OH's new laptop is flaky - any ideas?
Discussion
The OH bought a new laptop in December, described on Amazon as follows:
ASUS Zenbook UX330UA-FB025T 13.3 inch Notebook (Intel Core i5-6200U, QHD 3200 x 1800 Screen, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Windows 10, Bluetooth 4.0) - Grey/Metal + Microsoft Office
She's installed Norton Antivirus and Office 365 but nothing else.
It's causing her no end of problems. Typically she'll boot it up and then nothing will load. She clicks on something to load it but nothing happens - she just gets the spinning circle of eternal misery. Internet Explorer will load (though she doesn't generally use that) but again she just gets the spinning circle if she tries to search for something. After re-booting a few times it starts behaving as it should.
Is it the machine a dud or is it an OS/software issue? I've only ever worked on Windows in a medium sized company with dedicated IT support so I wouldn't know where to begin looking for a solution.
ASUS Zenbook UX330UA-FB025T 13.3 inch Notebook (Intel Core i5-6200U, QHD 3200 x 1800 Screen, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Windows 10, Bluetooth 4.0) - Grey/Metal + Microsoft Office
She's installed Norton Antivirus and Office 365 but nothing else.
It's causing her no end of problems. Typically she'll boot it up and then nothing will load. She clicks on something to load it but nothing happens - she just gets the spinning circle of eternal misery. Internet Explorer will load (though she doesn't generally use that) but again she just gets the spinning circle if she tries to search for something. After re-booting a few times it starts behaving as it should.
Is it the machine a dud or is it an OS/software issue? I've only ever worked on Windows in a medium sized company with dedicated IT support so I wouldn't know where to begin looking for a solution.
I'd agree with uninstalling Norton. I can't see Office being the problem.
If there's still an issue you could download one of the Versions of Linux which boot from a USB drive. If everything works OK you know it's not a physical issue with the hardware.
I'd then try reinstalling a clean version of Windows and if that doesn't work send the thing back!
If there's still an issue you could download one of the Versions of Linux which boot from a USB drive. If everything works OK you know it's not a physical issue with the hardware.
I'd then try reinstalling a clean version of Windows and if that doesn't work send the thing back!
threadlock said:
Or trust Microsoft and use Windows Defender.
Another vote for Windows defender here.IMHO (System Admin of 20 years speaking here) Windows Defender does a good job in Windows 10, and there's no need for 3rd party AV any more.
If you really, really must have a 3rd party anti virus, then install something like Bit defender or Sophos.
ETA: Norton will almost certainly be the cause because it's a crock of s
t.ALSO: Check that Windows updates aren't running - it might be doing a load of updates which will also slow it down.
Edited by TonyRPH on Saturday 21st January 17:28
There seems to be a theme to this thread. 
It's funny and I've no idea if they are still as bad as they used to be but I'm amazed they haven't re-branded yet. I buy all this stuff for work and some of their enterprise stuff is pretty good but I get a nervous twitch about the brand.
The poor sales guy was at a loss as to why I didn't take it so I told him.
Him "Is it the price, we can do something with that I'm sure"
Me "Nope, you were cheaper"
Him "What functionality are you not sure about?"
Me "None, it seems like it would do the job and in fact it's better in some ways"
Him "So why are you not buying it?"
Me "The name. I'm afraid that every time something goes wrong I'd blame your software even if it wasn't at fault"
I've never even tried it in the workplace but the home stuff (which I know isn't related) was enough to put me off the company.
It's funny and I've no idea if they are still as bad as they used to be but I'm amazed they haven't re-branded yet. I buy all this stuff for work and some of their enterprise stuff is pretty good but I get a nervous twitch about the brand.
The poor sales guy was at a loss as to why I didn't take it so I told him.
Him "Is it the price, we can do something with that I'm sure"
Me "Nope, you were cheaper"
Him "What functionality are you not sure about?"
Me "None, it seems like it would do the job and in fact it's better in some ways"
Him "So why are you not buying it?"
Me "The name. I'm afraid that every time something goes wrong I'd blame your software even if it wasn't at fault"
I've never even tried it in the workplace but the home stuff (which I know isn't related) was enough to put me off the company.
Make a note of your product key and make a backup of any important files you have.
Download Windows 10 from Microsoft, format the drive and install a fresh bare-bones edition of Windows 10, which doesn't have all the crapware and 30 day free trail garbage that Asus have installed from the factory.
Activate it with your product key and re-install your important files from your backup and don't install any anti-virus software ever again.
Download Windows 10 from Microsoft, format the drive and install a fresh bare-bones edition of Windows 10, which doesn't have all the crapware and 30 day free trail garbage that Asus have installed from the factory.
Activate it with your product key and re-install your important files from your backup and don't install any anti-virus software ever again.
Edited by mp3manager on Saturday 21st January 18:40
TonyRPH said:
ZesPak said:
? What are you on about?
If you're referring to the post from "poing" then he's referring to Norton Anti Virus.TonyRPH said:
threadlock said:
Or trust Microsoft and use Windows Defender.
Another vote for Windows defender here.IMHO (System Admin of 20 years speaking here) Windows Defender does a good job in Windows 10, and there's no need for 3rd party AV any more.
mp3manager said:
Make a note of your product key and make a backup of any important files you have.
Download Windows 10 from Microsoft, format the drive and install a fresh bare-bones edition of Windows 10, which doesn't have all the crapware and 30 day free trail garbage that Asus have installed from the factory.
Activate it with your product key and re-install your important files from your backup and don't install any anti-virus software ever again.
With it being a Windows 10 machine you may well NOT have a physical product key Download Windows 10 from Microsoft, format the drive and install a fresh bare-bones edition of Windows 10, which doesn't have all the crapware and 30 day free trail garbage that Asus have installed from the factory.
Activate it with your product key and re-install your important files from your backup and don't install any anti-virus software ever again.
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 21st January 18:40
Thanks everyone. She's been on the phone to someone that she reached via Amazon and they took her through a few things which may or may not have solved the problem. It's intermittent so we're not sure yet. For the record, it came with Kaspersky installed but she also has Norton as it was part of a bundle that had Office 365 in it. She bought the bundle as there was no information to suggest that the laptop came with any anti-virus pre-installed. She installed Norton so it has that and Kaspersky installed. Could it be that?
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