Does avast NEED SP3 on Windows XP to work properly? (RESOLVED)

[vsub]

About the chkdsk,are you directly typing the command in run(Start=>Run)or you open the command prompt and then type it?

All commands that run dos programs if not started from the cmd will immediately close after they did what you told them to do(unless the program is maded that way to not close the cmd window but those programs are rare)

[bobo1]

If he types CMD in the run box by clicking on Start.
Then type CHKDSK /r on (CMD) Black window the computer will say then the drive is in use by another program etc. Would you like to shedule when system restarts etc!

Anyway as he has done scandisk the results of the scan will be in the Event view log under application tab (winlogon)event

As in the original post if his computer is limited to 256mb of ram then xp will be slow. I am on 512mb of ram and is fine with only 25 processes running in taskmanager. If he is using a 10gb hard drive and the free space is below 18% then windows will stall and bsod regular swap file will grow and take up space. The windows update service will hold many files in C:\windows folder SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION inside that folder the dowloads files can be removed from there (Will contain several MBytes) related to windows update to free up hard drive space!

[Chim]

What I did was Boot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

THEN I typed in - chkdsk /r /v /f

Yes, like Bob said, at first I was informed that the Drive was in use by another program or something and that if I wanted to schedule the Disk Check to take place after the next Restart.  So I typed in "y" and it ran thoroughly after the next Reboot.

[bobo1]

How Many background processes are running when you are running normaly?? Try trimming it down if you have more than 30+ Have you done a test for spyware?

[Chim]

Malware, Spyware and Adware are really NOT a factor in the equation.
I've done 3 Windows Reinstalls since the problems started.

And I checked my Flash Drive with avast, SAS, MBAM and it came out clean.

For whatever reason, it's worked a lot better yesterday and today versus the beginning of the week.

A while ago I even opened it up, took out the CPU Fan and cleaned thoroughly with WD40.  I carefully dried it out with compressed air.  And I lubricated it.  It had started getting a little noisy again.  At first I was afraid to power down the computer.  I was, "MAN!  What if after I power it down to clean and lubricate the CPU Fan, then it won't Boot Up?"    But, while the noise was not yet horrible, it was annoying me.  So, I decided, "What the heck.  Power it down and take care of that Fan."

Now it's quietly humming and the computer is so far running fine.

Hopefully SOMEHOW the CHKDSK I ran this morning helped it.

Since the question in my Topic Title has been answered, I'll consider this topic RESOLVED.

[Dch48]

You don't need to go into safe mode to run Chkdsk. You just right click on the C: drive in My Computer and then on Tools. Select to check the disk for errors and tell it to automatically fix any. It will then tell you that it needs to reboot to perform the check. Let it reboot normally and it will run Chkdsk, close it before you can really see what it did, and then reboot again and load Windows. To see what actually happened and what problems were actually fixed you then have to open up Event Viewer in Administrative tools, select the Application log and then double click on the most recent entry called Winlogon.

[Chim]

Ohhh, Okay, Dch48 ... Good Info!

It's that when I originally went to go perform the CHKDSK, I could have sworn that I recalled there being an Icon in the Control Panel to go into MSDOS.  I went and checked and there was nothing.  I figured maybe it was on Windows 98 that that existed.  I then went, "NOW what?"  Then I remembered that Booting into Safe Mode had some option about Command Prompt.  So, I went with that.

After the fact, I now see that I can get to the Command Prompt via :  All Programs > Accessories

But yeah, I'll certainly try to remember the Right Click on C: Drive tip.  Thanks.

The computer ran fine ALL DAY yesterday.
And it Booted Up fine this morning and is running fine.

Odd.  Must have been one of those problems that sometimes come out of the blue ... and then go away on their own.
That happened to me a couple of years ago on my other computer.  One afternoon, the CD ROM just suddenly came to a terrible Screeching halt!  Screeeeeeeeeech!  It sounded horrible, like something had gotten stuck and the Drive had bit the dust.

It then didn't want to work even after a couple of Reboots and powering the computer down for 10 minutes.
I resigned myself to that the CD ROM had been FUBARed.
But, after 30 minutes of the computer being down, I gave it one more shot and the CD ROM Drive worked again all on its own.

[Dch48]

Those intermittent problems can often be caused by a power supply that is getting ready to bite the dust.