My laptop is running slow after i reformatted it because it had a virus? what should i do?

my laptop is an Acer Aspire 5050 with 80GB HDD, 2.2GHz AMD and 512MB DDR2

Usually, reformating a harddisk will remove all the viruses. If you had just reformated, this virus must be fast to inflict the system. The slow response could be some re-organizing of the application programs resulting your notebook the needs to load and unload the temporary files from the harddisk because your notebook only have sufficient RAM of 512MB to run XP. This is particularly so when you use internet because before the formating, internet created temporary files which one could assess the sites faster.

Try to do a defagment test and a clean up of the harddisk and see how that will go before suspecting a virus, which could always be removed either by application program or manually. You could try to examine what is running in the Task Manager and ends some other programs to see if the notebook runs faster. The following article might offer some help on how to go about using Task Manager to get rid of the viruses if any manually.

http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.com/2008...

I would suggest the following;
rerun your anti-virus program then a defrag; then a cleandisc
delete all of your programs ,e-mails ,and anything that you do not really need.also, ensure your operating system
is the latest update. I presume you are running Windows.

try MSCONFIG..and remove all unwanted startups...in ur windows folder there would be a folder called prefetch .empty that folder.and also try searching for the virus again..........this might help u.......

try upgrading ur RAM to 1GB, have a professional check ur laptop...make sure ur laptop is runing at full processor speed..
right click on My Computer n properties.. it should indicate 2.2GHz if no then change ur profile setting in ur power management...

Most definately upgrade your RAM to a minimum of 1gb. It would still be sluggish but alot faster then now.

Your problem is not an uncommon one. If you re-installed windows, it will do a lot of good for your computer. However, it you didn't re-install it under the proper conditions. It can cause the situation that you have now. Ill explain

Re-installing your operating system has created a lot of duplicate copies of files located in your registry. These unnecessary keys use a lot of your computer resources and eat up RAM and free space. This is a recipe for a computer lockup, slowdown or a freeze. Scan your registry if you pull up more than 30-40 errors or un-used keys, clean your registry. This is the problem. If this doesnt work the page below gives you information on registry cleaners and other tweaks to stop freezes.

Hope this helps
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/w...

if you just complete a few quick tasks on this site they'll send you a sony laptop, completely free of charge!!