . it is SpyBot Search & Destroy . . it looks for and kills slightly different bug than AdAware . . they complement each other rather nicely. It will be difficult to diagnose any further untill the system is clean . . The My Documents opening at startup is one symptom of some of the spyware out there.

wrs

Annie70 · Answer

See this thread.

overacre · Answer

ive got spybot now, the only thing is, i can scan and find all the "problems" i want, then i can "Fix Selected Problems" allll i want, but when i scan again, it only finds the same ones again and again and again and again...why did i waste space on my hard drive with this program?
i also followed the links to those threads, the one about running regedit specifically. I would have done what it said except for the fact that none of the entries it suggested were in my list at all. none of my problems have been fixed yet. this issue is still unresolved and making me madder than He||.

simpswr · Answer

did you put a check in each box next to the entries SpyBot found? . . it usually does that automatically, but I have seen versions that do not. You might try turning system restore off untill you get this thing clean.

wrs

Windows General

XP sp2 problems

Was this post helpful?