Computer Issues

Denamian

Denamian

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Void said:
I've got a guy here at work who thinks he knows a lot about computers, but doesn't. His computer is routinely the most fucked up, and we've straight up replaced it more often than any other computer here. As a side note, we only have about 15 employees and tech support is not my job, but I'm the only one that knows shit about anything electronic so I get to fix shit. There are no disk images or shit like a real company with real tech support might have. Anyway, this guy is making noise about yet another new computer because his is slow and acting up. Granted, it truly is running like shit, taking upwards of 15 seconds to load an excel file that mine loads in 3, for example, but I'm certain it is because he constantly fucks with it because he thinks he's smart. Not to mention he has fucking iTunes on there that never even syncs with his phone properly, so I'm sure that's a giant clusterfuck.

Sorry, he riles me up something fierce. Anyway, since I told the boss that this guy is fucking up his computers himself, they aren't just spontaneously going bad unlike every other computer here, I'm being given a shot next month to "clean it up" and see if I can get it running smoother to prove to him that the machine itself is still just fine. Of course I'm going to uninstall almost everything that I didn't install myself when I gave him the computer, and I'm going to uninstall and reinstall stuff like Office, etc. But my question is, since I can't just re-image it or take it back to factory settings, what is the best way to go about this? Will deleting his user folder and everything associated with it and then recreating it help any, or is that just extra work I don't need to do? I've already run every virus scan under the sun, so either it's clean or the viruses are bleeding edge. I'll also do simple things like sfc /scannow, and I've got all the software that would need to be reinstalled except the operating system, I just don't have any way to really "reset" it that I'm aware of. Oh, Windows 7 Pro btw, so I don't think that one had the option to refresh to fresh Windows install, unless I'm mistaken. And no, I can't upgrade it to Windows 10 either.

I realize there are ways to completely reinstall Win 7 and then activate it, but one of the owners is a big stickler about all of that and if I do anything remotely grey area with it I'll eventually get in trouble for it, and this isn't worth it to me to risk it, so as I said, I'm basically stuck with the current install that it has on it. I just need to "fix" it. I've listed the ideas I have, but I'm sure there are better ways to go about this, given my restrictions, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Check if it has a recovery partition where you can set it back to factory settings and go from there.
 
Void

Void

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Denamian said:
Check if it has a recovery partition where you can set it back to factory settings and go from there.
Click to expand...
It doesn't have a recovery partition, and if it did I'm not sure if we have the upgrade info for it anyway, because it came with Win 7 and we had to buy the upgrade to Pro through the Windows store. I honestly don't even know if they supply you with a code or not when you buy it that way, as it just auto upgrades itself for you. Either way, no recovery, which is why I'm stuck with just trying to fix it as best I can.
 
M

matsb84

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Void said:
I've got a guy here at work who thinks he knows a lot about computers, but doesn't. His computer is routinely the most fucked up, and we've straight up replaced it more often than any other computer here. As a side note, we only have about 15 employees and tech support is not my job, but I'm the only one that knows shit about anything electronic so I get to fix shit. There are no disk images or shit like a real company with real tech support might have. Anyway, this guy is making noise about yet another new computer because his is slow and acting up. Granted, it truly is running like shit, taking upwards of 15 seconds to load an excel file that mine loads in 3, for example, but I'm certain it is because he constantly fucks with it because he thinks he's smart. Not to mention he has fucking iTunes on there that never even syncs with his phone properly, so I'm sure that's a giant clusterfuck.

