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[Sappho]

Yeah, it's just McAfee. The worst part is that it didn't come on her computer; she actively went out and got herself a copy of it (apparently her ISP was offering it for free).

I checked the memory use and it's very low. So I don't know what the problem is, really. If I were her, I'd just wipe and reinstall Windows, but she's not capable of doing that herself, so she'll just have to suffer until she can afford to pay someone to do it (or, better, get a new computer that isn't such a piece of junk).

[Azerty]

So RAM amount, dust and overheating are ruled out, leaving the hard disk.

Try to run the following script, with administrative rights enabled:

Code: [Select]

wmic diskdrive get status
If it returns another signal than "OK" then S.M.A.R.T. is saying the drive is dying.

[Sappho]

I've already left her house. But we tried playing Minecraft together last night, and I had her run CoreTemp (which her antivirus kept randomly shutting down, yay McAfee), and the temperature went WAY up. It was over 90 at one point. I gave her my cooling pad and we got it under 80, but I figure it's probably dust and told her to get it cleaned and see if it improves. I can suggest that she try that script though, if I can talk her through opening a DOS prompt without her having a nervous breakdown (we've had issues with things like opening folders and files before, so that is a real possibility). Thanks.

[quamzie]

Sometimes internet connection suddenly gets cut off. The methods of tech support like : removing cablle for ten seconds and putting it back/ rebooting computer  work, but those disconnections tend to be annoying. Also, the problem is  not in cable disconnecting. Can anybody give some advice on this?

[Rose]

I've had excessively slow startups in the weeks preceeding a total hard-drive failure.

Does she ever get any bluescreens?

[Aklyon]

Sometimes internet connection suddenly gets cut off. The methods of tech support like : removing cablle for ten seconds and putting it back/ rebooting computer  work, but those disconnections tend to be annoying. Also, the problem is  not in cable disconnecting. Can anybody give some advice on this?

How old is your router? I had a similar problem before and we fixed it by replacing the router with one that wasn't so old verizon had stopped requiring returns on it.

[Sappho]

So I just finally got home after 3 months and booted up my beautiful gaming desktop. It was a little sluggish (I'd hibernated it last time I turned it off) so I told it to restart. Too late I realized it actually said "update and restart".

It's been sitting there with it's hideous green Windows 8 screen and text that says "Keep your PC on until this is done. Installing update 1 of 9..."

No progress bar, no estimated time remaining, no nothing. I think I've already tantrummed enough in the past about how much I hate Windows 8, so I'll skip that part and just say, how long should I expect this to take? Will I break it if I just power it down right now? I have been awake for almost 35 hours and stressed for months. All I wanted was to finally get the chance to play some of the games my laptop couldn't handle, and now I'm stuck waiting for this piece of crap to update.

And please tell me there is a way to disable this automatic updating crap. I have never in my life been happy that something automatically  updated itself. On this machine (my Windows 7 laptop) all automatic updates for all software (except Avast) are disabled, and I've been very happy with that. (Nevermind the hardware nonsense that I'm not happy with - I don't like automatic updates.)

EDIT: Wait, does it need to be connected to the internet while updating? It doesn't say anything about internet, just not to power down. It is *not* hooked up to the internet right now. It was hooked up until about 15 minutes ago when I got sick of not having my gaming computer *and* not having internet and switched the LAN cable to my laptop. (No wifi.)

[Aklyon]

If its doing 'update and restart', it should've already downloaded everything required.

[Sappho]

If its doing 'update and restart', it should've already downloaded everything required.

OK, so why is it taking so long? This is a pretty new computer with very good hardware. Nothing on it runs slowly. Is it stuck? Should I just turn it off and back on again and see what happens? And why was there no option to restart *without* updating... Updating is clearly designed to take ages. Why would anyone build a system that can't be restarted without forcing the computer to be frozen and useless for hours on end?

[i2amroy]

And please tell me there is a way to disable this automatic updating crap. I have never in my life been happy that something automatically  updated itself. On this machine (my Windows 7 laptop) all automatic updates for all software (except Avast) are disabled, and I've been very happy with that. (Nevermind the hardware nonsense that I'm not happy with - I don't like automatic updates.)

