technology I need computer help, please?

[UnicornWolf 8]

I also fixed an old lady's computer who swore to me she never installed anything on it so couldn't have any malware. When I sat down with it, she pointed to a folder and said "That's my games". I had a look and all of them were from free sites and often came bundled with "helpful" programs which installed. 

 

Regards

[boiteporte 591]

Oh okay.  Its a common problem then, with the downloaded anti-virus'?

 

Well, when you buy a pre-installed computer, it comes with trial versions of sotwares. It serves as advertisements purposes and you should get rid of them as soon as you can.

 

For the Antivirus, there are no problems downloading them as long as you do it from the official website and you know what you download so as to avoid "fake" antiviruses.

 

Next, you should never use two antiviruses at the same time. If you're lucky, one of them will detect the other and put itself in "limited" mode. If you're not lucky, they will fight each other and that will cause problems.

Edited July 4, 2014 by boiteporte

[Khaoios 1,970]

I use free versions of Avira and Avast on my home computers without any issues. Norton has gotten better over the years, but McAfee is a total pile. It did nothing to stop CryptoLocker from wrecking havoc at work.

 

Avast, i'm not too crazy about, but at work, I installed it for the offices and it works great.  Avira and Crypto, i never here of tbh. 

[boiteporte 591]

I don't trust free antiviruses. I personally recommend G-Data or Kaspersky which are much more complete.

[Khaoios 1,970]

Well, when you buy a pre-installed computer, it comes with trial versions of sotwares. It serves as advertisements purposes and you should get rid of them as soon as you can.

 

For the Antivirus, there are no problems downloading them as long as you do it from the official website and you know what you download so as to avoid "fake" antiviruses.

 

Next, you should never use two antiviruses at the same time. If you're lucky, one of them will detect the other and put itself in "limited" mode. If you're not lucky, they will fight each other and that will cause problems.

 

Yeah, when i saw two anti-viruses, that rang the alert bell for me, b/c it can screw up her system.  Cross-Conflict, what we sometimes call it, . 

 

Did she say what Anti-virus programs is she using and did she download them or get them as a trial software?

[boiteporte 591]

DId she say she had two Antiviruses ? I don't think so...

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Avast, i'm not too crazy about, but at work, I installed it for the offices and it works great.  Avira and Crypto, i never here of tbh. 

 

Crypto is a virus, more info on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

 

I don't trust free antiviruses. I personally recommend G-Data or Kaspersky which are much more complete.

 

Understandable. I've never had an issue with free antiviruses, but if someone really insisted on a paid AV solution, Kaspersky is a highly-regarded option.

[Khaoios 1,970]

I don't trust free antiviruses. I personally recommend G-Data or Kaspersky which are much more complete.

 

Agreed.................hate them with a passion. 

 

Kaspersky is great from what i heard.

 

OP: If you want, here is the program available at Staples for $39.99 - Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows (1 USER)

Crypto is a virus, more info on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

 

That's new to me, .   Yet, when they mentioned DELL.........i just cracked up. 

DId she say she had two Antiviruses ? I don't think so...

 

Oh.  Ok, b/c it sounded like a Cross-Conflict issue. 

 

OP: I want to ask you these questions:

 

1. What is the problem?
2. When did this occur (tell me date, and time.  You can say morning, afternoon, or evening)?
3. Has anything changed
4. What was the last program you installed?

[long gone 8,929]

 

 

In addition, I for one, would not recommend using an AMD cpu on a Gaming PC, b/c in my opinion, intel core is much better.   AMD is more fit for a standard client PC. 

 Oh come on, AMD processors are not that bad, and this is coming from an Intel user.

 

It seems like the motherboard is the problem. Mai, how comfortable would you be with replacing a PC part?

[boiteporte 591]

 

 

Oh.  Ok, b/c it sounded like a Cross-Conflict issue. 

 

No, she said that her computer froze about every hour. That's all we have and it's not good to jump to conclusions straight away. 

[Azure Envy 1,092]

 Oh come on, AMD processors are not that bad, and this is coming from an Intel user.

 

It seems like the motherboard is the problem. Mai, how comfortable would you be with replacing a PC part?

 

 

Geez, AMD is getting flak for everything these days, aren't they.

 

I   my AMD laptop.

 

Games just fine, in fact...

[Guest]

I really appreciate all the feedback.

 

It been in safe mode for an hour now and it haven't frozen. I'm gonna keep it on for at least another hour though just in case. Most freezes are after an hour but sometimes it can be good for several hours before a freeze.

