whats the top 3 ways to run a full diagnostic on your computer to check for anything from viruses to efficiency to actual usage.

i basically want to figure out why its having some hickups and i dont know if my antivirus and antispyware is catching everything. so i want to do a full checkup on it and see what can be done.
namely im looking to see if i need to update the ram and see how much of an extra (internal or external) hardrive i should get to back up my files.

last question is whether the free antivirus software is good enough to catch everything and if there is a program that can help you manage the computer programs and its efficiency

9/13/2009 10:24:30 PM

I'm guessing you brought this computer from a store and not custom? Tell us the model or even better if you know the specs or can find the specs easily tell us that. This will tell us if you need to upgrade or not.

1)Malwarebytes Anti-malware
2)Your antivirus.
3)Other optional software to run if it really bad and 1) didn't fix it Hijackthis or some other spyware softwares

hijackthis usually have good forums to help you get rid of the stubborn ones.

9/13/2009 10:35:54 PM

it is a custom built computer,
i have an AMD phenom 9500 processor (2.2 gHz quad core)
nvidia 8800 gt video card, i have 2 GB of DDR2 ram
117 GB of used space
35 GB free of the 152 GB
windows xp

also run AVG anti-virus (free) system that has the updates and covers all the spyware and viruses and whatnot.
also use the Piriform CCleaner.com and the spybot: search and destroy app.

there are two errors i get everytime i turn my computer on that talk about two .exe that are from my D-link wireless programs.

[Edited on September 13, 2009 at 11:13 PM. Reason : this is my motherboard]

9/13/2009 11:12:34 PM

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4244473&CatId=13

[Edited on September 13, 2009 at 11:14 PM. Reason : motherboard]

9/13/2009 11:13:12 PM

hardware looks fine. What are these hiccups you mention then? Do they last a specific amount of time at random times. example your computer is normal but every 5 mins there like a min of slow down. or your computer is just slow all the time. if the the first then look at the processes in windows task manager when these hiccups happen and see what is using the cpu. then maybe you can figure out what happening.

9/14/2009 11:33:28 AM

combofix

9/14/2009 11:42:50 AM

Process Explorer
Resource Monitor
Event Log Viewer
Defraggler
Malwarebytes
Combofix
Vipre Rescue

Oh and the under appreciated 'chkdsk /R'

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 12:36 PM. Reason : ]

9/14/2009 12:28:00 PM

the hiccups i describe are just when i have a few programs running and to me, my system should have no problem but it severely slows down and sometimes the programs just dont finish loading. at that time ill usually turn off the computer and just wait a bit before i turn it back on and its ok.

the main thing that i have an issue with are these two errors that come up everytime the computer reboots, i.e. it was just turned on or just restarted. the errors have to do with two files from the D-link wireless program. ill make sure to get a screen shot or something to show you next time.
back in december, i had my computer reformatted and backed up most the files but i still re-installed the wireless programs and they still have the same problem. stand by and ill get the exact error message

9/14/2009 7:49:03 PM

these are the errors that pop up everytime my computer reboots and comes to the desktop screen.

Quote :

" AirPlusCFG.exe-entry point not found The procedure entry point apApply could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll WZCSLDR2.exe-entry point not found The procedure entry point apApply could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll"

I have looked both of these errors up and basically I uninstalled and reinstalled D-Link but it continued to come up. None of the online help really worked so far.
Even reformatting didnt do anything

9/15/2009 10:00:18 AM