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I hate trouble shooting my PC >:O


purple_beard

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I know enough to be dangerous, but don't know enough to McGyver it LOL.

 

The PC has been running super slow and I am doing a restore to help matters somewhat.  But in searching for answers I might have come to the conclusion its old hardware LOL.  I could invest in some new RAM to perk it up--I guess.

 

Hard drive seems to check out with no issues.

 

No flags in device manager.

 

And the BS part is, if I want to just say f* it and get a new up to date PC, the new ones lack all the warning signs I have been preached to ever since spending my own money on a computer: have everything modularized so if one part goes bad its easier to replace than having stuff on the board so to speak.  And most of those are so stripped of add on slots and what not....

 

Ohh well... there is my rant for the day.

 

 

*********

*********

 

Finish up this hard drive check and then its time to clean sweep the machine.... scorched Earth style....

 

 

And if anyone has any suggestions on the following post them here:

 

malware finder/remover .... that doesn't hard sell paid plans for doing its work better ( ***cough cccleaner now *** )

 

free antivirus "better" than Norton

*I have a norton subscription already and it will cover my devices so....

*I keep getting told Avast is the ish...but I am tired of its pop ups for paid add ons and what not every time I boot my other computers.

 

I LIKE Windows Media Player for ripping my cds but, ....

 

A media player good for ripping music cds (yes I buy cds because I like having that copy at the proper audio quality) but I like having that album art, artist, album year, and song title stuff...

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2 minutes ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

Use Avast for Free Antivirus.

 

 Have you heard of Itunes?

 

 RAM is good but you might want to check up on useless files

 

I have Avast, kind of getting fed up with its popups.

 

itunes?  Pay apple for audio quality less than cd quality?  While, yes its pretty cheap per song when you start looking at albums and then read the find details on the audio quality of the download  they are basically cheating you out of good sound.  And my home and car audio gear is good enough to really make those differences apparent.

 

The restore should kill off a bunch of crap but this PC is a 2.2Ghz AMDA 64bit at 3gb of RAM.  I finally found my replacement mobo's manaual and I can go up to 16GB on it....  Trying to decide how much that is worth to me.

 

This looked affordable

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD8U7AX8774&Description=ddr2 ram&cm_re=ddr2_ram-_-9SIAD8U7AX8774-_-Product

 

Price is right to more than double what I got and I haven't heard people hate in Kingston memory chips.  And that price is also within my wheelhouse as to go to 16 based on prices I saw are way to much for me to eat without just buying a whole new computer.

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5 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

 

The want you to buy their paid AV every time the pop up comes on.  or their other services...

 

 Oh those things like saying that my IP address is seen and stuff and I should use their VPN services. I don't see those that much to really complain. They are annoying but I don't think that annoying. 

Edited by Kirbymeister2
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@Kirbymeister2

 

I used GSmartControl to look at my HDD.

 

So, I am flagging with a warning with Reallocated Sector Count ( value of 2) and basically, their messages says non Zero values here mean there are bad sectors but its moved data elsewhere and while not causing a issue it could be that future issues are coming.  And the error log shows 13 errors , listed as #10-33 sequentially. 

 

Per the scan, it passes the test(s)  at 100%.

 

I wonder if that means its new HDD time or not.

 

Thoughts?

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4 minutes ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

How much space is on your HDD?

 

 How old is your PC because I was wondering why another HDD and not SSD?

 

 What are you planning to do with the added space?

 

 I don't know enough of your PC so I can't really give you a good answer.

 

 

"old"

 

HDD isn't that old.

 

Win10

 

AMD Athlon 64x2 4200 dual core processor  2.2GHZ

3GB of ram

250GB HDD with net usage of 232(prob from Windows stuff) @ 145 used / 86 free.

 

 

What else would you need to know?

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2 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

 

 

"old"

 

HDD isn't that old.

 

Win10

 

AMD Athlon 64x2 4200 dual core processor  2.2GHZ

3GB of ram

250GB HDD with net usage of 232(prob from Windows stuff) @ 145 used / 86 free.

 

 

What else would you need to know?

