Backup and re-install - Help please

[JockandRita]

Iv'e got to go to work shortly, however, I did manage to try...............

Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Windows firewall with advanced security.
On the right hand action pane, choose Restore default policy then reboot

................. and that with other little bits and pieces tried last night, certainly has got things whizzing along again.
I am no longer getting things like "program not responding" or " unresponsive script", especially when using Firefox, Chrome, MS Word, or XL.

When I have more time, I will tackle the slow startup and close down issues, for which links have been provided, but for now, thanks again all.

See you all later,

Jock.

 

[bungy]

Iv'e got to go to work shortly, however, I did manage to try...............
................. and that with other little bits and pieces tried last night, certainly has got things whizzing along again.
I am no longer getting things like "program not responding" or " unresponsive script", especially when using Firefox, Chrome, MS Word, or XL.

When I have more time, I will tackle the slow startup and close down issues, for which links have been provided, but for now, thanks again all.

See you all later,

Jock.

good stuff
Slow start up and shut down is normally due to background programs or processes - which post #22 covers
its amazin how many things get planted into that startup list...always a good plan to have a look every now and then!! Not always a problem though to be honest - sometimes thats just the way it is with the software you have installed

BUT slow startup and slow down can also mean you have a nasty lurking on the system as well, so if the above doesnt really help and its a problem..then its scanning time!!

 

[Scout]

if you go the full re install route, dont be in a hurry to get all your software on, do the re install, put on your antivirus, then let windows fully update, update it severail times BEFORE tyring to reinstall anything else. put one program back on at a time, update it, then do a update on windows each time and reboot befor moving on to the next program,

 

[scotjimland]

Hi Jock
I had the same problem with Charlotte's Dell lappy recently, you know what kids (and some adults ) are like about downloading crap.. ..

It was infested with malware, extra toolbars.. you name it , she had it.. she's a clickoholic ..

I spend hours running malware tools and removing unwanted crap .. I used CCleaner, and several other 'clean up ' tools , all good tools.. I also removed unwanted programs using Revo Uninstaller.. all to no avail.. it was too far gone..

I decided that a clean instal was the only answer.. Fortunately Dell supply the W7 reinstall disc so it wasn't a big chore .. until it came to doing Window7 updates.. it literally took days to download all the updates as we are on a slow ADSL broadband ..about 2meg on a good day .. then I had to go to the Dell website for missing drivers.. all good fun.. not.

Anyways.. just posted to give you moral support.. the previous posters have given good advice .. let us know how it goes..

I have to go now.. Docs appointment for high blood pressure

 

[JockandRita]

Slow start up and shut down is normally due to background programs or processes - which post #22 covers

I started to write a long speel about not being able to do that, as typing in misconfig gives a "no items match your search." But then after some time, I realised I should have typed "msconfig" and not misconfig.

Righty Ho, here we go.

Perform a clean boot
Performing a clean boot is one method which can help you determine if a background program is impacting shutdown.

Done that.

Isolating services

Isolating services will help by identify which background service(s) which could be causing

the slow shutdown.

Done that too, and after several permutations, I disabled "Hot Spot Shield" which I had installed before last going to Spain, so that I could download and watch BBC iPlayer, etc.

Now, from entering the password to getting online, takes just 40 seconds, and programs like MS Word and XL are almost instant. If "program not responding" appears, it's only for a split second, unlike before where it would be there and freeze the program for some time.

Re scanning Daryl, that gets done every time the laptop is used along with security updates, using MS Essentials.

Thanks again to all who contributed, and a special thanks to Bungy (Daryl) for advice and guidance to the solutions, which "appear" to have made a major difference to my laptop's performance, without having to do a clean install. Phew.

The only issue I have left, is that if the laptop is plugged into the mains charger, it will not complete the startup process, and leaves me with a black screen. However, if I close down, unplug from the mains, and reboot, everything works as it should??? Very strange indeed.

Cheers for now,

Jock.

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[mjltigger]

I started to write a long speel about not being able to do that, as typing in misconfig gives a "no items match your search." But then after some time, I realised I should have typed "msconfig" and not misconfig.

Righty Ho, here we go.

Perform a clean boot
Performing a clean boot is one method which can help you determine if a background program is impacting shutdown.

Done that.

Isolating services

Isolating services will help by identify which background service(s) which could be causing

the slow shutdown.

Done that too, and after several permutations, I disabled "Hot Spot Shield" which I had installed before last going to Spain, so that I could download and watch BBC iPlayer, etc.

Now, from entering the password to getting online, takes just 40 seconds, and programs like MS Word and XL are almost instant. If "program not responding" appears, it's only for a split second, unlike before where it would be there and freeze the program for some time.

