Toshiba Tecra A2 going veeery slowly

My Toshiba Tecra A2 has been running fine for 9 months but it has just starting going slow after booting into Windows XP. The lights are on but noone's home. Task Manager (when I can get it to open) shows 100% CPU usage and fan is running continuously. It seems some program is in a endless loop but which one?? Only a couple of simple applications will run (after long delays). Most menus don't work.
It boots up fine in Safe Mode and runs at normal speed (for Safe mode). I've tried System Restore, but it doesn't reboot back into Windows nicely. I have to switch it off and back on again. The problem is still there when it is back in Windows.
After reading the "manual" more carefully I discovered how to reinstall Windows from the hidden partition (hold down zero key while switching on). I don't want to do this yet as it will reformat the drive (ouch!).
Any help would be greatly appeciated.
Peter Gross, Australia

 

Possibly you are infected with some spyware. Download and run spybot, ad-aware, spysweeper. See if they find anything. Also go into msconfig and turn off any unnecessary programs that turn on while booting. Good Luck.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

 

Thanks for your help.
The problem is fixed now, with the help of Toshiba help desk, Sydney.[ ]
I recently installed the latest version of Trend Micro PC-cillin antivirus. The real time scanner was hanging up the system.
We identified using msconfig and a process of elimination.
Now I need to get onto Trend Micro and see what the story is.
The same version is working fine on our desktop running XP Home.
Cheers,
Peter

 

I personally use Avast antivirus. It is free for personal use, if you want to try something else.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

 

Thanks again.
The problem was with one particular virus pattern update for PC-cillin (Pattern File 2.594.00) by Trend Micro downloaded automatically on April 22. They have published fixes etc. and corrected it on the following update. If you couldn't get on line this wasn't much help.
Fortunately we have a second computer which missed the update.
Cheers,
Peter