OT - System bogged down without an apparent virus

First off, i would do a disk clean and a couple defrags, yes a couple. If your using the windows defrag, then in my opinion a couple defrags are required to completetly defraga hard drive. If your using an outside program, trhen one defrag should do it.
Since you reverted to an older working version and it still happens, seems to say it could be a defrag problem

It started bogging down shortly after boot up. Programs slow in starting, screen re-fresh was very slow.

do you mean in other programs other than sonar??
Cj

even though you restored an image, it still could get re-infected .e.g. if your using 2 drives or the thing is hiding in the boot sector etc..

if you scan , the best way is to use safe mode + system restore off as then it has no where to hide. that's up to you though as you'd lose restore points..

I don't use mcafee for a long time, but there is another thing mcafee do, mcafee stinger which is free..

http://vil.nai.com/VIL/stinger/

has a LOT of instructions about safe mode etc

it's try a scan in safe mode also with your normal AV.

also try running

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

registry scan / cleaner tab.


or maybe the drive itself is giving up the ghost and the bearings are going etc.. if your hearing a click or the drive is making a bit of noise, then it might be just age.

Download and run this - http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
If any malware has found its way onto your PC this will find it and get rid of it.
If it doesen't find anything then at least you'll be able to rule out malware.

Are you running Zone Alarm (firewall)? If so, perhaps it could be the culprit. Here's my experience:

My system slowed to a crawl yesterday. After checking for viruses and for hardware problems, I ran Task Manager which showed that a Zone Alarm component - vsmon.exe - was hogging the CPU. I don't believe I had made any related changes. I downloaded the latest version and tried to re-install, but it ran into problems, again with vsmon. I finally uninstalled it completely, and things went back to normal.

I switched to the built-in Microsoft firewall, which I've read is not very effective, but seems to be working ok.

I tried the Zone Alarm forum but couldn't find anything related.

- Tom

A couple of things come to mind. One your HD is on the way out. Easy to check. I use a free data transfer test program which I got off the net. It will test the data transfer and compare it with other well known drives. If the transfer rate is well down the HD is on it's last legs. I don't know how old your system is but if it's over a year old just take off the side cover and check that there is no build up of dust on the heat sink. A CPU which is getting too hot will exhibit the problems you are having. One final general note with regard to virus infections. Virus's attach themselves to files and some times these files are system files. No amount of scanning will detect these files as they are in use by the system and the AV program cannot access them. The only way to be 100% sure a drive is clean is to set it up in another system as a slave and then scan the drive. All files with exception of system restore files ( and a few others) are then available to be scanned. If you think you have an infected PC the first thing to do is switch off the system restore which in effect deletes the system restore files. Good Luck

Check taskmanager to see what is resource hogging. Do this by starting task manager and click on the 'Processes' tab then click twice on the 'CPU' title which will bring the task using the CPU to the top.

If there is no task other than 'System Idle Process' using the CPU then as indicated it's probably HD orientated although sometimes some USB kit plugged in will slow a system to a crawl. I've certainly known clients USB printers to cause such problems. Try unplugging things one at a time to see if there's a culprit there.

Visit your HD manufaturer's website then download and run their HD diagnostic software to find a HD problem if any. They either have problems or they don't, I've had drives go down after a few months and likewise I have a couple of drives in my system that are pushing for 10 years old and still serve their purpose.

If you want to get a bit more in depth google for and download Hijackthis then run it and save a logfile. You'll be able to see exactly what's running and any malicious activity such as startup changes, etc. will also show here. You'll find various websites where you can post the logs and get help if the log is meaningless to you. Don't just go deleting processes you don't recognise though unless you know what you're doing.

I wouldn't use McCaffee on a bet. Had it on a computer a few years back and it actually trashed the hard drive's contents. There's better out there.

my advice would be to get a ~80GB sata hd for os.. no partitions..
it's just more flexibel.. if it crashes..virus..whatever.. you just change it for a new one.. (without any data loss)
as you already have a backup-software running.. recovering your system will be even more easy for you..