Hi I am new to this forum,can someone please help!
I have just bought a new laptop with windows xp installed on it.I have installed all the freebies:norton ghost,mcafee security center.My problem is that every 10 seconds,the egg timer appears for 2 seconds then goes off,then 10 secs later same again.This doesn't seem to affect my pc,but is very annoying.I have tried system restore,removing my freebies,but to no avail.Any whizzkids out there can put me right? Thankyou ,Andylad

Beware of Freebies!

Norton and McAfee are notorious for very invasive installations. Just removing from Add/Remove Programs or even a System Restore is no guarantee that the software was removed successfully.

You can run a search for both Norton/Symantec and McAfee > start > Search (choose advanced options and check Show Hidden as well as System Files.


Both also have cleanup utilities at their respective web sites.

You can also monitor your Task Manager to try and see what process is trying to work:

The Task Manager can be opened by right clicking a blank area of the Taskbar (bottom of screen) and click Task Manager > Processes. When you get the hourglass see what process is working.


All that being said it might be most expedient to run a Factory Reinstall and start with a fresh XP.