Any Computer Experts Out There?

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matt72582's Avatar
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I would have posted this days ago, but I hate asking for help, but I've had the flu for almost 2 weeks, and my laptop is really screwed up, and it's kinda my life, especially during this quarantine and all this free time.

I've done all the scandisks, windows defender, anti-virus and it all comes clean. I've tried to do a Recovery, but it keeps failing, and its screwed up search settings and other things I'll hold off for another time. I've uninstalled programs, resets browsers, cache, cookies (so many password, ugh) defrag, optimize, disk cleanup.

It's odd how I can't play a song on winamp (it keeps freezing, sometimes for a short while, sometimes for a really long time where I have to restart), which takes no RAM, and the videos that I have on my desktop for example, yet... videos work much better on YouTube. It was always the other way around, because of my slow internet connection. I can't even play a simple game like Age of Empires II, which I've had for many years.


Barely over a year.
AMD A-9-9420; Radeon R5, 5 Computer Cores, 2c+3G... 3.00 GHz
64-bit, x-64 based processor

I have a few things backed up, but I don't have anything more than a thumb drive. I get a lot of "No Responding", and when it comes to music or videos (but online videos work better surprisingly), it freezes up for a while, and then resume for a few seconds, sometimes for up to a minute. Same with a game I used to play. A few nights ago, I went about 5 minutes straight with no video interruptions (I use GOM player, and have tried others, no difference).

I've only had this laptop for a little over a year, and the Norton expired not too long ago, which is what I initially thought. I installed malwarbytes, did a scan - nothing.. I uninstalled and installed AVG - same thing. I've used the RUN command to get rid of worthless programs I couldn't uninstall simply with Control Panels ,but still no difference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't have the resources (or even a debit card) to find some sophisticated program online, so if you know something, I'd be very thankful in this very stressing time for me. Thanks!



I can imagine how stressful this is for you.

I am confident that someone here will come along & be able to help you.
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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



I'm assuming you have Windows 10 on your laptop? If so this is the site to go and ask for free help:
https://www.tenforums.com/

I don't use Windows so I can't really help you, but I do seem to remember that you can reinstall Windows from a back-up partition on your hard drive, they call that a 'fresh install'. However a fresh install will wipe out all of your saved files, so if you don't have important stuff backed up it will be lost forever. But post at that web site and ask for help it might be an easy fix.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
I'm assuming you have Windows 10 on your laptop? If so this is the site to go and ask for free help:
https://www.tenforums.com/

I don't use Windows so I can't really help you, but I do seem to remember that you can reinstall Windows from a back-up partition on your hard drive, they call that a 'fresh install'. However a fresh install will wipe out all of your saved files, so if you don't have important stuff backed up it will be lost forever. But post at that web site and ask for help it might be an easy fix.
I'll check it out. Thanks, CR.



I'll check it out. Thanks, CR.
I'm sure they can help you, as it's the biggest online, free, self help community for W10.

But in a worse case scenario if you can't fix your laptop, there's no need to throw it away. You can put a user friendly Linux operating system on it, easy to do. That's why I have for an OS.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
@matt72582

Might wanna take a looksie at your air intake. Laptops generally run kinda hot and need good airflow to keep temps relatively low. When temps creep up, you will start to have some of the issues you're describing.
  1. Check your air intake vents (likely on the bottom, maybe sides or back) for dust collection. If you have a can of compressed air, try to blow that gunk out. Just a good idea to do that every so often anyway to help prevent dust build up. If no compressed air, you can probably manually clean it just by wiping it down. I've even used a toothpick for really thin vents! Just don't get too aggressive and be sure to power off I'm sure you can find better techniques on YouTube.
  2. When you use it, do you set it on your lap or on a blanket over your lap? Or really, anything that might block or restrict air intake by the internal fan(s)? If you use it on your lap much you might want to check Amazon for a decent laptop lap stand or lap pad. If your intake fans are on the bottom, it's trying to suck fresh cool air in there. If you have fabric there (jeans, PJs, blanket, pillow, etc.) that's like wrapping your mouth with plastic cling wrap. =( Your laptop probably has couple of peg-type feet to help lift it a 1/4" or so above whatever flat surface you would normally keep it on. That's usually enough but depending on what you run on the laptop, the more airflow the better. A pad will give you a flat surface to make use of that design airway gap, if working on a flat desk/table surface isn't an option.
  3. If you use the laptop on a desk, has anything been moved lately close to it? One, I mean something that might also restrict airflow going INTO the laptop. Like a stack of books or movie cases that are snug against the laptop. Two, I also mean anything that be a source of added heat. For example, if you has a small space heater running near your laptop, then that laptop intake fan is likely just sucking in already warm air which does nothing to help cool the processor inside. It doesn't have to be so extreme as a literal space heater, but maybe a lamp, a warm TV, or anything that might put off additional heat (a large nearby window with constant, unhindered sunlight beaming through onto your laptop?). If you do have anything near it, maybe consider moving the laptop when you work on it?
  4. Do you shutdown often? My boss is notorious for leaving his office laptop on 24/7 for weeks at a time. He's always yelling at IT for the crappy machine. Guy just reboots it and it works again lol. I'm not saying you do that, but I had to throw it out too!!!!
  5. It's possible that the internal fan is weak, dying, or just clogged up a bit (point 1, above). Assuming you've cleaned it out (all vents, even if you're not sure it's a vent but may kinda look like one!), then you could get a cheap desk rotary fan to put next to it and try to aim the airflow toward the laptop intake. Or just feel around the case for where the warmest spot is and aim the fan there. Likely that's your processor or graphics card if you have one installed. The external fan can help blow fresh, cool air over the warm area to reduce the heat of it. This sounds silly, but actually works. I had to do that with an old desktop years back. My AC went out on me and to keep my PC from overheating I had to open the case and wedge a dinky 4" fan on the edge. It kept my PC from going nuts.
  6. That brings up my last point. Air conditioning! I don't know where you live, but warmer seasons are on us. Home ambient temperatures will affect your PC performance. This one point alone will likely compound all points above considerably. If you're not one to run the AC or, if you don't have one, then do be sure to run through the earlier points. Clean in/out vents; use flat surface underneath to prevent blocking air flow; move laptop away from potential external heat source/air restrictions; and maybe place a small fan nearby to help compensate for a weak internal fan. Should help a bit.
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matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
@matt72582

Might wanna take a looksie at your air intake. Laptops generally run kinda hot and need good airflow to keep temps relatively low. When temps creep up, you will start to have some of the issues you're describing.
  1. Check your air intake vents (likely on the bottom, maybe sides or back) for dust collection. If you have a can of compressed air, try to blow that gunk out. Just a good idea to do that every so often anyway to help prevent dust build up. If no compressed air, you can probably manually clean it just by wiping it down. I've even used a toothpick for really thin vents! Just don't get too aggressive and be sure to power off I'm sure you can find better techniques on YouTube.
  2. When you use it, do you set it on your lap or on a blanket over your lap? Or really, anything that might block or restrict air intake by the internal fan(s)? If you use it on your lap much you might want to check Amazon for a decent laptop lap stand or lap pad. If your intake fans are on the bottom, it's trying to suck fresh cool air in there. If you have fabric there (jeans, PJs, blanket, pillow, etc.) that's like wrapping your mouth with plastic cling wrap. =( Your laptop probably has couple of peg-type feet to help lift it a 1/4" or so above whatever flat surface you would normally keep it on. That's usually enough but depending on what you run on the laptop, the more airflow the better. A pad will give you a flat surface to make use of that design airway gap, if working on a flat desk/table surface isn't an option.
  3. If you use the laptop on a desk, has anything been moved lately close to it? One, I mean something that might also restrict airflow going INTO the laptop. Like a stack of books or movie cases that are snug against the laptop. Two, I also mean anything that be a source of added heat. For example, if you has a small space heater running near your laptop, then that laptop intake fan is likely just sucking in already warm air which does nothing to help cool the processor inside. It doesn't have to be so extreme as a literal space heater, but maybe a lamp, a warm TV, or anything that might put off additional heat (a large nearby window with constant, unhindered sunlight beaming through onto your laptop?). If you do have anything near it, maybe consider moving the laptop when you work on it?
  4. Do you shutdown often? My boss is notorious for leaving his office laptop on 24/7 for weeks at a time. He's always yelling at IT for the crappy machine. Guy just reboots it and it works again lol. I'm not saying you do that, but I had to throw it out too!!!!
  5. It's possible that the internal fan is weak, dying, or just clogged up a bit (point 1, above). Assuming you've cleaned it out (all vents, even if you're not sure it's a vent but may kinda look like one!), then you could get a cheap desk rotary fan to put next to it and try to aim the airflow toward the laptop intake. Or just feel around the case for where the warmest spot is and aim the fan there. Likely that's your processor or graphics card if you have one installed. The external fan can help blow fresh, cool air over the warm area to reduce the heat of it. This sounds silly, but actually works. I had to do that with an old desktop years back. My AC went out on me and to keep my PC from overheating I had to open the case and wedge a dinky 4" fan on the edge. It kept my PC from going nuts.
  6. That brings up my last point. Air conditioning! I don't know where you live, but warmer seasons are on us. Home ambient temperatures will affect your PC performance. This one point alone will likely compound all points above considerably. If you're not one to run the AC or, if you don't have one, then do be sure to run through the earlier points. Clean in/out vents; use flat surface underneath to prevent blocking air flow; move laptop away from potential external heat source/air restrictions; and maybe place a small fan nearby to help compensate for a weak internal fan. Should help a bit.

