I hate my computer.

[Riotsword]

Okay, here is what's wrong with it. I'll just make a list.

-I can't restart or shut down the computer from the Start menu. It will get as far as "Windows is shutting down..." and freeze. So I'm forced to either hold down the power button to make it shut off, or unplug the *****.

-Sometimes, randomly, it will go into sleep mode and be fine, but I'll come back later and notice it's making an abnormal amount of noise(almost sounds like the E: drive is working, when it's not). When I attempt to get it to come out of sleep mode, the computer itself won't respond; only my monitor will, and that itself will just start the countdown to standby mode when it does respond.

-And most recently, programs won't open when I try to, or there is a huge delay between when I try to open, and when the program actually does start to open.

-I think this one might be related to the last one, but sometimes a running program will just stop responding altogether.


There. Now you know how much my computer sucks. Any ideas on what might be the cause of these problems, and what could I do to remedy them?

[Red Dragon]

Re: I hate my computer.

Back-up your files and reformat your computer.

Without looking at your computer I'm not much of an helpful person.

[Riotsword]

Re: I hate my computer.

Er, backup my files to what, exactly?

*Doesn't know a whole lot about that*

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: I hate my computer.

If you have a CD burner, burn 'em to CDs. If you just have a floppy drive, back them up on floppies. (Though you're likely to need a lot of those.)

I'm wondering whether there's a virus invovled or if your computer's just crapping out.

[Riotsword]

Re: I hate my computer.

I'm wondering whether there's a virus invovled or if your computer's just crapping out.

I'm wondering that myself.

[Maijo]

Re: I hate my computer.

External hard drive. Backup files. Reformat.

Problem solved.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: I hate my computer.

Well I wouldn't recommend reformatting until you do a full virus scan using a few virus scanners. Try AVGs free virus scanner, and if that won't install then try using TrendMicros HouseCall online virus scanner. I know of a couple of viruii that will actually stop a virus scanner from installing, but the online one still worked. Either way I would back up all your important files to some medium be it an external HD, DVD or CDs if you have to. Now another thing to try is a spyware removal tool, though I doubt any spyware would cause these kinds of problems they do affect performance negatively in a lot of cases. Spybot search and destroy and Adaware are the best spyware removal tools I know of and they are free too.

Now to prevent this from happening in the future (assuming it is a virus, which it does kind of sound like) get AVG from here. Then get a firewall, though XP comes with one I have heard mixed things about it so get ZoneAlarm, which has a free edition as well, though the pay edition comes with some more advanced features the free edition should be good enough. Get it here.

Now another possibility is your registry got messed up, and there are registry fixers out there but unfortunately I don't know of any good ones at the moment that are free.

So downloads for the other programs I mentioned
AdAware
Spybot S&D
TrendMicro HouseCall

Actually after reading it over again it does sound like you have a pretty nasty virus. Only other possibility is your heatsink fan may be going, though I doubt it. So try the virus scanners and if they can't clean it, they should be able to detect it and you'll have to goto an antivirus site to look up manual removal instructions, which are a total pain, but sometimes you have to do it, especially if it is a worm. Another possibility is it could be a Trojan Horse, which is similar to a virus but you'll need programs specific to those to detect them. Try this one A(squared). It's only a 30-day trial but since you should only need it now that won't be a problem.

I say this because all of your problems sound software related and not hardware related as they are reproducable, and during times when a virus would want to be in control. Now it could be a virus has already been on your system in the past and system files are messed up, in which case you could just try to install Windows without having to reformat. If you reinstall windows you'll still have to reinstall all your programs again.

So in this order.
-Run a virus scan
-Run Housecall
-Run Trojan Scan
-Run spyware scan
If all of these turn up nothing
-Run registry fixer
If this still hasn't worked
-Back up all important data unless you have another computer.
-Reinstall Windows (but make sure you can reinstall all your programs and go ahead and write down the settings for all programs you use now, and if you play games back up your save files to some place other than C: ).
And if that doesn't work
-Make sure all data is backed up and reformat

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: I hate my computer.

Our old win95 family computer did that. It eventually got to the point where it would automatically defragment itself everytime it got turned on. We used that damn thing for 2 years like that, since back then I didnt know squat about computers.

It still works to this day, but its all packed up in a closet. It only had a 1gig HD in it. I still have some of my old hentai collection on there. Memories.