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View Full Version : Windoze 7 hell...



dando
04-18-15, 11:44 AM
Laptop is ~7 years old, but spent quite a bit of that time mothballed since I was using the work MacBook, and then my own MacBook that passed away last year. Switched to the mothballed Windoze machine and had some performance issues (Chrome not releasing memory, etc.) due to the very base config, so I increased the RAM from 2 to 4 GB. Much improved. This past week I got bombed by two Windoze updates, and then performance went downhill fast. Chrome literally became useless. Re-installed Chrome, slight improvement, but still slooow. It literally takes 10-15 minutes to become useful after a boot/restart. Last night I was transferring files over from the desktop (just the 50 GB picture archive) via my portable HD. A BSOD occurred about halfway through, and then boot errors (no boot disk). Ran the built-in diagnostics and got it to boot Windoze. I ran the native disk utilities, and it was was slightly fragged. Ran defrag overnight, and it was still poor (if not worse) this AM. AV/malware scans run, but nothing major found. I have this thing locked down like Fort Knox. Thoughts on what I'm missing, or other disk utilities to investigate the issues? I have such a split personality between Windoze, OSX and Android these days, it's impossible to be an expert on each of them. :(

KLang
04-18-15, 12:22 PM
If you have all the software I'd load a fresh copy of Windows.

dando
04-18-15, 02:23 PM
If you have all the software I'd load a fresh copy of Windows.

Dude, I'm lucky to find my ass with both hands these days after the move last summer. I have a difficult enough time finding pots and pans. :irked: ;) Sad thing is I was actually looking into an HD upgrade last night, and I started wondering where the software stache is, well, stashed. :saywhat: Just seems odd that the update came down and the performance went to crap. The a second update last night (I usually see these once every couple of months, not weekly).

TravelGal
04-18-15, 06:05 PM
I always hate to reply in case I say something idiotic but here goes. Can you do a system restore to an earlier, simpler, time?

This is why I never let updates download automatically.

dando
04-19-15, 10:14 AM
I always hate to reply in case I say something idiotic but here goes. Can you do a system restore to an earlier, simpler, time?

This is why I never let updates download automatically.

It crashed again overnight. Worked great all day yesterday once the startup lag resolved itself. Not a BSOD, but it takes a dump. Restart results in the same. Tries to load Windows and the same dump occurs. Goes into a menu with a repair option. Tried that several times with no luck. Went into advanced, which has the restore option, but it only lists one date/time for system restore...last night at 9:28pm (despite selecting the show all option). Tried that a few times and no dice. So off to search for the Windows 7 disc. Unfortunately it's an upgrade disc (originally Vista, but with a free Windows 7 upgrade offer). Fun geek weekend (not). More on other fun later. It's not hardware since memory checks are OK and the HD boots normally now.

KLang
04-19-15, 11:02 AM
So off to search for the Windows 7 disc. Unfortunately it's an upgrade disc (originally Vista, but with a free Windows 7 upgrade offer).

Assuming you can locate the key, take a look at the link in the other W7 thread from yesterday. It is supposed to let you download a full .iso to install.

dando
04-19-15, 01:36 PM
Assuming you can locate the key, take a look at the link in the other W7 thread from yesterday. It is supposed to let you download a full .iso to install.

No luck so far, but I did find a water leak in the basement. :gomer: :saywhat: :irked: :shakehead: On the bright side, I did find my Gran Turismo games for PSX. :D

dando
04-19-15, 02:43 PM
Dug in a little further.....found the key is under the battery. Ran Startup Repair again just for fun. There's a link for diagnostics and repair details. It shows that repair failed on the last step: System files integrity check and repair...result: Failed Error code = 0x490...Time taken = 915897 ms

Just Guessin' but Windows Update mucked something up. :irked: