Please Help....Computer Problems!

Originally posted by nineix
reply to post by StealthyKat

 

These clowns are trying to tell you to delete everything. These clowns don't have well over a decade working Corporate infotech addressing whole varieties of different solutions.

Rarely ever does one need to format or totally wipe a computer to resolve issues. Formatting or erasing everything is the answer of the lazy, and/or ignorant.

Having more than one antivirus program installed on your machine can cause lots of problems with performance.

1. Click on Start, then Run, then type 'msconfig', but without quotations. Hit enter. this will bring up the system configuration window.
2. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck everything. You're not deleting anything, just stopping everything from starting on computer start, almost similar to leaving your car running all night in your driveway, just in case you need to drive somewhere. turn these things off. they'll start up automatically when you actually use the programs associated.
3. Apply and restart.
4. go to control panel, add/remove programs, and uninstall all of your antivirus programs, except one.
5. restart as necessary when prompted.
6. update java, flash and shockwave.
7. use Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. Avoid MS internet Explorer.

Please see if there's any performance improvement and report back.
There's more to be done regarding page file size and some other things.

further, what version of windows are you running?
right-click on the My Computer icon then click Properties. Please tell us the information shown.

ignore anyone that tells you to delete or format anything. they have nothing to lose, while you lose everything.

edit on 1-4-2012 by nineix because: (no reason given)

I have to agree with you and just at this thread.Wipe everything?Sounds to me like it's an internet problem.Or it could just be as simple as her computer is a P.O.S.Which it probably is being that its an E Machine.Probably a hardware failure if it isn't the internet just being slow.Though I will say I agreed with you up until you said avoid internet explorer.I've used it for a LONG time and never had any problems.i've had more with google chrome and mozilla.

reply to post by StealthyKat


"I do see windows on c....and the d drive is over 2 thireds full, but when I click on it, it says it's empty"

That sounds an awful lot like either a) Corrupt file system or b) A failing hard drive.

Try the following:

1) Press Windows Key + R (Or goto Start > Run)
2) Type "cmd" and hit enter
3) In the black window that appears, type "chkdsk D: /R /X" (without the quotation marks) and hit enter.
4) Press "Y" if you get a prompt asking if you want to do a boot-time disk check.
5) Restart your machine.
6) Check if you can see any files on D:. If you can't, the next step would be to run a hard drive diagnostics tool to confirm it's a hardware issue. You'll need to download the diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacturers website.

You should check event viewer-windows logs-system and see if anything hard drive related is causing errors. If so I would stop and get a guru to take you drive out and try to recover your files on another machine.
From the sounds of it, you already lost the files you had on c: when you re installed 7. Trying to recover your files may be easier on a second machine or using UBCD4W on other related boot CD's
I suspect the d: is the recovery partition. If it is still there then the OP should be able to get into the emachine recovery outlined in the link below.

emachines-us.custhelp.com...

Originally posted by autowrench
reply to post by StealthyKat

 

This is all pretty confusing. You said you formatted a partition? Which partition? I am thinking you have formatted all of your partitions. My best advice, being as what you said sounds like a virus/trojan, erase the whole HDD, I use Ultimate Boot CD myself. Choose HDD/Wiping, I use CopyWipe a lot, wipe the drive and do a fresh install.

Ultimate boot cd probably the best utilities tool available, HDD erase the ONLY department of defence standard drive wiper that cleans EVERYTHING, even stuff that dariks boot and nuke wont clean.
Host Protected Areas are a pain in the ass to scrub, you either resize the disk to clear the HPA or use ultimate cd HDDerase utility to do it for you.

O.p go to bleeping computer and start a thread, there are some very helpful people there that will offer assistance, they also have the tools for you to show them exactly what you have done to your pc.
without knowing what has happened its impossible to help you.

reply to post by StealthyKat


Now might be a good time to think about upgrading to Linux. I use Ubuntu since it's more user friendly, and have to tell you, if I had to go to windows again I wont use one lol,

reply to post by lurker007

that's mb's ?? not gb's ??

Yes it's mbs.

If you have reistalled correctly then it's obviously not software. I doubt it would be hardware, never known hardare to give you a slow internet, it either works, or it doesn't, no inbetween, unless you're on wireless, then that's a different issue.

I would restart your router, and if stil lthe same contact your provider/phone company and get them to test the line. I'm sure you'll sort it if you follow these steps.

reply to post by StealthyKat


It sounds like you accidentally removed/deleted some of your drivers. You should try the manufacturers
website and see if you can download the drivers specific to your machines hardware. When you reinstalled
windows, it supplied you with some drivers, but the windows drivers are not always the best match for your
gear. Check the customer support/downloads for your machine.

So many different solutions has my mind spinning and I work in the computer industry, lol. Can't imagine what StealthyCat is going thru but it looks like she has some experience with PC's. Like some have said...formatting a hard drive is the easiest way and I have done it that way too. I tend to lean on working on fixing the issue for a few days or a week then if all else fails then I format. It all depends on your time and patience level. If you don't have patience you may want to end the misery and format.