Sorry, he riles me up something fierce. Anyway, since I told the boss that this guy is fucking up his computers himself, they aren't just spontaneously going bad unlike every other computer here, I'm being given a shot next month to "clean it up" and see if I can get it running smoother to prove to him that the machine itself is still just fine. Of course I'm going to uninstall almost everything that I didn't install myself when I gave him the computer, and I'm going to uninstall and reinstall stuff like Office, etc. But my question is, since I can't just re-image it or take it back to factory settings, what is the best way to go about this? Will deleting his user folder and everything associated with it and then recreating it help any, or is that just extra work I don't need to do? I've already run every virus scan under the sun, so either it's clean or the viruses are bleeding edge. I'll also do simple things like sfc /scannow, and I've got all the software that would need to be reinstalled except the operating system, I just don't have any way to really "reset" it that I'm aware of. Oh, Windows 7 Pro btw, so I don't think that one had the option to refresh to fresh Windows install, unless I'm mistaken. And no, I can't upgrade it to Windows 10 either.

I realize there are ways to completely reinstall Win 7 and then activate it, but one of the owners is a big stickler about all of that and if I do anything remotely grey area with it I'll eventually get in trouble for it, and this isn't worth it to me to risk it, so as I said, I'm basically stuck with the current install that it has on it. I just need to "fix" it. I've listed the ideas I have, but I'm sure there are better ways to go about this, given my restrictions, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Goes without saying, the user needs to save and close any work they have open before performing any of the following. I'd also recommend a reboot.

I'd start where you're starting..all non-work software shit gets removed. Then I install ccleaner and do a once over with that..clear temp files, fix bad/obsolete registry entries*. Then I take a look at startup to decide if theres anything there the user doesnt need. May also cue you into other software that might need to be removed that was missed. Then move on to updating drivers. Assuming your pcs are dell or hp or lenovo or whomever, there should be a place for you to go to get drivers from them. Intel has a generic software update as well, but i find it to be useless, maybe a last ditch type of thing. Anyways, update/install any out of date drivers. Then move to windows updates and run through those until there are no additional updates to be had. I'd also update any necessary software on the PC (flash/browsers/etc). Being that its a performance issue, I'd probably then take a look at the pagefile size to make sure there is one and its of a sufficient size (i usually go 4-8gb, but i consider the disk size as well as RAM total). If its an SSD, yes, i know, its not great to do, but users dont give two shits about that and will tear through RAM like no tomorrow by having over 9000 tabs and programs running at once, the pagefile will help with this to a point. Once done there, I'd run disk cleanup (instead of ccleaner). Select everything on that list and clean it out. This will grab some stuff that ccleaner doesnt, could save a bit more disk space. Then run ccleaner to clear temp files and again fix any old/obsolete entries. This should get you back to a sufficient base line on the PC. I may go through programdata and a few other folders as well, but thats if disk space is tight. If its still slow, maybe look at things like Add-ins (particularly for Excel). I'd also remove local admin access for this dude if possible. That may put more overhead on you though.. Beyond that, without rebuilding the PC, you could add more RAM or image the drive and go to an SSD if they have a mechanical drive (could run a check dsk if its mechanical to flag bag sectors, but that could take a while)..starting to get a bit deep into it at that point though.

*If you're running ccleaner as your user, as opposed to thiers, it will not clear that users temp files, so you can either do this with them there, get thier credentials and run it, or hit the major temp file locations manually;
These are windows 10 locations (dont have 7 here, but they should be similar)
c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp (delete everything that will allow you, may require a reboot if the user is logged in)
c:\users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\inetcache (for windows 7, this is the temporary internet files folder) - I usually will remove everything from each individual folder. (not the folder itself). For any Office related folders, I'll leave the current month. (content.word or content.outlook) - these are temporary file locations and are not meant to be a permanent store for files. If the user gets butthurt over this, well, hopefully they learn from thier poor life choices going forward).
 
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alavaz

alavaz

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I'd start by doing start, run type msconfig and shutting down all the unnecessary start up shit. Taking long amounts of time to open files sounds like on access virus scan. May want to download process explorer and see whats hogging the resources.
 
