Can't Download Avast/Unknown Virus

[Aphex23]

I tried running disk cleanup someone mentioned it but I waited two hours and it got stuck at a certain percentage, meant to try it again later. I will do it when I go to work this morning. That ATF cleaner really helped, it deleted 947 MB of crap... that's crazy I didn't know I had that much extra stuff. Also yes I lowered the system restore percentage awhile back to about 25% of what it was at. Thanks, I'll let you know if anything changes when I get back this afternoon.

[DavidR]

You really are just postponing the inevitable you need to upgrade your hard disk as this will continue to happen, as there really is not enough working space in your system.

Another area to look at is the pagefile.sys as this too can gobble up large chunks of your hard disk, normally it is advisable to allow windows to manage this size. But it is a flexible space bit it can grow to over twice the size of the memory installed.

What is your OS ?
How much memory do you have installed ?

Another area to look at is the avast log/report files, etc. as one of them can get very large and that is aswAr1.log (in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\log winXP location).

That file in itself can be GBs in size, this is the anti-rootkit scan, it is recreated every time that the scan is run, usually when you run an on-demand scan that includes it and the higher the sensitivity the more files it scans and the greater the size. It isn't appended but overwritten so it should find a balance according to what you have on your hard disk that is being scanned.

This application, now has a section to clear old avast logs, however, if you have XP it isn't looking in the right place, so doesn't find anything (OK for Vista and win7) - CCleaner - Temp File Cleaner, etc.

[Aphex23]

Tarq57,

Oops, for some reason I thought you meant the error scan not disk cleanup.  But I do the disk cleanup about once a week, did it again and there was a few MB's.

DavidJR,

I wish I could upgrade my hard disk, first of all I don't really know how, second I probably can't afford it. In a really tight money situation.

Where is the pagefile.sys located?

My OS is Windows XP Home Edition. As far as memory, I have the 55.8 GB that came when I was given the computer (after my parents used it for a few years).  I went to the aswAr1.log file, it's only 3 KBs. Also I use ccleaner on a regular basis, though I never knew it had a section for avast that I cant use.

[DavidR]

You haven't reported your RAM only the hard disk size which is what you answered. This is important as it is that which is important for the pagefile.sys file settings.

It isn't so much where it is located, you can't delete it as it is in use, but you can check its size. From the My Computer, select System Properties, Advanced tab, Performance section, Settings Button. From the next window select the Advanced tab and that will show the current quantity of hard disk space taken by it in the Virtual memory (that is what the pagefile.sys is used for).

Clicking the Change button, will show where that space is allocated and if it is system managed (the default) or Custom (experienced user setting or under guidance) or No paging file (totally NOT recommended), see image2.

I have mine set to a min and max size, a minimum of the amount of RAM I have installed and a maximum of half the size of ram again. I have done this to have a minimum size where that pagefile.sys doesn't fluctuate in size (causing possible hard disk fragmentation). I have never seen it exceed the minimum file size I have set.

In all honesty, I don't know if you should go messing with it and leave it at the System managed size. But it rather depends on how big the pagefile.sys gets, it is normally located in the C: drive and is a hidden file.

A hard disk is relatively cheap and you could probably pick up a 120GB - 250GB one for $30-$50, if you don't know someone that can clone your existing drive and transfer it to the new drive and fit it then a PC shop would probably cost the same again or higher ($50-$100). However adding it as a second hard disk would remove the need to clone the existing hard disk and reduce cost if done in a shop. Then all you need to do is move everything that isn't the Operating system or installed Programs to the second hard disk.

[Aphex23]

Ok, I couldn't find it under My Computer but I went to Start>Control Panel> then followed the rest of those steps and found it.  But yeah I'm not sure exactly what info you need so here is all of it, Im a little nervous messing with it so if I need to change anything just let me know:

Paging File Size (MB): 384-768

Space Available: 4378 MB

Initial Size (MB): 384

Maximum Size (MB): 768

Total paging file size for all drives -

Minimum allowed: 2 MB

Recommended: 765 MB

Currently allocated: 384 MB

Neither 'System managed size' or 'No paging file' are checked.

As far as a new hard disk, if it's that cheap I could do it but not for another month and a half, I don't know anyone anymore that can clone the existing drive, etc. (atleast nobody I trust to do it) so I'd definently have to take it to a shop.

So why are all these problems just occurring now? I've been on the brink of basically no hard drive space for years and everything worked fine till about a month ago.

[Tarq57]

Right-click "my computer" and select "properties".  (An alternative way of getting to the same window is to go to the control panel and select "system".)

Near the bottom of the "general" tab, under "computer",copy the info on processor, and (particularly) RAM.

Your page file has been set rather low, it would seem, and if it has been set by someone who knows what they're doing, your RAM is probably 512, or possibly 256. This is pretty marginal for an XP computer attempting to run current software.
In general computer usage, do you get messages on screen about Windows running short of memory?