Maybe this was discussed already but is there any system restore discs that came with the PC? I'm guessing no but just thought I would check.

reply to post by StealthyKat


Ok, before you do any more damage following the advice in this thread, do this:

Open your start menu and find the little computer icon, right click it, and from the selection choose "manage".

from the window that opens, in the left hand pane, find and select "device manager".

Look for any devices with a yellow exclamation point ( ! ) specifically under "network adapters" even if you have to click it to expand it. Stuff might also show up as "unknown device"

If any of the network adapters show a yellow exclamation point, click it and select "update driver" and if windows asks, let it check microsoft.com

Obviously your network card is working to some extent, but if it's a driver issue, it might be defaulted to the generic driver, and might not be performing properly.

Your system is running fine, loading stuff online seems to take a long time buffering....

Buffering a video online is going to use the following hardware:

Network card, duh
Ram (copies to ram, then to HD)
Hard Disk.

The last phase is playing, which is ram and your video card, and if you are buffering properly, should be fine. Verify you don't need any drivers in device manager FIRST.

If you do, and windows doesn't autodetect them, you can find a little app called "cpuz" that is free, safe, and will scan and show you the hardware models of your system, specifically the motherboard, which will let you know where to look for drivers.

Please, for the love of god, do not start messing with system files, deleting anything, or modifying your msconfig unless you know two things:

what the hell you are doing
How to recover from screwing crap up.

Windows 7 creates a hidden boot partition on drive c: and installs the main os to drive d: by default. By design, without third party apps, you won't see that hidden partition, but if you delete it, change it, or mess with it, you will cripple the os. Without a physical windows 7 install cd with repair, you are done.

If you are still concerned about a virus, get a copy of hiren's boot cd, and boot it using the virus scan provided. scanning an infected windows OS from within the OS is a waste of time.

reply to post by mytheroy

Now might be a good time to think about upgrading to Linux. I use Ubuntu since it's more user friendly, and have to tell you, if I had to go to windows again I wont use one lol,

Yeah because having to compile packages to install drivers is simple right? If you have a linux guy to help you, go ahead and try it, it is pretty sweet, ubuntu has a windows feel to it. But don't poke under the hood, and you'd better hope you have standard hardware my friend.

I use windows, linux, and Mac, linux, ubuntu specifically, is deceptively easy to use for the basics, but also incredibly hard to fix once you've borked it. Anytime ANYTHING fails on my debian fog server we have to rebuild from a fresh install, there is no "fixing". I'm using ubuntu for the NAT server and that alone as it simply can't be trusted with any other task, I have never seen to many kernel failures in my life, for a system that does nothing 90% of the time.

Oh know stealthcat head must of imploded with all the solutions we gave her. I hope its going well... maybe a dedicated tech forum would be a better idea lol.

JustAThought: If you might have had your computer compromised by someone. (small businesses are big targets) Since you do your work on that computer you should think about what potential sensitive information might have been compromised. C.C details for example.

Good Luck
-Bix

Wow theres a lot of dodgy advice being given in this thread

nineix and phishyblankwaters have given some good advice as usual and what AzureSky said about the speed you were reporting not being slow enough to really effect things is true. Bixxi3 has some good ideas to

Working out what is the problem with no obvious cause is a process of elimination. You need to work out what IS or is not working ok. You should always be testing to find the cause before diving in and making changes to the system , anyone who claims to know what the problem is without proper investigations is just guessing..and as Bixxi3 rightly said here formating is a last resort. Id advise picking one of the experts offering help and work with them until you get to the bottom of things. Theres so many people offering to help at this point im going to sit this one out for now.

Even so theres a few bits of info that might help people to help you at this point.

-What version of Windows 7 do you have?

-We need to identify how you installed windows. If you have re-installed windows over the old version is there a folder in your root drive ( usually c: ) that is called Windows.Old ?

-Could this be a an ISP, network cable, NIC, modem, router problem? What line speed should you be getting?

-Do you have access to another laptop to see how it performs hooked up to your Internet connection?

-PhoenixOD (MCP,MCTS)

Gosh, people, no one has bothered to ask her to check hoe much system RAM is available. Stealthy, I checked your system specs from the model you listed in the OP, and you should have a 1.6 GHz dualcore, 4gb of RAM, and in the neighborhood of a 650 gb harddrive. Please right click the my computer icon, and see if it reports 4gb of RAM. Since your machine is working, albeit slow, and it's over 3 years old, I believe you are suffering from overheating problems. Handy with a screwdriver? Open it up and check for a clogged cooling fan.

Let's stay with the easy stuff first.

