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[Sensei]

I'm having a strange problem I can't figure out. I have a Lenovo Ideapad laptop (one of the ones with an intel integrated GPU and an Nvidia card it switches between to save power). I regularly use it to play games in 1080p on my TV in my forms. When I come home, I find that using my laptop with some of the TVs here results in a completely inexcusable framerate in games. One TV is the same model as the 1080p television in my dorm, and one is a 720p, which is a lower resolution that my laptop monitor's 1366x768. I still run games perfectly well on my dorm TV and my laptop monitor, but when I hook it up in some games (possibly not all, and intermittently) I get really bad framerates. This also doesn't seem to just be visual, I think it's affecting control inputs too so there's more going on.

Any idea what could possibly be causing this? I suspect it's maybe related to the laptop's tendency to want to use the intel graphics, but I'm not sure how that could just be happening with certain monitors. I'm pretty stumped.

[gigaraptor487]

It maybe it is defaulting to the Intel HD or it could be either refresh rate or that the cable is quite long, so the data transfer isn't instantaneous.

Just a few guesses, since it could be dozens of things.

[Bauglir]

Bizarrely, reinstalling Windows has fixed the USB problem. I choose not to question it. However!

And #2 is a GREAT reason to keep a Live Linux on a usb stick around, even an ordinary distro has lots of tools, or something with a bit more like System Rescue CD.   Or something like Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's Utilities, that you can stick the various manufacterer's DOS based utilities on too...    Having those available has made some potentially time-sucking problems much less painful.

I want you to think about what my problem was, and how it would affect my ability to use a flash drive. Hint: I plugged the laptop hard drive into the SATA cables I have in the desktop.

I actually keep a couple of those things around for exactly that reason.

[gimlet]

Yeah, I did think about your problem - I bet the usb ports worked fine *before windows booted*, so you should have been able to boot usb sticks just fine.  In fact booting a live linux and seeing if the ports worked would be one way of narrowing the problem down between hardware problem and OS problem....

[Sappho]

ARG I'm getting very frustrated. Some background process on my Windows 7 machine is constantly stealing focus from whatever I'm using. This only just started happening yesterday, which happens to be the first time I actually restarted the computer in a long while. So something took effect at restart that I now can't seem to track down. Even while I've been typing this, the window has lost focus THREE TIMES and I had to re-focus on the text box to keep writing.

I have tried to use Process Explorer to find the culprit using some instructions I found online, but I couldn't find anything. I can't play games, I can't type, I can't do anything. Can someone please help me? How the hell do I figure out which program is doing this so I can kill it?

ARGH that's about ten times now, I'm going to throw this fucking thing against the wall! Please help me!

I can't believe this. It's happening AGAIN. I have completely disabled Windows Update and it's not even running as a background process. I have disabled everything except system programs on startup. I've tried using Process Manager again, watching for any programs opening or closing when focus gets stolen, but nothing. There's NOTHING there. I'm at my wits' end.

The only thing I can possibly think of that might be messing around with things is McAfee Security Center, but that's been on here since I got the computer a year and a half ago, and it's never caused a problem. Should I get rid of it? What else could it possibly be? The only programs I've installed are games, and they're all DRM-free ones from GOG and Humble Bundles. I can't imagine any of those are messing with my computer...

[Telgin]

To be honest, you're probably better off without McAfee regardless of whether it's causing this or not.  It seems that somewhere around 2000-2005, the big name brand anti-virus software packages became nightmarishly huge, bloated and crappy.  I Just use Microsoft Security Essentials on all my computers now to drastically cut down on that problem.

Anyway, the first step I'd take in diagnosing this problem is to restart the computer in safe mode.  If it still happens in safe mode, then that indicates that something is wrong with the OS.  Likely a virus if it is.  If it doesn't happen in safe mode, then that would definitely indicate a wayward program installed somewhere, also likely a virus, that is causing it.

You can check what programs are set to start by running the program msconfig from the Run dialog (Windows Key + R), then click the Startup tab.  If you see anything listed under your user's directory, it's automatically suspicious.  Doubly so if it's got a seemingly randomly generated name.  You can try disabling some programs from here and restarting to see if that makes it stop.  If you're unlucky and can't fix it that way, then running something like Spybot Search and Destroy or another dedicated anti-malware program might help locate it.

[Sappho]

Thanks for the response. I'll give safe mode a try in a minute - although actually, I'm not sure I even know how to boot into safe mode on Windows 7. I know it used to be something like, hit F8 while booting and you get the boot menu, but I imagine things have changed...

I have already gone into msconfig and looked through the list of startup programs. Nothing in the user directory. I've already disabled everything except system programs. Basically, if it's not from Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Realtek (for audio), Apple (for Quicktime), or Cypress (for my trackpad), it's disabled. I've just disabled McAfee as well. I've been wanting to just get rid of it for ages, but the computer came with a year's premium subscription, and I figured it can't hurt to leave it on until it expires.

It's actually not happening very much at the moment. Only every now and then. It was happening a lot earlier, but it seems to have slowed down considerably. Of course, I did close a whole bunch of programs, so I might have gotten the main culprit. (On the other hand, it is still happening sometimes - does that mean there are TWO things doing this???) I do recall that one of the programs was an Adobe updater - it wouldn't surprise me if that was the problem. I've disabled all Adobe software at startup, but somehow it always seems to get opened eventually and it wants to update.



Also, the first time this happened, I completely disabled Windows Updater. Not only was it not to update automatically, but I set it to not even check for updates at all, ever. I got an annoying red X in my tray, but it was worth it, because that seemed to stop the focus-stealing for a while. Today, I turned on my computer and... the red X was gone. And updater had mysteriously opened itself, and I had a notification that new updates were downloaded and ready to install. What the HELL is that about? (I turned it off again, but somehow I doubt it will stay off.)