[DavidR]

Yes, that Max and Min would have to be set by someone and has been said should be based around the RAM you have, which we don't know. So we can't say if this figure is suitable for your system.

The major thing is that it isn't massive, in this case it would be using a minimum of 384MB and a maximum of 768MB of the available space on your Hard disk.

You could enquire at a shop how much it would cost to clone and replace your existing disk or simply install it as a second hard disk and you move your data to the second hard disk. If you bought the hard disk from the shop it is likely to cost more than purchase from an on-line source.

Only one memory management option can be checked, you can't set either of those and be able to set a Min and Max figure also.

[Aphex23]

    - First off my old problem with windows OCCASIONALLY shows up when I run VLC media player (as in, not much of a pain in the $%& yet). It crashes, sends error report, but now I get an extra pop up that says: Error Report Then 'Dr. Watson PostMortem Debugger.' It then closes VLC, Utorrent, any folders I have open, but usually leaves a couple of random things open.

Tarq57, here is what it says under My Computer > General:

System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002, Service Pack 3

Compaq Computer Corporations
Compaq Presario
      Intel (R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00 GHz
1.99 GHz, 512 MB of RAM

Other than that it just says registered to 'my name' and below that a long number with dashes. In reponse to whether or not I get a message about Windows running short of memory, I used to until I tripled the harddrive space I had previously.  Now I never get it.  Just the same problems with Avast not being able to download new updates, and internet explorer crashing when I try to watch any sort of streaming video, site with too much flash, etc.

By the way, regarding the comment about the RAM being pretty marginal for for an XP attemption to run current software, the truth is I really don't run much if any current software. Mostly I just download songs, movies (then deletet them after watching so they dont take up space). Other than that I play online poker and that's about it.[/color]

DavidR,

You sort of lost me with all that, but does that mean i'm basically screwed until someday I can afford a hard disk + installation?

Also I forgot to mention this, I don't know if it has anything to do with these problems but when I use Ccleaner, everytime I run the registry option it leaves me with the following problem even when I have chosen the 'fix it' option multiple times:

C:/ProgramFiles/Adobe/Acrobat 7.0/Reader/AdobeUpdateManager.exe"AcRd87_0_9-reboot 1

Registry Key: HKCU\Registry\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

My understanding is that it's only used to open .pdf files. Does this mean I can just delete this thing and forget about it then?

[Tarq57]

By the way, regarding the comment about the RAM being pretty marginal for for an XP attemption to run current software, the truth is I really don't run much if any current software. Mostly I just download songs, movies (then deletet them after watching so they dont take up space). Other than that I play online poker and that's about it.

Could you open the task manager (ctr alt del) and select "processes", ensure the bottom left box "show processes from all users" is ticked, and report the number of processes running, please?

If you could expand the task manager and take a screenshot to post here, (you may want to edit out your username from some of the listed processes) that would be better still.

[Aphex23]

Ok, hopefully these aren't too distorted or anything, I'm sure everyone knows by now how computer illiterate I am by now. At first I forgot to check 'all users' but then when I did absolutely nothing changed, (just fluxuates a little regardless of whether it's checked) so I went ahead and posted the original ones since there was no real difference (I have no other users on this computer). If you still need it though please let me know.

[Tarq57]

Try disabling the Spybot Teatimer.

That might well remedy a lot of problems.

[Aphex23]

How do I do that? Just use the end process option under processes, or is there some other way of disabling it?

[Tarq57]

No, don't do that.

Been a while since I had dear old Spybot installed, but (as with most running processes) it's best to do it via the program options.

That means opening Spybot, you might have to select the advanced menu, and locating the real time protection area. If I remember correctly there are two resident options. One is the teatimer, I can't remember the other, sorry. But remove the tick from both of them. Close the interface.

Another way would be to remove Spybot completely. Before doing that, any immunization that has been applied by the program should be undone. Do you use spybot at all? Did you install it yourself?

[Aphex23]

Ok, still having trouble finding any real time protection area. I went under advanced and searched around, all I found was under Advanced > Tools > System Startup, then there was a long list of programs, one of them was:

Key: HK_CU: Run [User 5-1-5-21-3508293876-720897496-4103935507-1008]
Value: SpybotSD TeaTimer
Command Line: C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe

Also under the 'Resident' tab it gives two boxes to check or uncheck:

Resident "SDHelper" [Internet Explorer bad download blocker] active. (This one is checked)
Resident "TeaTimer" {Protection of over-all system settings} active. (However this one is not checked, it says in the notes it was deleted in the startup user entry on this date, so I re-checked it until I know whether or not this is what you are talking about).

Also, if I were to remove Spybot completely, how do I undo the immunizations? I use that function everytime I use Spybot (although I can't remember the last time this program actually found anything whatsoever so I have no problem with that option).  And yes I installed it myself.

[Tarq57]

OK. Hang on, I'm going to install it myself to refresh my brain. I should be able to post back in about 10 minutes.