Re scanning Daryl, that gets done every time the laptop is used along with security updates, using MS Essentials.

Thanks again to all who contributed, and a special thanks to Bungy (Daryl) for advice and guidance to the solutions, which "appear" to have made a major difference to my laptop's performance, without having to do a clean install. Phew.

The only issue I have left, is that if the laptop is plugged into the mains charger, it will not complete the startup process, and leaves me with a black screen. However, if I close down, unplug from the mains, and reboot, everything works as it should??? Very strange indeed.

Cheers for now,

Jock.

Bizarrely, the mainstream charger is plug in hardware. When Windows loads it will ask the charger what it is. The charger replies and Windows searches the dadatabasto see what to do with it. Oh.. attach it to the power controller.. great.

If the power controller is knackered (software issue) or the charger is knackered (firmware or hardware issue) this can halt the start up process.

I'm slightly leaning towards dodgy charger out of experience (they tend to wear out quicker than you expect) but without having the machine here I couldn't be sure.

 

[bungy]

Your welcome

Nice teaser at the end as well...now thats an intriguing one...may be a problem with the mains stuff.
Try taking the battery out and rebooting with the mains on...and let us know.

 

[JockandRita]

I'm slightly leaning towards dodgy charger out of experience (they tend to wear out quicker than you expect)

Sorry, but I'm not convinced myself, as the same symptoms arise when using the Maplin's 12v multi charger, when set at 18 or 20 v (no setting for 19v).

Try taking the battery out and rebooting with the mains on...and let us know.

Absolutely "Bang on there old chap". The laptop closes down and restarts as it should on mains power, when the battery has been removed.
Now then, is the problem attributed to the fact that I have replaced the original battery, for the same spec battery from Duracell very recently? The original HP battery was only lasting about an hour.

http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/hp/oem-pno/hstnn-ib51.html

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[mjltigger]

Sorry, but I'm not convinced myself, as the same symptoms arise when using the Maplin's 12v multi charger, when set at 18 or 20 v (no setting for 19v).


Absolutely "Bang on there old chap". The laptop closes down and restarts as it should on mains power, when the battery has been removed.
Now then, is the problem attributed to the fact that I have replaced the original battery, for the same spec battery from Duracell very recently? The original HP battery was only lasting about an hour.

http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/hp/oem-pno/hstnn-ib51.html

Cheers,

Jock.

Windows does install batteries as well but I would have expected the charger not to interfere in case of a duff battery .. but what do I know. Can you find the battery in the hardware list and ask Windows to diagnose it?

 

[bungy]

Sorry, but I'm not convinced myself, as the same symptoms arise when using the Maplin's 12v multi charger, when set at 18 or 20 v (no setting for 19v).


Absolutely "Bang on there old chap". The laptop closes down and restarts as it should on mains power, when the battery has been removed.
Now then, is the problem attributed to the fact that I have replaced the original battery, for the same spec battery from Duracell very recently? The original HP battery was only lasting about an hour.

http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/hp/oem-pno/hstnn-ib51.html

Cheers,

Jock.

It is more than likely to do with that yes, hp have probably got some little bit of software buried in the windows system or in the bios which looks for a hp battery...sneaky way of pushing folk to use an hp one!! (They are not alone in that either)

No worries though...personally id use the laptop with the mains unplugged and just use the mains to recharge or plug it in when your running low and still using it

Better for the batteries life as well

Or try the calibration bit in this.....Broken Link Removed

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[JockandRita]

but what do I know.

A damn site more than me, it would seem.

Can you find the battery in the hardware list and ask Windows to diagnose it?

I wouldn't even have a clue where to start looking for that.

No worries though...personally id use the laptop with the mains unplugged and just use the mains to recharge or plug it in when your running low and still using it

Yes, that's what I've been doing for some time Daryl.

Or try the calibration bit in this.....Broken Link Removed

Tried that with the original battery, as well as with the new one, but didn't experience any differences compared to before.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[vin0114]

Good luck mate, I have done several complete formats in the past that usually took several days to get back to 'normal' running but win 7 appears to be the most resilient up to now.

 

[DBK]

This thread got me thinking about doing a rebuild on my PC - so yesterday afternoon I did just that and now, almost exactly 24 hours later it is all up back and working. It went relatively painlessly but I did panic when I came to reinstall two applications which I had originally downloaded and didn't have installation disks for. These were Adobe Photoshop Elements and Sony Vegas Pro Video editor and I couldn't find the files of my version to download on the Adobe or Sony websites. The only links were to the latest versions. I had the license numbers but both companies tried very hard to get me to upgrade to the latest versions. It was sorted in the end as the files were there but well hidden. Moral of the story is check where the files are for your version before deleting your installation!

