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[dennislp3]

Laptops shouldn't even be getting in the 90-100 range assuming they are not clogged up with dust, fans are functioning proper, thermal paste is in good condition, and they are not being operated on some sort of surface that prevents proper airflow (such as a bed or some sort of fabric).

Opening the laptop and cleaning it with compressed air should be the first step and could very possibly be all it takes to fix it...after that it is likely just the thermal paste.

If you can't or don't want to open it just using compressed air on all the openings should still clean out a good deal of dust and possibly fix the problem.

[ShadowHammer]

Hello again everyone, I'm back. Apologies for being half of the questions in the thread recently.

Anyways, I am thinking of wiping my laptop (clean Windows reinstall). I have two questions about this: should I do it? and a question about backing up (see below for actual question).

Should I do it?
Why I think I should:
-Viruses. Despite hours of work and many antivirus programs trying to clean it, adware persists, and there may be spyware that I am unaware of.
-This

Link

issue. I think that the gradual loss of memory is continuing (but I'm not sure). Possibly also due to malware.
-It has gradually slowed down over time, and presumably a clean start would speed it up, right?
-Recently, it has started telling me that I am not running genuine windows, although I am. Not a problem in itself, really, but possibly indicative of another issue?
-Most recently, it has just stopped recognizing wifi networks as existing, so I can't access the internet.
-I can't get Windows updates. This is unrelated to the lack of internet, as it was happening for a while before that.
-I don't have a whole lot to lose, unless I manage to completely screw up the reinstall. All the files I want to keep are either on an SD card or can be re downloaded at will (ie steam games).

Why I think I maybe shouldn't:
-I make not certain that the memory loss issue is actually continuing. I might put this off another day to make sure.
-I don't need to wipe it to speed it up; I could probably just go about cleaning it of bloat myself. That would take a lot of work though, and I've tried without success before.
-Just doing windows repair might solve the "not genuine windows" problem, but I haven't tried.
-The internet issue may be a hardware problem, but I don't think it is.
-I may completely screw up the reinstall. Somehow.
-Also, I may have forgotten to put something important on the SD card. Which brings me to the second question...

Backing stuff up.
Background information:
I was planning to back up the whole hard drive on the Internet, but with my internet connection having failed, I can no longer do so.
However, I recently discovered that I have a second partition on the laptop with practically nothing on it and three times the amount of space as the drive I'm currently using. I have no idea why, but I thought previously that the blue file names meant it was just linking to other areas of the drive or something. Looking it up, it turns out that those are just automatically compressed files.
Obviously, I can't just move my stuff over to that partition; otherwise, I'd just be taking all the viruses 'n stuff and putting them somewhere else. This is where my actual question comes in.

Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.

I hope that that last question wasn't phrased too poorly, and thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Aklyon]

While its not directly related to your question ShadowHammer (sorry), I'd seen this massive multi-flowchart from a book on /r/coolguides, and it seemed like a good thing to link to here.

[flabort]

Is it a dell laptop?

Fraid not. Or maybe it's a good thing? Dunno.
Acer Aspire V3-551

What's the GPU? NVIDIA GPU's with Optimus should let you set it up so programs use only the integrated GPU. AMD GPU's might have something similar, but I don't really know anything about them.

Apparently the reason I can't access a GPU from software is the CPU is a GPU. Or something.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[PyroDesu]

What's the GPU? NVIDIA GPU's with Optimus should let you set it up so programs use only the integrated GPU. AMD GPU's might have something similar, but I don't really know anything about them.

Apparently the reason I can't access a GPU from software is the CPU is a GPU. Or something.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Specs for the Acer Aspire V3-551 shows you should have an AMD Radeon HD 7640G Graphics chip integrated into the CPU, no discreet card.

[wierd]

This looks more and more like a thermal paste related issue.

Not only is it an AMD based toaster oven heating element, It has a GPU on-die.  Such things NEED high quality heat elimination to avoid literally melting off the ball grid array holding it down.  (No, seriously. That's what the RROD in early xbox 360s was all about! They had a shared heatsink design.)

