Hi, my laptop is only used for home use and doesn't have an awful lot on it. We use it mainly for surfing the net. It's gone sooooo slow I'm tearing my hair out just opening one application - not just on the internet but on word etc. I rang a computer co. and they told me it had a virus and that I should'nt depend on AVG Free (which is what I have) but I MUST buy a proper one. They said 'it must be a virus', bring it in and we'll fix it!! Is this the case?
Thx

Just to let you know I run AVG Free Antivirus as do many of my friends and we see no problem here.

Your computer company probably wants you to bring your computer in so they can then push you into PAYING for an AV like McAfee or Norton which in my opinion are no better.

Have you scanned the system?

And may I be so rude as to ask what particular browsing habits you have? Any file sharing utilities?

Post back.

There is one subtle yet vital difference between opinion and fact; and the bigger man is he who can whole-heartedly admit this.

You may want to download Avast Free, then disable AVG and let Avast do a bootscan on reboot. Just move the infections to the chest.
See if that helps your problem.
You can also try some on-line scans with Housecall and Kaspersky as they will let you remove any infections found. I would stay away from the free scans like Panda and some others that will scan but will not remove the infections. They sometimes use false positives to get you to buy their product.

Also use:
Spybot S&D, update it and also immunize
Spyware Blaster

That should get you going in the right direction. If you see that some of the infections are in your restore folder, you may have to turn off system restore and rescan again, then don't forget to start up system restore after the infections are cleaned out.

Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

It's certainly worth doing the scans etc mentioned. However you have obviously not explained the problem in as much detail as you gave to the "computer co" if they concluded confidently that it was a virus.

Maybe, but there are a lot of other things that can cause slow downs such as too many background tasks running, not doing your computer housekeeping and so forth.

Add clearing temporary internet files to your list of things to do and maybe even a defrag wouldn't go amis.

DerekW

http://www.offroaders.com/ralphtheg...
That link explains things pretty good

Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks