That did not improve the situation, sadly. First message I saw upon reboot was “waiting for cache”.
Have you tried a different browser?
Yes, internet explorer acts the same, if not worse.
Step 6 where, exactly? I’ve only explored the last link you provided. And I’m running windows 10, not 8.
thanks,
It just gave me a message that everything was fine.
But now things do seem to be running normally again, so maybe ? ? ?
Nope, it’s all just as messed up as before. I’m inching closer and closer to doing that windows 10 reset, as soon as I back up a few critical items. Can’t live like this!
I helped a friend whose computer was overheating & shutting down soon after power-on. The heat sink/fan unit happened to have come off the CPU (thermal paste dried up?) do it was not properly cooling the CPU. Nut the fan was still functional, and you could hear (and see) it running.
So hearing the fan running doesn’t always mean it is properly cooling the CPU.
The link in post 12. This one:
If you do this, make a full backup first. And make sure you have written - as in on paper - copies of accounts, passwords, license keys, and so on.
Hmm… something I should have asked straight off: go into Event Manager (Start, Run, eventmgr.msc) and look at the System and Application logs under Windows Logs. Look for entries with a red icon next to them in the first instance. They’ll have the level of Error. It may take a while to come up.
What do you see? If there’s lots of red you have a big problem. Look in the Source column for the culprits. If you click on each entry you’ll see details in the bottom. We’ll cover those once you report them, but if there are lots with a source of disk or ntfs then your HDD / SSD is likely failing. Or possibly the SATA cable is loose.
Then look for ones with a yellow icon (Warning) next to them. If you look at the right-hand pane of the Event Viewer you should be able to filter the current log to isolate them more easily.
What do you see?
Which anti-virus products do you have running? Is it Webroot?
Windows defender. [sub]hangs head in shame[/sub]
running event viewer now . . .
LOTS and LOTS of Red error flags, all since 12/31/18, indicating disk as source of error. Sounds like disk failing?
Bingo! Can you give the full details from Task Manager?
There are three possibilities, in order of probability:
1 - The disk itself.
2 - The SATA cable.
3 - The SATA port on the motherboard.
#2 is the easiest to check. Just replace the SATA cable if you have a spare. If you don’t, just unplug it at each end and plug it back in in case it’s just come loose.
And don’t be ashamed about running Windows Defender. It’s a fine first line of defence.
Don’t have task manager results available at the moment, will run when home.
But the Event Monitor literally had over 5000 entries of Red Flag error pointing to the disk. I’ll be checking the cable tonight too.
thanks again.
Unless he screws up and accidentally checks something other than “Keep personal files and apps” that’s not really necessary. Yeah, it’s always recommended as a precaution, but again, unless one doesn’t follow directions very well, it’s unlikely that anything will be lost.
Regarding Event Viewer:
I think there’s a decent chance ad has a bad hard drive, but I think there’s still a decent chance it’s a software issue.
Here are some better ways to check the health of the hard drive:
I worked in IT for nearly 30 years, looking after establishments with thousands of hard drives and one of the things I’ve learned is, “A good IT officer always tries to have a backup.”
But it’s not normal for there to be lots of them.
Possibly, which is why I asked after the virus checker. I’ve been out of the game for a few years so I recognise that things may have changed.
I will reserve further comment until Qadgop gives full details.
Virus checker said everything was beautiful, no intrusions or problems.
But my Event Monitor was 5000+ items of RED EXCLAMATION POINT error and almost nothing else (save occasional informational updates), all beginning 12/31/2018 and continuing to the moment of the scan the other day. ALL saying the disk was problematic.
Prior to that it had a month or two of logged misc information flags, interspersed with the odd red exclamation of an error or two every few hours or days but NONE of those were saying the disk was a problem.
I will futz with the cables connecting the hard drive later, but if that doesn’t do anything, I think I’ve got a date with my computer guru for his pro opinion.
I do appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and look forward to whatever wisdom you can offer once I tinker further.
Whenever my computer starts to chug, the problem is invariably SuperFetch.
If the HDD is indeed faulty, replace it with a SSD. As large as you can afford and need. You won’t believe the difference in speed. A week later, you won’t believe how slow HDDs are.
SSDs are also very cheap these days. I just upgraded a couple of very ancient laptops and they fairly wiz along now. I copied my HDD to SSD with a free drive copying progam Clonezilla.
Copying may well expose any problem with the hard drive. Sometimes the file system can be get a bit corrupted. It is best to try fixing that first the chkdsk utility. If chkdsk fails, the HDD might be failing. That is a different class of problem.