 

Also it's not crashes, but freezes. Everything stops working but it's still on.

 

The game I want to play on it is Wildstar and it runs just perfectly apart from the freezes. No lag and minimum loading screens.

 

I asked some other friends from WoW for cheap but good specs and also a private computer store 'Budget PC' for the same cheap but solid for gaming specs and they both said this was a good choice.

I spent €800 on this.

It does have a warranty on it and I could just take it in, but then I don't have a computer at all for a while.

[Khaoios 1,970]

 Oh come on, AMD processors are not that bad, and this is coming from an Intel user.

 

It seems like the motherboard is the problem. Mai, how comfortable would you be with replacing a PC part?

 

 

Oh no, .   Im an intel user as well, but I feel AMD is more suitable for Client PC's.   (Basic PC's for MS Office, Online Access, minor entertainment, some multi-tasking, etc.).   Intel on the other hand would be more useful for multi-tasking (Programs like Visio, Exchange, VMWare, Entertainment, etc.).

[Azure Envy 1,092]

I really appreciate all the feedback.

 

It been in safe mode for an hour now and it haven't frozen. I'm gonna keep it on for at least another hour though just in case. Most freezes are after an hour but sometimes it can be good for several hours before a freeze.

 

Also it's not crashes, but freezes. Everything stops working but it's still on.

 

The game I want to play on it is Wildstar and it runs just perfectly apart from the freezes. No lag and minimum loading screens.

 

I asked some other friends from WoW for cheap but good specs and also a private computer store 'Budget PC' for the same cheap but solid for gaming specs and they both said this was a good choice.

I spent €800 on this.

It does have a warranty on it and I could just take it in, but then I don't have a computer at all for a while.

 

Have you tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic? Bring up the Start Screen and start typing in Windows Memory Diagnostic and it should come up. It'll ask to restart your computer to test it. Might want to try and rule out a memory-related issue.

[Khaoios 1,970]

No, she said that her computer froze about every hour. That's all we have and it's not good to jump to conclusions straight away. 

 

I understand...........sometimes, I like to come up with a "possible" conclusion.  However, with her PC freezing every hour, I would have to see it for myself, tbh. 

[boiteporte 591]

Ok, I don't think it would be that useful to leave it on like this. What I would like is some more information.

 

Did you update anything or install any software before the freeze ?

Also, do you have any restoration point ? 

 

If yes, what date ?

[long gone 8,929]

Oh no, .   Im an intel user as well, but I feel AMD is more suitable for Client PC's.   (Basic PC's for MS Office, Online Access, minor entertainment, some multi-tasking, etc.).   Intel on the other hand would be more useful for multi-tasking (Programs like Visio, Exchange, VMWare, Entertainment, etc.).

I have plenty of friends with AMD processors, and they ain't really complaining about performance. FX series processors are actually pretty great, even if they have shitty single-threaded performance. Again, coming from an Intel user.

 

And, again, Mai. How comfortable would you be with replacing PC parts? Because replacing the motherboard would be much faster than sending it to the shop.

[Khaoios 1,970]

I really appreciate all the feedback.

 

It been in safe mode for an hour now and it haven't frozen. I'm gonna keep it on for at least another hour though just in case. Most freezes are after an hour but sometimes it can be good for several hours before a freeze.

 

Also it's not crashes, but freezes. Everything stops working but it's still on.

 

The game I want to play on it is Wildstar and it runs just perfectly apart from the freezes. No lag and minimum loading screens.

 

I asked some other friends from WoW for cheap but good specs and also a private computer store 'Budget PC' for the same cheap but solid for gaming specs and they both said this was a good choice.

I spent €800 on this.

It does have a warranty on it and I could just take it in, but then I don't have a computer at all for a while.

 

Wildstar...........so from what i gathered, your PC freezes and does this occur when you play Wildstar, or when you are multi-tasking?

 

Trying to come up with "common issues", but it seems that its more complicated.  

[Guest]

I picked up the pc last week 26. June and win8 was already installed.

I downloaded and installed in order:

Google Chrome

Avast antivirus

Wildstar

 

I was playing perfectly Friday (I wasn't online Saturday) and perfectly Sunday. Then Monday midday it froze. I turned it off and back on and a few hours later it froze again. And so on. Every day it freezes about 4-6 times depending on how many times I can be arsed to restart it.

 

Tuesday I ran the drivers disc to be sure it was ok. And it installed two programs 'ASUS GPU Tweak' and 'GPUTweakStreaming' - so I don't even know if the drivers disc had been run before I got the pc. I don't know if you can play games without drivers and that bugged it.

