The Windows/PC support thread

[fergus]

Funk said:

Yep, definitely needs a repair disc. If you can download one and burn it then do it. Pop the disc in when asked and Windows will pretty much sort itself out from there.

Cheers. Looking at the various downloads available, there appears to be around 8-10 different versions of the W7 recovery discs. As I'm unable to refer to the knackered laptop, is it likely to make any difference which one I use?

I assume most of the ones available on line may not make use of the most recent service packs?

Once it's booted OK will it then have copied over the relevant drivers, etc it needs from the boot disc, which will then need a further update, or what will be the likely course of action needed?

thks

[Funk]

If you have a W7 licence key on the underside of the laptop it'll tell you what version of 7 you're running. I'd guess it's probably Home Basic or Home Premium.

From memory you should be able to use either of the above to repair the install. If the laptop's fairly recent it'll probably be a 64-bit installation.

[iacabu]

Please help...

We currently have 4 computers connected to our router, 2 wired and 2 wifi.

Very recently one of the wired computers is having trouble loading certain websites, for example pistonheads, bbc news, nhs. But it will load sites such as Youtube and flickr.

It occurs on chrome and IE, no settings have been changed and no others computers are having this problem.

Message displayed is "This webpage is not available...ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT"

Any ideas??

[LordGrover]

Sounds like it may be DNS issues... do they resolve, are you able to ping them?

[zarjaz1991]

iacabu said:

Please help...

We currently have 4 computers connected to our router, 2 wired and 2 wifi.

Very recently one of the wired computers is having trouble loading certain websites, for example pistonheads, bbc news, nhs. But it will load sites such as Youtube and flickr.

It occurs on chrome and IE, no settings have been changed and no others computers are having this problem.

Message displayed is "This webpage is not available...ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT"

Any ideas??

Clear all cookies, cache, temp files then reboot, should be the first basic step here.

[wizzard67]

iacabu said:

Please help...

We currently have 4 computers connected to our router, 2 wired and 2 wifi.

Very recently one of the wired computers is having trouble loading certain websites, for example pistonheads, bbc news, nhs. But it will load sites such as Youtube and flickr.

It occurs on chrome and IE, no settings have been changed and no others computers are having this problem.

Message displayed is "This webpage is not available...ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT"

Any ideas??

Try resetting the Winsock Catalog -

Open a command prompt as administrator and type 'netsh winsock reset' <ENTER> then restart the machine.

[iacabu]

Thanks everyone, my brother ended up doing a system restore, which worked fortunately because I have no idea what you lot are on about

[Clydesdalestu]

I am having THE most problems with my Surface 3 since installing Windows 10. I'd try to list the things that are going wrong, but it's practically everything. Browsers (Edge and Chrome) stick, judder, close, at random. Bluetooth mouse & clip on keyboard go missing at regular intervals, complete loss of sound, random icons appear and disappear on my desktop without warning, Windows mail was entirely inoperable for days etc etc. It's made the device (which I use to run my business) almost un-useable. Has anyone else had these issues? I took it into my local repair shop, who kept it for a day, before returning it to me saying that they couldn't work out how to roll it back to previous (Win 8?), because the facility to to so did not appear where it does on all other Microsoft devices. I'm getting to the end of my teather - anyone got ANY ideas at all? I'm a total non-techy, but would try pretty much anything now!

[fatboy18]

Clydesdalestu said:

I am having THE most problems with my Surface 3 since installing Windows 10. I'd try to list the things that are going wrong, but it's practically everything. Browsers (Edge and Chrome) stick, judder, close, at random. Bluetooth mouse & clip on keyboard go missing at regular intervals, complete loss of sound, random icons appear and disappear on my desktop without warning, Windows mail was entirely inoperable for days etc etc. It's made the device (which I use to run my business) almost un-useable. Has anyone else had these issues? I took it into my local repair shop, who kept it for a day, before returning it to me saying that they couldn't work out how to roll it back to previous (Win 8?), because the facility to to so did not appear where it does on all other Microsoft devices. I'm getting to the end of my teather - anyone got ANY ideas at all? I'm a total non-techy, but would try pretty much anything now!

