Keystroke lag time and page browsing lag

This is my very, very first time on any kind of message board whatsoever...be gentle with me. I use Windows 98.

The problem is that when I am the internet and at a site where I have to enter information (like filling out a form) my cursor lags behind. It's doing it right now. I'll type but it takes seconds for the characters to catch up with my cursor. I have the same problem moving the browser bar. It is extremely aggravating.

When I'm off line in any program there is no problem.

I have had had several viruses over the past month or so. I wonder if there is something running in the background that I don't know about. I downloaded Spybot and ran it. I downloaded the trial version of Tweakmaster and I 'think' I ran it. I'm not a computer whiz, but I do have some knowledge.

When I do Ctrl Alt Del here are the programs that are running
and what I think they are for

Explorer
Arupld32 (is this necessary earthlink spyware??)
Rnaapp (??)
Twmaster (Tweakmaster)
Sautolaunch (for my palm pilot)
Hpqcmon (for my camera)
Vsstat (part of McAfee)
Systray (??)
InCD (Nero burning rom)
Hpztsb05 (for my printer)
Watchdog (this file is date 5/11/98 so I think it is a true windows program)

Can you help?
Donna

 

Explorer, Rnaapp, and Systray are Windows functions.

Arupld32 is probably an ISP spyware, as you thought. It might not be necessary. Go to google and search on that name, see what you think.

Watchdog? I don't know. See http://www.sarna.net/watchdog/ for one possibility. You might shut it down and see what happens.

Here's a handy little free app that will show more startups than Ctrl-Alt-Del, and let you easily turn them off & on. http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

 

Hi Donna

has this "lag behind" got worse all of a sudden - like when you installed new software or after malware problems?

...you have to put up with a bit of a lag when you are online, it's annoying but the computer is very busy doing masses of invisible stuff, and working the screen display isn't at the top of its priority list...

but if you reckon that the lag has suddenly got worse it's indeed cause for investigation.

==

Your keystrokes are going into a small buffer (I think 14 char?) so they won't get "lost" - although they can end up going into the wrong window! (if a pop-up blasts off at you for example)

==

check how "busy" your computer is with System Monitor; the first time you start it up it will arrive with a light blue graph of "Kernel Processor" which is indeed the one you want; if that's staying at 100% the first thing that suffers is the speed of the screen display.

(Start>Run and type in sysmon)

==

I'm curious about this Watchdog thing.

11th May 1998 20:01 is indeed characteristic of Windows98 First Edition files (I'm hoping you're using US date format - it looks like 5th November to UK bods like me!).

But, Watchdog doesn't seem to be part of W98FE There's a watchdog by sarna.net (as samson says) and another by IBM...

Another way you can check what's running on your computer, (part of Windows98), shows you more than CtrlAltDel does:

Start>Programs>Accessories>SystemTools>SystemInformation (or Start>Run and type in msinfo32)
and follow "Software Environment" to "Running Tasks ";

...shows you tasks which hide from CtrlAltDel and also shows you the Manufacturer of the software...

interested to know what - if anything - shows up for manufacturer of Watchdog.

==

turning off "Autocomplete" unloads masses of work from your computer and might well speed things up a bit for you - even if there's no corruption as suggested in the M$ KB article. Rather depends if you find the feature useful I suppose.

==

best wishes, HJ.

 

Lagging when filling out online forms is a classic symptom of the presence of CoolWebSearch, which is spyware. You can download and runCWShredder to get rid of it. (Download link is in the section titled, "Epilogue-The Fix Known As CWShredder. "

 

key stroke and browsing lag time reply

Hey guys! (we say 'hey' in North Carolina!
Thank you all so much!! I'm printing out the replies I have received to date and I will use them to do more research.
The problem did start suddenly and it's only while interacting with a site; not during writing email or at any other time offline. I certainly don't have a great home PC, and I have always experienced alittle slowness, but this lag is really out of the ordinary and quite drastic. You've all give me some great ideas about how to investigate further. I'm suspicious for a virus or spyware of some sort. Thanks for making this 'message board thing' such a useful and pleasant experience. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Thanks again, Donna

 

Lag, lag no more!!!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!
Weeks and weeks of agony and torment are over!
I went step by step through all of your suggestions and I have comments for all:

To Samson-Sarna.net had some very useful information for me. Subsequently I found that my watchdog.exe was a vital part of my May 1998 original Internet Explorer program and not a nasty bug!

To PeteC-I printed the Micrososft Knowledgebase Article and will keep it for future use. They suggested a registry error may have been the culprit and they were right! (see my message to MIZ below).

To Hugh Jarss-I found out how to check my sysmon-thanks for the tip. My May 1998 watchdog.exe is in fact a vital part of my Int Explorer and not a virus. The running tasks part of Software environment was very revealing. Just for good measure I turned off autocomplete.

To MIZ-YOU WIN THE PRIZE!! CWSHREDDER resolved my problem in less than 3 minutes. It removed a CWS.bootconf, CWS.Tapicfg (which I thought I had cleaned out already with Spybot, and 8 infected IE registry values. I tested interacting with the internet and YAHOO! I'm back to my normal lag time!!!!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

I disabled Arupld32 at startup and had no significant repercussions so I'm leaving it 'unchecked.'

 

Yes, what PeteC said.

For a little extra protection, it's a good idea to go into Internet Explorer>Internet Options>Advanced tab, scroll down to and uncheck all references to "Install on Demand." There's at least one and maybe two. It won't eliminate spyware finding its way into your computer but it helps somewhat.

Then, for any spyware that does infest your computer, download and install Spybot and/or AdAware. Read the help files to familiarize yourself with how they work. I recommend you use them both since each tends to find things the other misses. Update them before you run one or both and run one or both about once a week to keep things cleaned up.

Happy surfing!