 

 

 I mean your PC not the HDD 

 

 So you plan getting more space to hold files. I hear TB stuff is relatively cheap these days but I dunno if that is on HDD or SSD side. You can plan on using the current space you have for the OS and the other with files. Up to you how you want to prioritize file locations. 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

 

 

 I mean your PC not the HDD 

 

 So you plan getting more space to hold files. I hear TB stuff is relatively cheap these days but I dunno if that is on HDD or SSD side. You can plan on using the current space you have for the OS and the other with files. Up to you how you want to prioritize file locations. 

 

 

 

 

I gave  you the PC specs.  The processor and what not.

 

I just put in the HDD info.

 

Yeah, I can get internal TB drives at pretty good prices so its not really expensive to replace per se' but I wouldn't approach TB storage demands for a long time.  I might do the RAM upgrade and a HDD upgrade though....

 

However, if I haven't been specific to what you were asking ask me what exactly you want to know about my PC for you to answer.

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First off, registry cleaners are a farce and only cause problems. Don't use CCleaner or anything like it.
https://decentsecurity.com/#/registry-cleaners/

On that site is also a very in-depth guide to both cleaning and optimizing your computer, and setting it up for optimal security if you decide to wipe it and start from scratch. https://decentsecurity.com/

Here's the author of that site if you're unsure about it. It doesn't shill anything that you have to pay for ever
https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity

Blocking ads with ublock origin (most malware comes from ads without you even clicking), turning UAC to max, and not clicking on random shit in email or going to sketch sites will solve 99% of your problems, but you can get something like malwarebytes if you're really concerned about having an anti-virus. There's not really anything that's going to be "better" than a paid subscription; those are really just useful for unaware users that fall for malware/phishing tricks all the time. Otherwise, you're wasting your money.

Edited by Pichi
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2 hours ago, purple_beard said:

Bought a PNY 480gb SSD @ $70.  Yeah, a 240 would have covered me but for the slight price difference....

 

I'm gonna come off as the grumpy old man....

 

back in my day, a restore was a restore... put your windows disc in reboot the PC install, update, done.  This crap now is a pain.

you could always type "reset my pc" into windows 10 search bar lol

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50 minutes ago, Pichi said:

you could always type "reset my pc" into windows 10 search bar lol

unfortunately it didn't work that easy....

 

******************

 

Then, on top of that, I couldn't make boot USB work either and I tried on multiple USB drives I had.  I had to load off from old 8.1 disc.

 

Then, I should have listened better to their tech support guy because I used my old code... and well.... that means I have to get back with tech support because the key is the key to getting the 10 upgrade.... and my old key is considered not under that window 10 free upgrade now I have to troubleshoot that >:(:(  My own fault there....  he gave me a key to use and I thought I was smarter than him ....

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  • 1 month later...

Reading this brought back memories... Not all of which were great either.

 

In the future before you wipe a hard drive or go to re-install you can always try software like Keyfinder. As long as your system is operable the free version is relatively painless to grabbing a backup of your licenses. In fact if you have that old hard disk laying around that would be an okay means to recover any software keys you may of forgotten.

 

It isn't a bad idea to have those laying around on a flash drive or something for a rainy day. Maybe even a snowy day.

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9 hours ago, a/0 said:

Reading this brought back memories... Not all of which were great either.

 

In the future before you wipe a hard drive or go to re-install you can always try software like Keyfinder. As long as your system is operable the free version is relatively painless to grabbing a backup of your licenses. In fact if you have that old hard disk laying around that would be an okay means to recover any software keys you may of forgotten.

 

It isn't a bad idea to have those laying around on a flash drive or something for a rainy day. Maybe even a snowy day.

 

 

Man, the whole ordeal got even more convoluted and I have come to the conclusion that should I drop any more money on this thing after the

 

SSD HD

8GB RAM

2 service calls

*considering replacing dvd drives with one BR and one not or two standard dvd drives and an external BR drive

*considering a usb 3.0 card upgrade and replacing a 3.5" drive bay with front USB 3.0s and ...

*a new 5" or 3.5" bay upgrade with new card reader

 

I am DONE sinking money into it.

 

Putting too much into old base hardware isn't a good fiscal move anymore.  And, considering other items of more importance that have come up, I am kind of stalling on those above upgrades.

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