MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Any Computer Experts Out There?

Any Computer Experts Out There?

posted 4 years ago by BillHicksFan (10251)
36 replies | jump to latest

I would have posted this days ago, but I hate asking for help, but I've had the flu for almost 2 weeks, and my laptop is really screwed up, and it's kinda my life, especially during this quarantine and all this free time.

I've done all the scandisks, windows defender, anti-virus and it all comes clean. I've tried to do a Recovery, but it keeps failing, and its screwed up search settings and other things I'll hold off for another time. I've uninstalled programs, resets browsers, cache, cookies (so many password, ugh) defrag, optimize, disk cleanup.

It's odd how I can't play a song on winamp (it keeps freezing, sometimes for a short while, sometimes for a really long time where I have to restart), which takes no RAM, and the videos that I have on my desktop for example, yet... videos work much better on YouTube. It was always the other way around, because of my slow internet connection. I can't even play a simple game like Age of Empires II, which I've had for many years.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't have the resources (or even a debit card) to find some sophisticated program online, so if you know something, I'd be very thankful in this very stressing time for me. Thanks!

[–] Keelai (32746) 4 years ago

I have three suggestions.

Try installing a different media player like VLC to see if you can play music and videos on your laptop. Maybe winamp software is conflicting with another program.

Age of Empires II may be incompatible with your system. Its a 32 bit game so would it even play on your 64 bit system? Were you able to ever play it on your new laptop? Can you play a newer game?

It could be a graphics card issue. Check to make sure that's running properly. Again, play a newer game or open a program like a photo editing program to see if that works properly.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 4 years ago

I'm a computer programmer. I'm no hardware or servicing personnel so I'm not actually an expert about this. If my computer broke down I get other people to fix it.

However, from my experience, what you described is probably signs of Hard Disk Drive failure. An HDD doesn't just stop working right away. They might, but usually they don't. Most often they can still work for years in that condition. But someday it will completely stop.

To check whether my diagnosis is right or not, simply plug an external hdd or a usb thumb drive with the same music files or videos you have trouble to play and then play them straight from the usb. If they work flawlessly then it is your internal HDD that is problematic.

[–] AndyKing1967 (35103) 4 years ago

Did you get it fixed in the end?

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

No, but if I want to see a movie, if I put it on a thumb drive, it works, and boy, did I enjoy "Pale Flower".. It's a fine movie, but I was starving, too!

[–] Keelai (32746) 4 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AndyKing1967 (35103) 4 years ago

I'm no expert, but when you get a chance invest in a portable hard drive. I use ones that store 1 Terabyte and they've rescued me on a couple of occasions.

[–] L1 (1316) 4 years ago

I am a legacy simmer in my own spare time..?

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

I just watched a movie using my thumb drive, and it worked fine... So yeah, my C: (hard drive) is screwed up.

[–] nyctc7 (42017) 4 years ago

I had hard drive failures on two different computers in the last few years. One a laptop and one a desk top. Fortunately both times they were under warranty. But before that, never had a problem.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Install this problem. It's very small, it's installed as a portable app, and it gives you the health status of every disk, USB plugged ones included.

https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/crystaldiskinfo_portable

And make a fucking backup.

Be aware that what you said doesn't mean the disk is screwed. If some process is overloading the hard drive, that would make very difficult to play the movie from the hard drive, but easy to play from a USB pendrive.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 4 years ago

Have you tried running task manager to see if there are memory/cpu/disk spikes?

Sort of sounds like it might be a sound card issue though. I might try reinstalling drivers. Put in any new hardware lately?

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

https://i.imgur.com/bfNi229.png

I posted a pic of my Task Manager. I've never installed hardware..

I do notice that it changes every second, and it seems Firefox is taking the most at this very moment.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 4 years ago

I'd keep that open and see if I spot any funny jumps when the sputtering is going on. It might not work for this, depends where the bottleneck is.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

order the task manger by cpu and/or memory to see whats using resources up.
EDIT:
(on the details tab)
stoopid w10

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

https://i.imgur.com/4othuYM.png

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

make sure you check the "services" tab, in addition to the "processes" one

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

https://i.imgur.com/xTdU48y.jpg

[–] RamsesTheGreat (323) 4 years ago

Did you visit some dubious website off late?

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

Never. I never use torrents, or peer-to-peer downloading sites.

[–] BillHicksFan (10251) 4 years ago

I uninstalled Windows Updates, and the videos played SO much better, so be careful installing that crap.

[–] GlenEllyn (21261) 4 years ago

Glad to hear it's working better for you now.

My tech guy turned off all my Windows Updates. But recently, somehow Microsoft tweaked my machine and some are getting through without telling me. I swear, every time an update sneaks in I have another glitch of some kind that I didn't have before. Grrrr!