Control Panel -> Windows Update -> Change Settings (Sidebar) -> Important Updates

That said keep in mind that the vast majority of updates are literally doing nothing but fixing security holes in your programs. Lots of people forget this, but the updates are there to protect you in almost all cases. As an example the last Java patch contained nothing except patches for over 98 possible ways that people could use to break into your computer (and that there were at least some documented cases of them already being used). Windows security updates are the same, and checking my current list of updates my computer needs to install I've got at least 14 unpatched security holes, and probably many more than that.

Personally my advice is this. Go to that setting and change it to "download updates but let me choose whether to install them" (the "you must restart in 10 minutes" popups will still show up rarely, but they won't ever actually count down and you can just close them). Then when you are sure you are done with the computer at night just hit the "restart and install updates" button and let it run. Wake up in the morning and your updates should be installed without any real hassle on your part, keeping both you happy and productive, and your computer safe from security exploits.

As for how long updates take, sometimes updates can be over 60 MB of just patches. This can take a while, especially if they involve the parts of the computer that it's currently using to install said updates (since you basically need to make a copy to keep the updates installing, then change the old copy, then go back and test if it works, etc.). In general I suggest not turning the computer off in the middle of updates unless you are 100% sure it's stuck (as in, you went to bed and when you woke up it's still stuck). Turning it off during the wrong time can seriously mess up your computer, and if you are unlucky there won't be much you can do to fix it but totally wiping it and reinstalling windows (I hope your backups are up to date!).

[Sappho]

Well I left it on all night and it's still stuck in exactly the same place. I guess I'll have to just shut it down and pray. I have no idea what I will lose if I wind up having to wipe the whole computer, but since I haven't used it in the last 3 months, I hope I backed up everything before I left the country... Here goes, taking a deep breath and hitting the power button.

EDIT: Hmmm..... Hit the power button and waited for it to turn off. Hit it again, and it's right back where it was. Did it just hibernate? Ctrl+Alt+Del does nothing, I figured the power button would turn it off...

EDIT2: Okay, take 2, held the power button down to force a shutdown, turned back on. Took some time, but finally I got a "Working on Updates - X% complete - Don't turn off your computer" message. It just finished and is restarting itself. Looks like it is ok after all. Phew.

[Thief^]

Try holding the power button for ~5-10 seconds. Then rather than giving a "soft" power signal to the OS, it bypasses the OS and just flips the power switch.

Edit: Gah edit sniped. Looks like you knew that little trick. It's really useful on laptops/tablets/phones with an internal battery. It works on almost anything!

[Sappho]

Yes, I know how to force a shutdown, as it is all too often necessary. I was just surprised that it hibernated even though it was in the middle of an update.

EDIT: New Question - Avast runs painfully slow on this (Windows machine. The interface freezes all the time. Right now it's trying to update my VLC player and it's taking forever. I'm going to cancel it and just do it manually.

Any recommendations on whether I should just nix Avast and use the Windows Defender? I'd prefer not to rely on Microsoft for my security, but this is really holding me up. Especially the freezing interface is really irritating. It just locks up for a few seconds every time I try to do anything.

[Thief^]

Yes, use Windows Defender. Windows Defender in Windows 8 is not the same Windows Defender from Windows 7, it's a rename of Microsoft Security, which was a damn good product. Also make sure "Smart Screen" is enabled, it cross-checks new executables against Microsoft's insanely large database, warning you about executables which aren't known and potential threats that the virus scanner can't yet catch.

[i2amroy]

Either one works, but don't run both at once! Having more then one antivirus program with a real-time defense can make them conflict with one another, greatly slowing them down and possibly causing security holes.

Personally though I'd say turn off any updates or similar things in avast (should you decide to keep it, as noted Windows Defender is also one of the top antivirus programs now) other than the actual virus protection parts. Avast claims to be able to make your computer faster, etc. but really the only thing they are good at doing is the only thing they are supposed to be doing; protecting your computer from viruses. I certainly know that I wouldn't trust them to do anything else well (and the free version won' let you do anything else IIRC). If you keep avast shut off everything but the shields and other virus protection measures, then go into settings and turn on silent/gaming mode to stop the annoying popups.