Replacing the thermal paste, cleaning the heatsink's radiator fins with a dry toothbrush, and blowing out the fan assembly are the prescribed actions here.  Normally, these kinds of mass-manufactured devices have a thermally conductive pad installed, which becomes less thermally conductive after about 2 years or so of use.  Replacement with actual metalic thermal conductivity paste (Like say, Arctic Silver) does WONDERS.

[Insanegame27]

It's starting to look like ac ACER ASPIRE issue to me. has anyone with an ASPIRE not had an issue with it overheating?

[wierd]

Depends on the chip used.

Personally, I try to avoid Acer, Compaq, and HP (their consumer stuff is shit-- paradoxically, their server stuff is OK.)
More keen to purchase Toshiba, Asus, and the like.

I have however owned a Toshiba with an AMD toaster oven CPU in the past.  It would burn my legs with its cookie cooking thermal exhaust very frequently.

In this case though, the system is "normal", but does not kick on the fan until "ZOMG! THE NUKES ARE GOING OFF!" happens.  That's a thermostat sensor problem, probably attributed to shitty system design. (Acer related is a definite possibility.)  However, even without the fan blowing, the heat sink SHOULD be diffusing a great deal of the heat if the thermal paste is worth a shit.

Replacing the thermal paste, and setting the fan to always on should fix the problem. (unless acer was so horribly incompetent that they selected a heatsink/heat diffuser tube assembly that cant diffuse that much heat, regardless of air speed)

[alexandertnt]

Did you use to have these heat problems when the computer was new? If not, then it's likely the fan is just clogged and/or the thermal paste needs replacing, in which case wierd's advice should largely fix the problem.

[Thief^]

Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.

One option would be to take an image of the hard-disk, that way it can be restored identically to how it was. Any viruses will be backed up into the system image as well, but won't be able to get out by themselves.

Windows has the ability to make a system image built-in, go to Control Panel -> "Backup your Computer" (Backup and Restore) -> Create a system image (on the left). Creating the system repair disk will allow you to boot and restore the system image if you need to.

There's also the normal Windows Backup, which is file-by-file and allows you to recover individual files (while still sealing in any viruses).

[ShadowHammer]

Actual question:
Can I set it up so that I can create a copy of all the things on my computer, put it on the second partition, and have it so that nothing there has permissions to do anything?
In case that doesn't make sense, basically, I want to be able to recover everything if I need to, but I don't want the bad stuff to be able to mess with my other stuff after I wipe the main partition.

One option would be to take an image of the hard-disk, that way it can be restored identically to how it was. Any viruses will be backed up into the system image as well, but won't be able to get out by themselves.

Windows has the ability to make a system image built-in, go to Control Panel -> "Backup your Computer" (Backup and Restore) -> Create a system image (on the left). Creating the system repair disk will allow you to boot and restore the system image if you need to.

There's also the normal Windows Backup, which is file-by-file and allows you to recover individual files (while still sealing in any viruses).

Awesome, thanks.

[flabort]

Did you use to have these heat problems when the computer was new? If not, then it's likely the fan is just clogged and/or the thermal paste needs replacing, in which case wierd's advice should largely fix the problem.

Absolutely not. I could run BORDERLANDS 2 and TF2 for hours on end (not 15 minutes) when it was new. Well, except for the game wasn't out yet, I don't think.

I'll look into the thermal paste, but I'll still need to ask my dad about opening up the case.

[miauw62]

I never had any problems with my acer aspire until it started turning into Mount Doom, strangely. The GPU, despite attempting to fuse the air around the laptop, could actually run a lot of things surprisingly decently.

[flabort]

Yeah... I can go shopping for the thermal paste tommorow, my dad has an air compressor so when he has the time he says he'll help me with blowing the dust out, but I just experienced another crash... sigh.
Definitely investing on good cooling when I get a new computer. Except for the crashing and over-heating, this one's really good though.

[wierd]

It's the mass manufactured thermal pads used.  Those are easy to put on heat sinks with pick and place machines, which means faster, cheaper automation.

They are just known to break down and stop working like they should after a few years.  The laptop manufacturing industry flat out does not care about this, because they expect you to junk it and buy the new shiny anyway.  Proper thermal joint compound will out perform the silly thermal pad in ways that are empirically measurable in very meaningful ways.  Good compound will last for many many years without incident.