Okay, so as soon as I figure out how to start into safe mode, I'll try that.

EDIT: Wow. Turns out it's still F8, after all these years. Everything seemed OK in safe mode, so that's a relief. About to do a malware scan, but I've already run them a few times since this started happening, so I don't expect to find anything. It seems likely that it's just some random program trying to do automatic updates even though the first thing I do on every program I install is DISABLE automatic updates. We live in an age where software does whatever the hell it wants to, giving only passing lip-service to ideas such as user controls and options. Everything is constantly talking to its mommies and daddies, delivering all the info they ask for, adding more and more crap to your computer that you never wanted to begin with...

Worth noting is that even in safe mode, McAfee still ran on startup. I disabled it in msconfig, but it seems to run independently of the regular startup procedure. I have no idea what the deal is with that, or how to stop it. Maybe I should just uninstall it completely. If it lets me...

EDIT2: Spybot Search & Destroy didn't find anything but tracking cookies, although the scan only took about 3 seconds, so I don't think it was scanning very much. I'll fiddle with it, or get another program to scan the whole computer. I'd rather not go through a McAfee scan, since those take hours and hog the whole system until they're done... Maybe overnight, if I don't find a better option.

EDIT3: HouseCall did a proper scan, no threats found. I'll leave it at that for now. It hasn't happened since the last restart. Maybe it was just Adobe or something. Fingers crossed that it doesn't start up again...

[MaximumZero]

Did you try the registry edit I posted last time? Also, get ahold of MalwareBytes if you can. It's wonderful.

[Sappho]

Did you try the registry edit I posted last time? Also, get ahold of MalwareBytes if you can. It's wonderful.

I don't know how to registry edit, and last time it stopped, so I didn't get as far as trying that. If it happens again, though, I'll give it a try.

It's funny, every time something goes wrong on my computer I get recommendations for antivirus and antimalware software, but never once has any of those things actually found anything. The problem has always been something wrong with Windows itself, or a non-virus program just acting funny. In fact, I don't think I've had a single virus or malware problem in the 5 years since I said goodbye to my last desktop computer (when I moved to Europe), and simultaneously started using Firefox with NoScript for all untrusted web sites.

[MaximumZero]

Go to your start menu. In the start menu, type "regedit", right click and run as administrator. Hit ctrl+F. Type "ForegroundLockTimeout". Wait until it's done searching, as it may take a little while. (If you don't want to wait, click the arrow next to the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER] folder in the left hand menu, find Control Panel directly under that folder, find Desktop directly under that, and in the right window, find ForegroundLockTimeout.)

In the right window, double click ForegroundLockTimeout. In the box that pops up, change whatever number to 20000. Close everything, and bask in the glory of your fixed computer.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Question posted in its own thread previously.

For reference, my OS is Windows 8.1. Or perhaps what the most recent one is, I don't actually pay that much attention to that sort of stuff.
I use Google Chrome, and it usually serves me well. Last night, though, it reloaded after a crash...as some kind of app instead of the windowed program it normally is. All the tabs from all my windows were in one "window," which was...inconvenient. It also made quickly switching between pages a difficult task.

This morning, searching for a solution, I discovered an option that said "Relaunch Chrome on the desktop," and clicked it. The app closed, and...nothing. I reopened Chrome, got a blank page. Not even a "Your last session ended improperly. Would you like to get all those tabs back, some of which you were working on something in and would be saved if Chrome was working like it has been ever since you started using it?" kind of message.

So. Two questions.
1. How do I get Chrome back to the desktop mode?
2. Can I get those tabs back? If so, how?

Someone thought it was malware, and that I should just uninstall Chrome, run malwarebytes, and reinstall. This leads to two questions: Is this probable, and is malwarebytes safe? (Probably, but it doesn't hurt to check...)

[MaximumZero]

Yes, and yes. I love MalwareBytes. Recommended to everyone.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Chrome now works. Sadly, my tabs were not recovered.

[gimlet]

Try ctrl-shift-T to reopen your Chrome tabs?   If (like me) you have a bunch of Chrome tabs, before you do something risky w/Chrome it pays to back up the open tabs files - this article tells which 4 files to copy: http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-restore-closed-tabs-after-accidentally-quitti-1452314285    (really Current Session + Current Tabs is enough, but they're small files so hey). 

Oh, if you haven't done much since you lost the tabs, they MAY be in the Last Session/Last Tabs file - I've copied those over Current Session/Current Tabs in the past to get 'em back...

I should install that session manager thing, the last time I looked there weren't any great ones but that one sounds promising.

[Jelle]

Hardware problem with my desktop.

It had been bluescreening on nonpaged area errors a lot so I took a look wether something was wrong with my ram and sure enough one of them had significant dust build up. Decided I should clean it up and see if that's what had been causing the problems. Took both out and cleaned the dust off, along with the video card and cpu fan and heatsink, wich also had significant dust buildup.

However after reinserting all my desktop would no longer boot. Gave a three long beep error on post, wich I'm failry certain is a memory problem. After removing and inserting my ram a couple more times it stopped giving an error message but would not start up at all, the shutting down and restarting every two to three seconds. It did manage to start up and give the option to boot further once, but I neglected to check the information on screen.

Removed all the power cords from the mobo and removed the battery to try and reset bios or something (I have no idea how to do this really) but now it's back to the same error on post. Not sure what to try next. Could be that both  of my two sticks of ram died but it seems unlikely. I don't have any spare ram to try with. Video card can't be it either, it fails to boot using the in built one to. Advice on how to proceed?