Windows Vista Computer slowdown, SFC results

My laptop (Vista Home Basic, just bought it new in June) has been behaving rahter strangely the last couple of days--folders such as Control Panel freezing, it took a dvd burning program something like 40 minutes to burn 2 gigs of data onto a dvd (as a backup, in case things go real bonkers).

Anyways, after an av scan i was told that there were no threats, but that two files had been "changed," whatever that means: ntoskrnl.exe and shell32.dll.

I did a search of this forum, and sfc was recommended, so I did that as well. It told me that some files were not able to be repaired by SFC. The log is pretty big--I uploaded what I thought was the relevant part here:
http://www.paulrittman.com/SFC Results.txt. I saw there a couple of other files that appeared to be corrupt.

I would draw some solace from the fact that niether shell32 nor ntoskrnl are mentioned among the files that couldn't be repaired, but they are nowhere mentioned in the SFC log, so I'm not sure that this even touched those files at all. I supposed I can do another av scan to make sure.

OK now--what is the best way to repair/replace these files? I do have a D partition, which Dell placed there for a rollback. Can/should I get the files mentioned from there? Or just do a repair install of Vista--I do have the disks. I would assume that simply copying/pasting these files would do the trick--or not?

 

Hi Paul,
I would expect "changed" just means that. Maybe they were changed by Windows Updates. Microsoft files cannot be forged.

You can find them using Search (Advanced, check the box for "system files "), if you right-click on them you can check they are MS files in Properties and there should be a selection in the R-C menu to scan them with the AV.

I think the slow-down will be in some other area. If you are stuck, try putting a Hijack This log in the security forum and ask if they could check it, but it may be legitimate background programs (drivers?) causing it. Try disabling all the listings in the Startup tab of msconfig as a test, if that gives immediate results, isolate the program.

If you are running Aero, you may not need to look much further Edit: Oh, Home Basic does not have Aero, but I will leave it in case someone is looking for a possible reason for slow-down.

Matt

 

Matt, thanks. Actually I was able to find them through the start menu search. And of course scanning them was easy--right click and Scan with AVG. I had never done that before (never had the need to). I think you are correct. If there's a problem, it lies elsewhere.

All is well. And the computer (since I posted the above) has actually been behaving itself. I'll do a HJT log if I notice any other slowdowns, tho. Perhaps I just needed to reboot. I love using the Sleep mode on this laptop so I don't really reboot except when prompted by program installs etc. Perhaps that was it.

Thanks again.