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Borzak

Borzak

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My work computer is rarely on the internet, by that I mean it's rarely physically attached to the internet. I only use Microsoft security essentials on it because it might get attached to the internet 5 minutes a month now that I rarely work, and that's to send an email attachment of drawings or something and that's it. For some reason MSE is now picking up my steel detailing add on to autocad as a keygen. I don't know if the definitions changed or what. It's owned by AutoDesk now so I guess I could email them. Just odd.
 
Void

Void

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matsb84 said:
Goes without saying, the user needs to save and close any work they have open before performing any of the following. I'd also recommend a reboot.

I'd start where you're starting..all non-work software shit gets removed. Then I install ccleaner and do a once over with that..clear temp files, fix bad/obsolete registry entries*. Then I take a look at startup to decide if theres anything there the user doesnt need. May also cue you into other software that might need to be removed that was missed. Then move on to updating drivers. Assuming your pcs are dell or hp or lenovo or whomever, there should be a place for you to go to get drivers from them. Intel has a generic software update as well, but i find it to be useless, maybe a last ditch type of thing. Anyways, update/install any out of date drivers. Then move to windows updates and run through those until there are no additional updates to be had. I'd also update any necessary software on the PC (flash/browsers/etc). Being that its a performance issue, I'd probably then take a look at the pagefile size to make sure there is one and its of a sufficient size (i usually go 4-8gb, but i consider the disk size as well as RAM total). If its an SSD, yes, i know, its not great to do, but users dont give two shits about that and will tear through RAM like no tomorrow by having over 9000 tabs and programs running at once, the pagefile will help with this to a point. Once done there, I'd run disk cleanup (instead of ccleaner). Select everything on that list and clean it out. This will grab some stuff that ccleaner doesnt, could save a bit more disk space. Then run ccleaner to clear temp files and again fix any old/obsolete entries. This should get you back to a sufficient base line on the PC. I may go through programdata and a few other folders as well, but thats if disk space is tight. If its still slow, maybe look at things like Add-ins (particularly for Excel). I'd also remove local admin access for this dude if possible. That may put more overhead on you though.. Beyond that, without rebuilding the PC, you could add more RAM or image the drive and go to an SSD if they have a mechanical drive (could run a check dsk if its mechanical to flag bag sectors, but that could take a while)..starting to get a bit deep into it at that point though.

*If you're running ccleaner as your user, as opposed to thiers, it will not clear that users temp files, so you can either do this with them there, get thier credentials and run it, or hit the major temp file locations manually;
These are windows 10 locations (dont have 7 here, but they should be similar)
c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp (delete everything that will allow you, may require a reboot if the user is logged in)
c:\users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\inetcache (for windows 7, this is the temporary internet files folder) - I usually will remove everything from each individual folder. (not the folder itself). For any Office related folders, I'll leave the current month. (content.word or content.outlook) - these are temporary file locations and are not meant to be a permanent store for files. If the user gets butthurt over this, well, hopefully they learn from thier poor life choices going forward).
Click to expand...

alavaz said:
I'd start by doing start, run type msconfig and shutting down all the unnecessary start up shit. Taking long amounts of time to open files sounds like on access virus scan. May want to download process explorer and see whats hogging the resources.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I'll give those a shot when I get handed the computer in a couple weeks. We won't be doing any hardware upgrades to it, like adding an SSD or anything, but hopefully some of this clearing out will improve the performance enough. I appreciate the help.
 
AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

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I suddenly can't run any games. Even 4 or 5 year old $20 Steam games that I've played before won't work. Everything seems to be a problem with resolution or DirectX. Battlefield1 failed first, now nothing will work. I had to update Windows in order to update Java in order to update my Geforece driver. But now, it's all kaput. Does this ring a bell with anyone out there? I'm currently running a Geforce 970 with driver 388.71 and 8gb of ddr3 ram. I think my machine is too old and slow for PUBG, but why would older simpler games also now refuse to run? Google isn't helping and/or I am just not searching correctly. Any advice?
 
alavaz

alavaz

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Do you have the Nvidia GeForce client installed? Disable driver updates through Windows and then update your card through the GeForce client. It should also detect your games and give you options to optimize for them.
 
