Expert: Sean Oriyano - 9/2/2007

Question
QUESTION: Dear Sean

I have an ADSL connection here in Iran.I use win xp.Recently I found out that my connection speed has decreased drastically( to 1/3 of the original speed).I checked wit my ISP and they said the trouble comes from my own pc.
I used another pc to connect using my modem(USR 9112) and all was well ! So I tried everything,every anti virus and anti spyware I could lay my hands on,I even formmated all of my partittions and re-installed windows.But to no avail.

The only thing that finally helped was completely re-partittioning the HDD using FDISK.Then and only then my net speed returned to normal.But it only lasted a few days.I used some back-up DVDs from my old files and (I think) this caused it all to start over again.Nothing shows in the AV scans( I have used NOD32,Symantec,Norton,Zonealarm and Kaspersky).And the only problem I have is my connection speed.

There are two other issues that ought to be mentioned :

1-My HDD is S.M.A.R.T. capable and it reports STATUS BAD.Sometimes when xp tries to auto-scan after a sudden turn-off with no shut down,it enters into a fixed status where the HDD works incessantly and the percent indicator remains locked on zero.I have to reset at these times and skip the scan to load my win xp.

2-Once I deleted some files accidentally.Using a recovery program I restored them,but the software also found many files of similar names,comprised of A and seven numbers,mostly zero.for example :

A0002230.ini
A0045674.acs
A0000345.exe

The  files as you see have different extensions AND sizes.they vary from 2k to 3-4 Mb.Among them I found some applications I had deleted myself,but under a different name(A******.*) .They were still executable and had their own icons.Could this be causing all the trouble? There were thousands of them.

Thank you in advance and sorry to put you to so much trouble.I am at my wit's end,please help me.

Yours
Mehdi






ANSWER: Hello Mehdi,

Interesting problem here, in fact it looks like you might have more than one.

First, for the DSL speed problems you might look at a utility called the "TCP Optimizer" which you can download off of a website called www.speedguide.net.  This utility will optimize your connection and make it faster and more reliable, I would give this a shot to see if it fixes it.

Now for your other problem with your hard drive it seems like there might be something failing or preparing to fail here.  What I recommend you do is first, back up all your data and second, get a hard drive repair utility to scan and fix your hard drive before it fails.  To help you I would recommend a utility called "Spinrite" which you can get over at grc.com for about $80 US (I don't know exactly what it would be for you) I use this utility myself to fix hard drives that are dead and it always works.  If you don't choose to use Spinrite at least make sure you back up your data in case the drive does fail (You don't want to lose you data).

Lastly, the files you are seeing are impossibly to identify without much more information, but I wouldn't worry about it at this point.

Good luck,
Sean

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Sean

I have backed up my files long before,no worry there.But this DSL problem's driving me NUTS.When I FDISKed the HDD and installed windows,all was ALL RIGHT.But then it started agin.I used DSL SPEED but though it increased my speed a bit,it just wasn't what it should be,not even close.CAN it be some virus that five good AVs haven't been able to find?

Yours
Mehdi


Answer
Hi Mehdi,

Yes, it's definitely possible that a AV program is just not picking up I've seen that before myself.  In your case it sounds like you are knowledgeable enough to make sure the AV programs you are using are up to date so it should be catching these things.  Something you didn't mention is if your ISP perhaps is installing some custom software, I know in the US some ISPs distribute custom software that they want you to install to use their service and it inevitably slows the connection down.  

Now you did mention 5 AV programs, you aren't running these all at once on the same computer are you?  Running multiple AVs on a computer will slow it down as will multiple firewall software.  Have you checked your process list in Task Manager to see what is running?  Make sure everything you see is something you recognize.

I would still recommend running that TCP Optimizer to see if you get any results, I've had extremely good luck with it myself.

Good luck,
Sean