Updating took the longest, I went to bed last night while it was downloading 215 updates! These included a lot for MS Office, for which I did have the disks, but these were about 5 years old and well out of date. The only other problem was with emails when I let Outlook choose the settings for my btinternet email automatically. This needed to be done manually so a POP account was used not IMAP. It looked as if it had all gone well but error message came coming up about headers and imap servers. IMAP is fine for Google mail but BT needs POP as I understand it.

 

[Gellyneck]

Yep, if you properly plan the factory reset and you have all the software discs to hand this can usually be completed is a day or so.
Once you get it back up and running you should create a full image using, say Macrium Reflect Free, and you can use this at any time to re-install back to your current status. Takes about 30 minutes, or so, to do a re-install and includes all the software you had installed. Obviously, you have to do any subsequent updates but they will be a lot less than the 215!

 

[JockandRita]

As you've all gathered by now, I didn't do a clean install in the end, but what I did do (with the guidance and help from others) certainly speeded things up quite a bit, and my laptop is a pleasure to use again.
BTW, it appears to be running a bit cooler too. I am currently doing a full backup as I type (on the home PC )

I do admire and applaud those of you who have the knowledge, the skills, and the confidence to tackle these IT issues which to many of us, would be an absolute nightmare of a task.

Cheers for now,

Jock.

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[Gellyneck]

If it's running well now you may want to use Macrium to take an image and you'll be able to re-install back to this if future problems occur. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

 

[Janine]

 

[DBK]

On reflection I think you are wise to try and avoid a reinstall on a laptop. I did it on my Dell laptop once and it took ages, there were gazillions of special driver files I had to download from the Dell website. For a PC it seems much easier as a lot of the drivers needed to get it working are on the Windows disks. The only ones I had to download yesterday were for the video driver and the Ethernet controller. No doubt it has subsequently downloaded many updates but at least it worked and there were no error messages. After I installed windows on the laptop and then looked at the device manager it was a sea of exclamation marks.

 

[Gellyneck]

On reflection I think you are wise to try and avoid a reinstall on a laptop. I did it on my Dell laptop once and it took ages, there were gazillions of special driver files I had to download from the Dell website. For a PC it seems much easier as a lot of the drivers needed to get it working are on the Windows disks. The only ones I had to download yesterday were for the video driver and the Ethernet controller. No doubt it has subsequently downloaded many updates but at least it worked and there were no error messages. After I installed windows on the laptop and then looked at the device manager it was a sea of exclamation marks.

Easy solution. Don't look in Device Manager.

 

[dna]

You did mention it was running hot but is cooler - have you cleaned out the cooling slots for the fan. Its amazing how much muck gets into them. A vacuum with a small head might do some good, or some careful "blasting" with a can of compressed air (but don't use any old aerosol as a substitute! )

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[JockandRita]

View attachment 51639

Excellent Janine. I really like that.

You did mention it was running hot but is cooler - have you cleaned out the cooling slots for the fan.

Yes thanks, several times. The cooler running today, is definitely as a result of the changes carried out yesterday.

(but don't use any old aerosol as a substitute! )

A quick look at my signature, should give you a clue as to my answer to that one.

Cheers for now,

Jock.

 

[DBK]

If it's running well now you may want to use Macrium to take an image and you'll be able to re-install back to this if future problems occur. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Just installed and run this, putting the image on the second hard drive. Clever how it can restore the C:/ disk when the application is actually launched from the C:\ disk. Hopefully I wont need it for a while. I have just worked out the original OS had been running for about 8 years so perhaps no wonder it was taking a while to boot up. No doubt a bit of house keeping could have improved things but starting again from scratch is refreshing. One thing I didn't think about was I had the desktop full of shortcuts to all sorts of interesting webpages and applications. All gone now - and do I miss them? Not one bit!

 

[Gellyneck]

I should have mentioned to store the image offline from the hard disc that Windows is installed on (normally C: drive) so you don't lose it if that hard disc fails.

Did you create a rescue media that will allow you to boot the machine into Reflect if you lose the original Windows installation through corruption \ disc failure? Also good if you are migrating to a new (larger) hard disc.

It's amazing what you can actually do without when you clean out all the rubbish!

 

[DBK]

I should have mentioned to store the image offline from the hard disc that Windows is installed on (normally C: drive) so you don't lose it if that hard disc fails.

Did you create a rescue media that will allow you to boot the machine into Reflect if you lose the original Windows installation through corruption \ disc failure? Also good if you are migrating to a new (larger) hard disc.

It's amazing what you can actually do without when you clean out all the rubbish!

Yes the image is on a different hard drive but I haven't made the rescue disk yet - will do that today. Thanks for the reminder.