Ive no idea what a Surface 3 is? But I went from Windows 8.1 on my laptop to windows 10 and did not like it,
I did not know how to revert back but put the question out on here.

"fatboy18 said:
Anyone know if I can revert my laptop back to Windows 8.1?
You can yeah. Open up the Windows 10 settings, go into update and there's a "roll back to 8.1" option. Valid for 30 days after install I think.

It worked for me Back to 8.1 much better.

[grumbledoak]

Clydesdalestu said:

I am having THE most problems with my Surface 3 since installing Windows 10....

Tried updating drivers?
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.as...

[Spydaman]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but my mothter in law has inherited her partners laptop which is password protected. She doesn't want to look at his stuff but is it possible to set up a new account for her without first cracking his password?

[Pacman1978]

Can windows experts lend a hand please? Windows update refuses to work. I am totally out the game these days so no idea..

Windows 8.1 oem on a Samsung all in one desktop, downloaded an MS win update fixer tool (didn't work) If I click "check for updates" it just says "checking for updates" stays that way til reboot. Both "most recent check for updates" and "updates were installed" say Never. Aim is to get windows 10 installed.

There has been no hardware changes, no installs or roll backs, nothing.. I do recall it working months ago when I took the pc round to a mates to use his broadband (recently moved, only just got virgin, used to tether from mobile, pc was hardly used) I am on admin account, legit windows key, no other issues apart from this.

Any suggestions appreciated!
:-)

[fatboy18]

I upgraded to Windows 10 on my HP Pavillion laptop and the internet ran slower, I didn't like the format so reverted back to Windows 8.1

Im happy now it might be ok for people with Ipads but i did not like it on my laptop

[LordGrover]

Pacman1978 said:

Can windows experts lend a hand please? Windows update refuses to work. I am totally out the game these days so no idea..

Windows 8.1 oem on a Samsung all in one desktop, downloaded an MS win update fixer tool (didn't work) If I click "check for updates" it just says "checking for updates" stays that way til reboot. Both "most recent check for updates" and "updates were installed" say Never. Aim is to get windows 10 installed.

There has been no hardware changes, no installs or roll backs, nothing.. I do recall it working months ago when I took the pc round to a mates to use his broadband (recently moved, only just got virgin, used to tether from mobile, pc was hardly used) I am on admin account, legit windows key, no other issues apart from this.

Any suggestions appreciated!
:-)

First step would be to try a system restore to a point prior to the last successful update.

[Jinx]

Pacman1978 said:

Can windows experts lend a hand please? Windows update refuses to work. I am totally out the game these days so no idea..

Windows 8.1 oem on a Samsung all in one desktop, downloaded an MS win update fixer tool (didn't work) If I click "check for updates" it just says "checking for updates" stays that way til reboot. Both "most recent check for updates" and "updates were installed" say Never. Aim is to get windows 10 installed.

There has been no hardware changes, no installs or roll backs, nothing.. I do recall it working months ago when I took the pc round to a mates to use his broadband (recently moved, only just got virgin, used to tether from mobile, pc was hardly used) I am on admin account, legit windows key, no other issues apart from this.

Any suggestions appreciated!
:-)

Win update problems are a pig - I've never found a decent solution though rolling back a couple of the previous updates and deleting the folders the updates have downloaded to has sometimes worked. I would definitely try the system restore though a re-install from a working image would be better. A re-install from the factory image may be the only way to solve the issue so back up what you want to keep. One thing to check - make sure your computers clock and date are correct - this will stop win update working.

[Pacman1978]

LordGrover said:

First step would be to try a system restore to a point prior to the last successful update.

Want to try that as a last resort, really hate doing that, feels a bit overkill and cheating a bit! A tad buy a new engine because it needs an oil change.

(clock etc. all checked and ok)

Thanks for the replies folks :-)

[silobass]

Need some help please.

On my PC I have a dodgy USB port - if you plug something in, the computer turns off and won't come back on. In about half an hour, it seems to be able to turn on and everything has been fine.....in the past.

