Programs not responding

[herbw2]

For the past few weeks I have been getting "not responding messages. booting up is very slow. It takes five or six minutes for Firefox to boot up.
The non response was occasional earlier, but now it happens all the time. The blue revolving donut also appears frequently and nothing operates. I had to use my tablet this morning in order to check my email.
I have scanned the computer with adaware, spybot, malwarebytes and registryfix8 and CCleaner. I have also defragged with Auslogics. This has not cleared up the situation. Do you have any suggestions?

[herbw2]

Let me add I am using a Sony Vaio 365 e/b with Vista Home Premium

[AnnMarie]

Hi herbw2. To eliminate third party software as the cause of the problem, try clean booting (see here, Step 1: Perform a clean boot). Dont troubleshoot it yet and make sure you dont download anything or surf to dodgy sites while you are running in this state because your antivirus will be disabled. Did you notice any difference?

[herbw2]

I followed instructions. My avast icon still shows, but not the adaware or spybot in the
taskbar. Should I follow up with the other steps. Not sue of what I'm doing. BTW, I ran a Secunia scan , and I installed a new version of Adobe Flash Player. I'm not certain of what I'm doing and will be careful about what sites I choose.
Thanks for your efforts.
Herb W.

[AnnMarie]

No dont do anything yet. Do you still have the same problems when your computer is running in a clean boot state?

[herbw2]

The computer still is at often slow to respond. I scanned at secunia on firefox and got message that I had flashplayer 10.2.152.26(active x) installed which is insecure and to install 10.3.183.10 (activex).

Their link did not work so i went fo the Adobe website and downloaded latest versionwhich is flashplayer 11. I still get the insecure message above
.
I tried secunia on the internet explorer and got a message about inability to load the java applets. I checked the java website and was informed that I had the latest java installed.
Herb w

[AnnMarie]

Ok undo the clean boot if you havent already done so.

How much RAM does this computer have herbw2?

[herbw2]

2 gig; came with 1 G and I had it upgraded to 2. Will undo the hard boot.
Herbw2

[AnnMarie]

Ok, when you have done this, it might help if I can see some logs of what is running on your computer. Go here and download DDS to your Desktop and doubleclick on DDS.scr to run it. When the scan has finished, two logs will open. Copy and paste both reports in this topic. The logs will be reasonably large so you may have to divide them into sections and make several posts to post them.

[herbw2]

I got Windows cannot access specified device, path or file message

[AnnMarie]

Hmmm, was any malware detected and removed when you ran the antivirus/antimalware scanners?

[herbw2]

Adaware removed a malicious software program

Herbw2

[AnnMarie]

Ok, I think it would be a good idea for you to post a new topic in our Malware Removal Forum herbw2 and have your operating system checked by our experts before we go any further here. They are busy there so be patient.

[herbw2]

Will do. Thank you appreciate. Will contact them. Have taken out subscription.
Herbw2

[AnnMarie]

Thanks herbw2. We appreciate your support. Post back here if you still have problems when you are given the all clear.