PC problem - Advice needed!!
Pepperoni Man
Posts: 7,798 Forum Member
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Hi All
Non techy person here
Got a bog standard desktop Compaq PC. It's about 5 years old and has been looked after well with an annual check up. It's running on Vista
Lat couple of weeks we have been having a few problems
It can take a long time to boot up but is some times fine
Once the desktop is open it can sometimes take ages to load up a program, particularly the internet (it's the same on Chrome or IE) Again, sometimes it's fine
When we go to close it down it often refuses to close and stays stuck on the desktop or on the screen saying "Shutting Down"
Often just have to close it down with the button on the tower.
Any ideas anyone???? Could it be Avast Free Antivirus which we have?? i seem to remember a similar problem a year or two ago with AVG free and everything sped up when we got rid of it. Our Broadband speed is fine
Thanks in advance
Non techy person here
Got a bog standard desktop Compaq PC. It's about 5 years old and has been looked after well with an annual check up. It's running on Vista
Lat couple of weeks we have been having a few problems
It can take a long time to boot up but is some times fine
Once the desktop is open it can sometimes take ages to load up a program, particularly the internet (it's the same on Chrome or IE) Again, sometimes it's fine
When we go to close it down it often refuses to close and stays stuck on the desktop or on the screen saying "Shutting Down"
Often just have to close it down with the button on the tower.
Any ideas anyone???? Could it be Avast Free Antivirus which we have?? i seem to remember a similar problem a year or two ago with AVG free and everything sped up when we got rid of it. Our Broadband speed is fine
Thanks in advance
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Comments
check event viewer to see if theres any events throwing up a wobbly as well
and open it up and if its dusty take it outside and clean out the dust bunnies
That should be a good start
It could well be Avast.
I've just had to uninstall Avast from my Windows 7 computer because it wasn't allowing the computer to start up properly.
It booted to the desktop OK but then nothing was happening when you clicked on the taskbar. No programs were starting.
I started in safe mode, and everything worked, so I disabled the services and started renabling them a few at a time to see what was causing the problem.
It soon was obvious that it was Avast not starting up properly that was holding everything else up.
I assumed Avast had got corrupted somehow, but I just uninstalled it in safe mode and installed Microsoft Security Essentials instead.
Of course your problem might be different.
But I'd advise trying it in safe mode, and then investigating the services and startup programs to see what's to blame.
Type msconfig into the Run box to bring up the system configuration dialog, where you can disable or enable services.
However these are easy and some very basic requirements.
1. Put in a new BIOS settings battery. Usually a CR2032 costing £2 max. May not be the cause, but worth doing after 5 years.
2. Do you have a) Adequate RAM, b) Adequate free Hard Drive space. 10% minimum free, if you are close to that then do something about it like a new hard drive.
3. Full Hard Drive surface scan. Again a 5 yo Hard Drive needs checking. This will likely take hours.
There is a whole raft of other things to check, but that's some simple stuff for starters.
I use Avast Free Ed and my PC is 11 years old. It is configured to my liking, and no current problems with it.
Early indications suggest that Avast is the culprit. Got rid and installed Microsoft essentials and everything has been fine