Originally posted by Druid42
Gosh, people, no one has bothered to ask her to check hoe much system RAM is available. Stealthy, I checked your system specs from the model you listed in the OP, and you should have a 1.6 GHz dualcore, 4gb of RAM, and in the neighborhood of a 650 gb harddrive. Please right click the my computer icon, and see if it reports 4gb of RAM. Since your machine is working, albeit slow, and it's over 3 years old, I believe you are suffering from overheating problems. Handy with a screwdriver? Open it up and check for a clogged cooling fan.

Let's stay with the easy stuff first.

If she was overheating she should still be working full speed shouldn't she? I mean if it get's too hot it'll just shut the system down but shouldn't affect performance.

reply to post by HawkeyeNation


As per the OP, her system started running slow, then she tried to "clean" it, via software. From my experiences, before playing with any software based solutions, you MUST rule out the hardware aspects. Lack of cooling is the number one enemy for circuits that run hot anyway, and a dual-core clocked around 2.2 ghz runs hot all the time, so over the course of a few years, dust collects on the cooling fans, leading to at least a 30% reduction in airflow. The cooling fins on a graphic chip get plugged, and internal temperature rises. An easy way for the OP to check her airflow would be to hold her hand over the back of the system, and feel the temperature and quantity of air flowing out. Is it warm, or hair dryer hot? Is it barely flowing? Heat causes all sorts of strange things to occur, and the hardware is functioning way outside of specification.

The system will shutdown when a component fails. Then it's too late. Then, it's time to replace something, if not the whole computer. I stress to clean your tower out with compress air at least every 6 months to retain optimal cooling. I've had customers before complain about their system running slow, and after opening the case, I discover a huge ball of dust growing off the cpu cooling fan. I always check hardware first, for cooling, before screwing around with software...It's not always to blame.

reply to post by Druid42


I have 4 but it says 2.75 ram usable? I updated all the drivers, and it seemed to help. Another thing is, windows are "overlapping". By that, I mean when I go to a new page, and there is a video, a piece of the page I was on before that will show while it's loading. ugggh. I haven't done anything major.....I'm afraid to because I CAN get online etc, it's just so slow. I think I may just have to take it to someone who knows more than I do after all if nothing I do helps.....

reply to post by Druid42


I just might break out the screw driver soon! Thanks to all who answered!

Originally posted by StealthyKat
reply to post by Druid42

 

I have 4 but it says 2.75 ram usable? I updated all the drivers, and it seemed to help. Another thing is, windows are "overlapping". By that, I mean when I go to a new page, and there is a video, a piece of the page I was on before that will show while it's loading. ugggh. I haven't done anything major.....I'm afraid to because I CAN get online etc, it's just so slow. I think I may just have to take it to someone who knows more than I do after all if nothing I do helps.....

Before you take your system some place where they will likely charge you more than the computer is worth to fix it, and then 'fix' it by wiping it out totally to bare bones factory default, I strongly recommend you contact one, or several of us here that you feel most comfortable working with, and set up a time to do remote assistance.

Doing remote assistance will allow one of us to remote control your system (temporarily) on a one-time basis, where we can poke around and fix the most obvious problems that are apparent.
Remote assistance is built into Windows 7, so, you don't have to download any extra software.

Contact one, or several of us over U2U, and one, if not several of us will respond according to each our schedules and availability, and hopefully make things better without the hassle of having to spend money to fix something that might very well be a series of several simple configuration changes.

If that mockingbird don't sing, then, well, you can still take the box to a hands-on tech.

Please, Stealthy, just tell me about the airflow coming from the back of your unit. I'm just saying that you REALLY need to check that after 3 years of use. Once that is ruled out, we can get back to repairing what you've done.

By fixing the OS, we are doing nothing to alleviate the fact your system maybe heat bound, and when a computer is suffering thusly, the contacts between chips are expanding from the far excessive heat. Once a memory register fails, the OS (windoze 7) compensates by allocating more swap space to the harddrive. That makes it thrash even more, generating more heat. You haven't described it making noise, so I won't say a cooling fan failure, I am just saying lack of airflow due to lack of cooling. You've already lost memory space, because your system should report 4 gb, nothing less. If that is what is installed, the OS should read all of that.

The excess heat also cause "glazing" on the contacts. Your memory chips no longer make solid contact with the slot they are inserted in, and your computer can't recognize all the memory it has. The simple solution is to pull your chips, and clean them with a pencil eraser, and make sure they are re-inserted tightly.

Rule out the overheating factor, and then we can continue.

Your original install of windows required (and thinks it has) 4gb of memory. 2.78 gb of usable memory is causing the lag.

(Sidenote: That 99mb partition on your e: drive you can't touch. That's saved for a restore of the original OS, back to factory condition. It's protected. The rest of the goodies are on a hidden partition, and a ctrl + f11 during a reboot will allow you to factory reset it. Vista took 4 hours to reset, with all the bloatware, and to be honest, haven't tried it with 7 yet.)