What was going on?

[rootbeer]

I was websurfing earlier today and left the machine in Desktop when I finished. It set there for maybe 30 minutes. My Norton expired almost two weeks ago and I have not renewed it; I will get something better. I am surfing with no protections whatsoever, I guess.

Anyway, I look over from my reloading bench and I see the HD light going crazy. It's blinkin' a mile a minute, yet the Desktop is quiet as a mousse. What was going on? Was I being hacked? Will the whole world now know that I like grilled cheese sandwiches with banana slices? Color me concerned...

[Gunny04]

Maybe it was just loading some needed window service mine flashes a lot once in a while, depends on what it feels like loading idle, (lol) Probably nothing to worry about..... somebody correct me if I am wrong! Cheers, Gunny

[Politically Incorrect]

Well something was happeneing

Could it be that you have your antivirus set on a schedule to scan?
Next time you see it doing that check the task manager and see what it might be.

[PisTon]

When your computer is idle, it might do some idle tasks. Perfectly normal.

If it slows you down then run a virus scan

[legoalex2000]

it could be doing some disk cleanup in the background or something. or refiling (defragmenting) and allocating space. then again it could be using the Virtual memory to do something. it varies.

Usually i get hacked because i use VNC for remote desktop.

ramos

[rootbeer]

Thanks to all for the replies. I was experienceing very slow performance for the past several months until I ran a defrag the other day. I have regained alot of speed, but I'm sure things are not right. My fix-it man wants to wipe the HD and put on XP Pro (at $150 for the OS and $85 to put it on) because I have been experiencing lengthy boot-ups, slow screen redraws, FS will oftentimes lock-up if I scroll through the views too quickly, my sound will go bye-bye if I again scroll through the views too quickly while the engine start-up sequence is operating, I'll get lock-ups if I set the sim rate too high with the AP on...

I'm sure I have problems, but I'm unsure as to which way to go in fixing them. Should I go with the XP Pro and reformat (and reinstall everything I've put on in the past 13 months), or step back and think about a way to get it back without destroying it to save it?

[NicksFXHouse]

Your Fix-it man should know how to use backup software to restore any critical data such as documents, emails and othe important materials. Make sure your Fix-it man is also installing a LEGAL copy of Windows with a LEGAL code. If he doesnt, the first time you go to Windows Update for security updates you will get wacked with "THIS COPY OF WINDOWS DOES NOT APPEAR LEGAL" on your system.

As for FS9.... I would recommend a clean install of that simply because of all the errors you are getting. With the new xp install and a clean install of FS9 and the proper install of the FS9.1 update it will probably fix your probems and work much better. Make sure your fix-it man installs the latest drivers for your system, including sound and video card.

As for aNTIVIRUS... get RID of Norton. Thats probably 1/2 your problem with FS9. For the best AV, use NOD-32. If you prefer a freeware antivirus, use AVAST or AVG. I prefer NOD32. Norton takes over the entire system and it is close to IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of it without wiping the system clean so the XP install would probably a good idea simply because of the NAV crap

Based on the problems you are having I would NOT save the current FS9 install and start over. If you downloaded FS9 stuff, you should have copies of all the 3rd party aircraft and scenery in their base packages to reinstall. I would start out by not installing any 3rd party stuff until you confirm FS9 is working without errors and crashes, then install things one by one to make sure someing in your 3rd party add-ons is not borked and causing problems. If after you install something FS9 starts acting up, you will know what is causing it and uninstall the culprit.

[Fozzer]

...like Nick says, It is a fact that you cannot uninstall/remove/delete Norton successfully without doing a complete Format of the hard drive... ...!

The good news is, if you still want to use Norton without paying

[rootbeer]

I guess a reformat is the only avenue available to me, judging by those last two replies. I'm sick...

So why is Norton so tenacious? Don't they understand that some of us may want to change to a different antivirus system sometime in the future? Maybe they do...

[Politically Incorrect]

So why is Norton so tenacious? Don't they understand that some of us may want to change to a different antivirus system sometime in the future? Maybe they do...

I think you may have answered your own question

[rootbeer]

Well, they've lost me forever. The man who will restore my computer to better-than-new perfomance uses a slew of things. He likes Kaspersky's and Sunbelt and a few others I can't remember. I dread not having my machine while it's in for repairs. I'll be putting this off until it becomes unbearable...

[NicksFXHouse]

It should not take more than 2 days to wipe out a system and reinstall... The only reason it would take that long is to update and set up the OS, install an entire list of software and set it all up.


A basic wipe and reinstall without downloading updates takes 2 hours, or less.

[rootbeer]

I'm sure he can do it very quickly. My concern is that I want some components of Windows left out and that he will just go ahead and install it all. I want what I get back to be "lean and mean," meaning as few background processes running as possible. It takes 2-1/2 minutes for this machine to boot-- that's just too long.

What would constitute the "entire list of software?" Would that be what I have on it now or things that are hidden or internal to doing something like I am contemplating?