I've done this twice before and the computer has worked OK both times but now I just use the other ports. Obviously I should have fixed it or taped it over but....

Last night, my daughter plugged something in (I probably should also have mentioned it to my family too), the computer went off but wouldn't restart. After a few hours of everything being unplugged it did power up but came up with a BIOS error message (something about being corrupted) and it "fixed" it. Now when I power up I get a black screen (see image) I'm not sure why it's upside down, it's not on my computer before upload.


Before this screen, the motherboard screen does show and I can enter the BIOS (it's a Gigabyte mobo if that helps?) I have a Windows disc that if I put in wants to install Windows again. If I do this, will it format my hard drives?

I have two hard drives, C and D, D has all my files on - are the hard drives likely to be OK still? Should I unplug the D drive just in case?

What can I do please? I haven't a clue, I really don't want to lose all my photos etc and promise to do a back up if I get it up and running again.

Thanks in advance.

[klunkT5]

When you go ahead with a windows install it will show you the drives/Partitions available to install it on and it will format the drive/Partition you select (Although i dont know what version of windows youve got, I think anything pre XP you will have to format yourself?), Disconnecting your 'D' drive and reconnecting it after the install will do no harm if it gives you peace of mind. Windows will detect it and all your media should work after you've installed any relevant programs required to run them. Hope this helps but google anything your not sure about as theres rakes of info on the net

Edited by klunkT5 on Tuesday 5th January 23:45

[Funk]

silobass said:

Need some help please.

On my PC I have a dodgy USB port - if you plug something in, the computer turns off and won't come back on. In about half an hour, it seems to be able to turn on and everything has been fine.....in the past.

I've done this twice before and the computer has worked OK both times but now I just use the other ports. Obviously I should have fixed it or taped it over but....

Last night, my daughter plugged something in (I probably should also have mentioned it to my family too), the computer went off but wouldn't restart. After a few hours of everything being unplugged it did power up but came up with a BIOS error message (something about being corrupted) and it "fixed" it. Now when I power up I get a black screen (see image) I'm not sure why it's upside down, it's not on my computer before upload.


Before this screen, the motherboard screen does show and I can enter the BIOS (it's a Gigabyte mobo if that helps?) I have a Windows disc that if I put in wants to install Windows again. If I do this, will it format my hard drives?

I have two hard drives, C and D, D has all my files on - are the hard drives likely to be OK still? Should I unplug the D drive just in case?

What can I do please? I haven't a clue, I really don't want to lose all my photos etc and promise to do a back up if I get it up and running again.

Thanks in advance.

DON'T go into the Windows install, not yet - you're more likely to fk things up than sort them doing that at this stage. Here's what I would do first and foremost:

1) Power off the PC fully and unplug it
2) Unplug all USB devices attached to the machine
2) Unplug all external and internal HDDs except the primary one with Windows on it
3) Boot into the BIOS and check that that HDD is the one that's set as the first boot disk

Test the boot. The issue you're getting looks like it's trying to boot from the wrong drive (either an internal or external). Test the machine without any other bits attached and see what it does.

If it doesn't boot then it's possible your boot sector is corrupted on the C:\. You won't lose any data if you do it right, but let's start with the simplest things first.

If it DOES boot then you need to ensure the boot order is correct in the BIOS when other drives are attached.

[silobass]

Thanks guys

I think the hard drive (C) is buggered. I unplugged D for extra safety/piece of mind and started it up again. In the BIOS set up it only shows the DVD drive for the boot options, the C drive isn't there. I did also try to install Windows again last night before I saw these replies and with this it said there was no drive to be able to install Windows on (FWIW, the Windows Disc is Windows 7 but I had upgraded to Windows 10)

I take it this does mean that the C drive is broken?

In the mean time, I've ordered a new drive from Amazon which is coming tomorrow. I'd planned on installing Windows on that and hopefully will be able to see the D drive.

When I get home I'll unplug everything except the essentials and give it another go, I didn't take everything out when I tried before. Even if it makes no difference, it'll give e something to do until the new hard drive comes!