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AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

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alavaz said:
Do you have the Nvidia GeForce client installed? Disable driver updates through Windows and then update your card through the GeForce client. It should also detect your games and give you options to optimize for them.
Click to expand...

I did try that and I'm getting the same error. The error even recognizes the fact that I have the latest driver, but it still 'fails'.

Maybe I didn't turn off auto update through Windows though. How is that done?
 
AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

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The second link is what I've already got going which is to allow Nvidia to update my drivers, which it did, to the latest one.

The first link though asks me to right click on the Start button, but when I do that it looks nothing like what they show in on that page. The buttons are all different and I can't follow that path. I did find my device manager but it does not have the sort of options that your first link says it does, at least not for me. And I have confirmed I have Windows Home 10.
 
Denamian

Denamian

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I assume you've completely uninstalled the driver and done a clean install of the latest driver from nvidia's site at some point?
 
Armadon

Armadon

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So I'm having problems streaming and was hoping you guys could help. When I go to stream from anything but Netflix I get stuttering and complete stoppage all the time. Stuff like espn, fox sports go, mma-tv, and stuff like that. I have gigablast from cox so I know I have enough bandwidth. When I go to task manager and monitor network traffic I'm only getting like 4Mbps to .01Mbps with crazy fluctuation. This happens whether I run Edge or Chrome. I have plugged the computer in straight from the modem and the same thing happens without the router. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks all.
 
AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

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Denamian said:
I assume you've completely uninstalled the driver and done a clean install of the latest driver from nvidia's site at some point?
Click to expand...

I believe so? I think the problem, if I understand it correctly (which I may not), is that Windows 10 simply doesn't recognize what the Nvidia downloader has done. I have the latest driver from Nvidia but it's not being recognized as such. This can be fixed according to alavaz alavaz 's link by accessing the gpedit.msc file, but the link shows shit that is not anything like my Windows Home 10 and doesn't have the same pathways or icons or anything like what his link shows. Poking around google I see that Windows Home 10 is the first version of Windows that does not allow the user to edit the gpedit.msc file so I'm not even sure what his first link is referring to. An older version of Windows maybe? About the only game I can get to work is the old Plants vs Zombies. Almost everything else simply refuses to load, citing driver and/or resolution errors.
 
Denamian

Denamian

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AngryGerbil said:
I believe so? I think the problem, if I understand it correctly (which I may not), is that Windows 10 simply doesn't recognize what the Nvidia downloader has done. I have the latest driver from Nvidia but it's not being recognized as such. This can be fixed according to alavaz alavaz 's link by accessing the gpedit.msc file, but the link shows shit that is not anything like my Windows Home 10 and doesn't have the same pathways or icons or anything like what his link shows. Poking around google I see that Windows Home 10 is the first version of Windows that does not allow the user to edit the gpedit.msc file so I'm not even sure what his first link is referring to. An older version of Windows maybe? About the only game I can get to work is the old Plants vs Zombies. Almost everything else simply refuses to load, citing driver and/or resolution errors.
Click to expand...

Gpedit is the group policy editor, which is sadly unavailable to W10 Home, you have to upgrade to Pro to use it.

A last ditch thing to try before reinstalling, would be to download the latest driver from Nvidia, go to device manager, uninstall the card and check off uninstall the driver as well. Reboot and install the driver from Nvidia and choose to do a clean install.

Other than that, you can try the reset this pc option in the recovery section of the update and security options. It's pretty much a reinstall of windows, but it keeps the contents of your user folder around so you don't quite lose everything.
 
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Brahma

Brahma

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Fuckin Patch fucked up my sound today. Was getting PISSED trying to figure out the issue, until I saw the updates.

FuckYou.jpg
 
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