I have my laptop sitting on three milk-crates, so its never hot. Thanks, though.



I give up. This thing is trash.



You ready? You look ready.
If it has a SSD in it you could have a bad/failing drive. I say this because with a bad SSD things can be peachy keen one second and DEFCON 1 the next.

So like, the things you're trying to do that aren't working rely on the hard drive, whereas the YouTube stuff is primarily getting loaded to RAM.

Easiest way to rule that out is to get a live copy of Linux on a disc/flash drive and see if you experience the same things within that OS. Any distro will do.

You could also just replace the hard drive with another one you know is working and see if that alleviates the issue, but that's a little more work than the above test.

Based on everything you've described I'd be willing to put money on a bad drive.
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If you have not already (and are able too) could you hit ctr/alt/del and go to the performance tab and take a screen shot and post it?

I'm curious to see whats showing there.

Also if you are up for it go to your search bar on bottom left and type in dxdiag and hit enter. Check under the display tabs in the notes section to see if it lists any issues.

Thanks, hope you can get it going
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matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
If you have not already (and are able too) could you hit ctr/alt/del and go to the performance tab and take a screen shot and post it?

I'm curious to see whats showing there.

Also if you are up for it go to your search bar on bottom left and type in dxdiag and hit enter. Check under the display tabs in the notes section to see if it lists any issues.

Thanks, hope you can get it going

I tried the search, and on Display, it says "No Issues Found", but I don't think its done searching. I'll post this now, and if it changes, I'll reply back (I just don't want this to freeze)









You ready? You look ready.
Yeah, it’s definitely a disk issue.

Can you also type “winver” in the start menu search bar, and run the program it finds? Then share a screen cap of the window that pops up



So it looks like your hard drive is running at 100% which will cause many issues. That doesn't mean it's full but it is constantly spinning it seems.


The dxdiag can be started from run cmd too.
Just press the Windows key and the R key at the same time, it will*open*the*Run*command box and type in dxdiag.*


I'll be happy to help some more but here is some info:


https://www.easeus.com/partition-man...k-manager.html





A lot is probably stuff you already tried no need to do those again.**



You ready? You look ready.
Certain builds of Windows 10 have some real screwy issues with hard drives. Mainly the paging file but they have cleared up a lot in later builds. So hopefullly an update can alleviate it.



Typically (not always) you can narrow things down to hardware or software by booting in safe mode. If you haven't already see if you have issues in that mode as well.


If you need info on that :


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...c-in-safe-mode



You ready? You look ready.
Well, the drive might be fine, but it could be a Windows issue. We have had multiple occasions here at work where we had to make changes to the paging file/reload Windows to get it to stop pinging at 100%. I can't seem to find it but we had seen an article from Microsoft where they acknowledged the issue.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Well, the drive might be fine, but it could be a Windows issue. We have had multiple occasions here at work where we had to make changes to the paging file/reload Windows to get it to stop pinging at 100%. I can't seem to find it but we had seen an article from Microsoft where they acknowledged the issue.

I wonder why dragging a movie onto my D: drive (thumb-drive), and using a player (GOM) from the C: drive worked so well.



Could it be that Matt's computer has too many files/movies stored on the hardrive and so it's full...which means when the computer needs to write to the hardrive for example paging file it can't readily do that.

Matt can you check the amount of available disk space on your hardrive and post back?



You ready? You look ready.
I wonder why dragging a movie onto my D: drive (thumb-drive), and using a player (GOM) from the C: drive worked so well.
Because once the program is open it's sitting in your RAM, so there shouldn't be any reason that it would need to access the C: drive.



If you go to your task manager and look under the processes tab and then look for the "Disk" category you will see what programs/processes/etc... are using your hard drive. See if you notice anything very high. You can click on the category to have it sort by most to least.

If you can narrow it down to what is causing your drive to be used at such a high rate you might be able to see if it is software or hardware. If your drive is still spinning at that rate and nothing (software wise) is causing it it may be a bad HD. Usually it is not the hard drive unless it is older but sometimes you can get a bad one


.