SERIOUS computer problems, help?
Lately, my browser(and sometimes AOL IM) freeze up and say it's "not responding" for awhile. It usually goes away, but it happens more than it used to. I'm usually on Flock.
Tuesday night it's freezing up a lot, and going so slow...I decide to just save/bookmark the websites I was on, and close them and restart the computer.
When it tries to restart, I see nothing but a black screen for the longest time..I time it, and it doesn't seem like it will go anywhere. So lacking any other option(other than waiting and waiting for something I didn't think was going to happen) I unplugged the computer.
When it comes back off it obviously recognizes it wasn't shut down right, and goes through a repair state. I let it finish all that. It still has a bit of a gap when it comes on where there is nothing but a black screen. But not too long, and it boots up. I think at this point I let Adobe 8 finally install.
But EVERYTHING I click on has a "not responding" problem. Even to connect my modem! I can't even connect, and virtually nothing works. Sometimes I just go down to the "Start" area and it does that, freezing up for awhile with the list open and.."not responding". I opt to let it shut down while finishing updates. So I turn it back on once or twice and it doesn't behave any differently.
The last time it shut down, I just unplug it for ..I don't know, over 12 hours I think.
I turned it on last night and let it do a full virus scan. It finds nothing, though it takes hours to do a full one.
Today I turn it back on and it seems alright..I notice it is the first time I remember seeing the "Welcome Center" thing pop up, compared to the last few, troublesome times.
It's good enough I'm typing this out, without many of the incidents that have plagued me lately. More and more within the last two or three weeks, Flock/AOL had been temporarily freezing up together.
I usually let my computer "sleep" rather than turn it off, so I don't have to start from scratch with browser activity. I WOULD consider leaving it on like some of my friends do(connected and everything..though I know that presents security issues, I know), but the power around here is crap. We have power surges pretty frequently..sometimes not so much, and then in waves. At one point last week I could almost time it, several times around 6-7 am. And then it would stop doing that..at THAT time. But I seriously need to invest in back up power. Anyone who buys a computer in this town should probably get one as part of a package, seriously.
So I know one obvious possible threat is viruses. What I assumed was the culprit was the inevitable unexpected power surges. I've got a surge protector that this is hooked up to, but apparently not good enough. I assume the unplanned cut offs when that would happen was screwing up my computer too much, from all the "instant shut downs". They're only a second or two, but that's long enough for it to shut down. Or, perhaps the problem is both.
At the moment it's working fine(seemingly for no reason, just like how it started screwing up)..but that may not be permanent, and my next step is to figure out better ways to back up data, since it could go down at any moment for whatever reasons.
So before the eff-up fairy starts visiting me again, can you help me fix this/keep this from happening again/clue me into what the specific culprits are?!
Comments
That happened to me and it most defanitely was a virus. Are you getting a crap ton of pop-ups? When you open your processes list is the internet running super high?
Things to attempt:
Disconnect your modem.
Reboot in safe mode (F8 from start) and try a system restore to a date before it was messing up. The virus I had had unfotrunately cleared all my restore points.
If you have the windows (or whatever OS disks) insert and folllow menu to do an OS repair.
I had to do an entire reinstall of windows and learned an unfortunate lesson on the importance of backing things up. if you dont have your stuff backed up you can purchase an external hard drive for around 50 bucks and at least save some things. The black outs on mine got so bad i could only open a few folders around error messages.
Here's some things you can do that may solve this problem, and at the very least, make your computer perform better and without the problems you describe.
1 ). Defrag the hard drive.
2 ). Run the Disk Cleanup.
3 ). Open "Computer". Right click on the "C" Drive. A box will open. Go to the "Tools" tab and open it.
Under the "error-checking" box, click on "Check Now". A box will open with two options for the disk
check. Check both th boxes for Automatically fix file system errors and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
Then click the "Start" button. It will tell you that it can't perform this function while the "C" Drive is in use
and ask if you want to schedule the "Check Disk". Click yes and then you can restart your computer and
the Disk Scan and Repair will begin.
I get the same "Not Responding" messages at time s as you are, and doing these things seem to help alleviate the problem for awhile. Hope it works for you too! Good luck!
defragging your hard drive.....wow , what if its his hard drive is on its last legs...the only chance to save his dying drive is a ghost and chkdsk /r and your going to blow it off with a defrag moving system files around on an unstable OS.. **shakes head slowly from side to side**
you need some problem solving basics first off...is it hardware or is it software.??
go and download the ultimate boot cd (UBCD) from a puter that will let you do so.
burn the ISO you downloaded to CD then boot off it.
the UBCD will have manufacturers testing diagnostics. I know cause I use to use it everyday.
if its seagate or western digital hitachi they are all there. run the test that corresponds to your brand HDD..
find out if your drive checks out...bet you a six pack of VB it wont !!
if it does then you can start a variety of ways to fix your OS, if dont you can ghost what you have left to a new drive and attempt to repair
good luck.