[uberpanda]

Hi, I've been having a problem with my laptop recently, it's freezing for a second or two every few seconds, it's highly frustrating. The CPU's only running at about 20%, memory used is at less than 50%, but the computer struggles... I've tried a number of things, including:
1) system check
2) defragging
3) ran Symantec full scan
4) ran spybot SnD
5) closing unnecessary tasks/processes
6) checked CPU temp with Everest (59degC)
It's to the point where I can't watch a movie or listen to music, because it stops for a second constantly.

My specs are:

Acer Aspire 3356G
----------------------------
AMD Athlon 64 x2 dualcore processor (2.1GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
4GB DDR2 Memory
320GB HDD

If more info is needed I'm happy to provide, sorry I'm a bit of a noob...

[philthomas]

Does it behave the same in Safe Mode ?

[uberpanda]

Hi, sorry about the delay, I've been away for a bit. I'll try and be more prompt in the future. Anyway, I tried loading it up in Safemode today, and it worked fine, was running nice and fast. I'm assuming this means it's a virus, would I be correct? While I was in Safemode, I ran a Symantec full virus scan, and a Spybot S&D scan as well. Spybot seems to turn up a few results everytime I run it, so I'm not sure what to think, but it did turn up the usual few results in Safemode as well. Thanks for the help, a wasn't sure if I'd get any attention!

[philthomas]

It could be a virus or spyware, but it could also be something running at start up, that's corrupted or hogging resources.
Go to Start, type in msconfig and hit 'Enter' then click on the 'Start Up' tab.
Select 'disable all' click on 'Apply' and 'OK'
Reboot the Laptop and see if the freezing issue has gone.
If it has, go back to msconfig/start up and tick up the first item, apply and ok out, then reboot.
Keep repeating this, with one item at a time, until you hit the freezing again and you will have identified the problem.

[uberpanda]

Ok, I tried the msconfig thing, when I disabled all the startup items, it was still freezy, but I disabled the services as well, and it was much better. Should I go ahead and do the same one-at-a-time process with the services?

[philthomas]

Yep ..... that might help to pin it down.