 

With this new program I noticed the fan was running on minimum so I turned it up to maximum to see if it was overheating. But it's not. I can monitor the heat of the motherboard and it's 29 degrees c when no program is running and 48-52 when Wildstar is running.

[Khaoios 1,970]

I have plenty of friends with AMD processors, and they ain't really complaining about performance. FX series processors are actually pretty great, even if they have shitty single-threaded performance. Again, coming from an Intel user.

 

, I'm not trying to say im against AMD processors, so no worries, but I see it more as a low-end to mid type of processor.  Intel i see more as a mid to high-end processor.  I've got 2 PC's using it, but they work fine. 

[Azure Envy 1,092]

I picked up the pc last week 26. June and win8 was already installed.

I downloaded and installed in order:

Google Chrome

Avast antivirus

Wildstar

 

I was playing perfectly Friday (I wasn't online Saturday) and perfectly Sunday. Then Monday midday it froze. I turned it off and back on and a few hours later it froze again. And so on. Every day it freezes about 4-6 times depending on how many times I can be arsed to restart it.

 

Tuesday I ran the drivers disc to be sure it was ok. And it installed two programs 'ASUS GPU Tweak' and 'GPUTweakStreaming' - so I don't even know if the drivers disc had been run before I got the pc. I don't know if you can play games without drivers and that bugged it.

 

With this new program I noticed the fan was running on minimum so I turned it up to maximum to see if it was overheating. But it's not. I can monitor the heat of the motherboard and it's 29 degrees c when no program is running and 48-52 when Wildstar is running.

 

I would still suggest testing the RAM. I've experienced intermittent freezing issues before and it was usually a bad stick of RAM or in rare cases, a damaged socket on the mainboard. Hopefully it is not the latter.

 

, I'm not trying to say im against AMD processors, so no worries, but I see it more as a low-end to mid type of processor.  Intel i see more as a mid to high-end processor.  I've got 2 PC's using it, but they work fine. 

 

With ten times the R&D budget of AMD, Intel has a slight advantage here.

[Guest]

I'm typing from my phone so I'm a bit slow sorry.

It freezes no matter if programs are running or not. So yes in Wildstar and outside of it.

 

I would definitely not replace it myself because I have no idea how. And it's a week old, I am not spending more money on it myself. If it needs fixing up hardware, it should be under the warranty. But I want to make sure it can't be fixed without it going in the shop first.

[boiteporte 591]

Alright, well, that's something.

 

Now, you might want to restore your computer to a previous state ( before it started freezing.)

So,

 

First, open the control panel. Then, click on "System and Security".

On the left, click on "system Protection" link.

Click on "system restore"

 

Follow the instructions.

 

EDIT : replacing the motherboard is the worst thing you can do right now.

 

EDIT 2 : BUTTERFLY!!!!!!

Edited July 4, 2014 by boiteporte

[Khaoios 1,970]

I picked up the pc last week 26. June and win8 was already installed.

I downloaded and installed in order:

Google Chrome

Avast antivirus

Wildstar

 

I was playing perfectly Friday (I wasn't online Saturday) and perfectly Sunday. Then Monday midday it froze. I turned it off and back on and a few hours later it froze again. And so on. Every day it freezes about 4-6 times depending on how many times I can be arsed to restart it.

 

Tuesday I ran the drivers disc to be sure it was ok. And it installed two programs 'ASUS GPU Tweak' and 'GPUTweakStreaming' - so I don't even know if the drivers disc had been run before I got the pc. I don't know if you can play games without drivers and that bugged it.

 

With this new program I noticed the fan was running on minimum so I turned it up to maximum to see if it was overheating. But it's not. I can monitor the of the motherboard and it's 29 degrees c when no program is running and 48-52 when Wildstar is running.

 

I personally, would have to view the problem physically, however, the only option i can possible recommend to you is system restore to the day the OS was installed.  Basically restore it back 1 month (if it does have a restore point).  That's pretty much all i can give you.  

 

Now, imo, yet, I may be wrong, but Chrome, is not my best friend b/c it always slows down my PC's. However, that's a different issue so don't worry about this. 

[boiteporte 591]

 

 

I personally, would have to view the problem physically, however, the only option i can possible recommend to you is system restore to the day the OS was installed.  Basically restore it back 1 month (if it does have a restore point).  That's pretty much all i can give you.  

 

System restore is indeed the most logical option. Just pick the oldest restore point.