Computer acting funny (Any tech experts welcomed)

[Leego]

OK, so what does this sound like?

 

I must have said that my computer has been doing really well lately, because recently, particularly after getting ARK: Survival Evolved and some mods for it, my laptop has been acting all kinds of weird.

 

Recently, it randomly shut down and restarted right after a game download, and I assumed it BSOD'd. Then when I was closed to finished with downloading an update for ARK and browsing on the internet (after turning my computer back on), it BSOD'd, giving me a "kernal_data_inpage_error".

 

I googled the error, and I heard that it could either be a virus, or something wrong with my hard drive, which is hard to believe because I had to replace it less than a year ago when it suffered a head crash. I mean, maybe rolling it around in my backpack a few times when my sister borrowed my smaller one for school might have shook something loose, but that's the only thing I can think of that might have caused some more issues with the hard drive.

 

Now recently, I've been getting red pixels on my screen. It was an issue I had in the past, and I was told it had something to do with my graphics card dying or being loose, and it seemed to go away and reappear depending on how I position my laptop. Now it's showing up again, but only on certain tabs in my browser.

 

And just a few minutes ago, I got some error saying "Windows has encountered a critical error" and to save my work before it restarts my computer, with a title saying "You Will Be Logged Off".

 

I recently tried to do a full system scan, but I think my computer BSOD half way through it, as well.

 

It's really starting to sound like a virus, but I can't think of where I might have picked one up. I've been keeping Norton 360 up. It hasn't asked for me to update it recently. Whenever I do a quick scan, it doesn't find anything. I haven't been downloading anything pirated. I haven't been going to any strange websites, unless you count Rule 34, I'll admit.

[Raincloak]

First question is: what kind of computer have you got and exactly what OS is it running?  And what browser are you using?

Are you getting problems only with your browser, or with everything the computer does?

 

 

I just googled that game you describe and it seems to be quite new (came out only a few months ago).  I would therefore guess it is hardware-heavy, and it's possible your laptop, which you imply is more than a year old, doesn't have the cojones to cope with it.

 

(I personally hate gaming on laptops, because their hardware is usually weaker than a desktop and upgrading it by hand is a gigantic pain.  Long live the separate CPU.)

 

My usual first attempt at diagnosis is the good old CTRL ALT DELETE, which starts Windows Task Manager.  Inspect the running programs and see if anything is hogging up a lot of power.  Quite a few programs set themselves to start when Windows starts and constantly hover in the background, so they can "launch" more quickly when you click the icon.  This results in sluggish performance, for obvious reasons.

 

To control this, type 'msconfig' into the Search box on the Start menu.  Move the button to "selective startup," then check the Services and Startup tabs.  Examine the list and uncheck anything that doesn't need to start every time the computer boots.  (If something sounds technical or you don't know what it is, Google it on another machine before unchecking the box.  Quite a lot of automatic services like Windows Fax can be safely turned off, but you don't want to kill anything the system actually needs to run.)

 

While I'm hardly an expert, red pixels on the screen sounds like a hardware problem to me, particularly if you've been told the graphics card is loose and especially if it goes away when you reposition the machine.  Updating your graphics card driver might help, but if the physical hardware is not seated right, the only remedy is opening up the laptop and fixing it.

 

As for Windows having critical errors, that could be a lot of things, none of them good.  It could be one of the mods you downloaded, I suppose.  It could also mean your hard drive is starting to go bad.

 

Or, yeah, it could be a virus.  Run a full system scan with Norton and see what comes up.  You might also consider getting Avast (which I like better than Norton nowadays) and running that.

 

meanwhile, I'd back up your data if I were you.

[Leego]

I just did a sfc /SCANNOW, and it said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

 

I've got a Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1 with an Intel® Core i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz

 

System type: 64-bit Operation System

 

 

I see something called "Nvidia Backend.exe" that seems sort of new. "Backend" sounds suspicious to me, but I'm not COMPLETELY tech-savvy, so it could be nothing, for all I know. You mean to tell me that just having ARK on my computer is weighing it down and killing it? Because, I do have 44.4 GB of space free out of 931 GB. I'm gonna try to uninstall some games from Steam, if it doesn't blow up again.

 

I'm going to try Avast. As for the red pixels, I've tried opening up my laptop and pushing the card more in, but I think I got scared of frying something by accident. When I have free time again, I'll give it another go.

[Raincloak]

Nvidia is a hardware maker, so that .exe may have something to do with how your machine works.  I'd leave it alone if I were you.  Scan it if you're suspicious.

 

While 44 gb of free HD space ought to be plenty, if you've managed to use up 800 gb already, that suggests you've probably got too much junk on the computer.  Actually having stuff in storage isn't a problem, but if the computer is constantly trying to access and use much of that stuff, that WILL slow it down.  So uninstalling things you don't need anymore is a good idea.

 

it's also possible you don't have enough RAM, though not terribly likely.

[Leego]

Yeah. Only problem is, how do I figure out where all this excess memory is going? I've uninstalled as much as I can via the control panel, but obviously, as I have seen with Steam and it's games, that method doesn't pick up on EVERY program on my computer: Just ones that are most immediately noticed, I guess.

 

I actually shaved a lot of that fat off by uninstalling Steam games I don't play no more. It's tempting to just clean out every folder on my desktop, but I'm paranoid I might delete something I want or need, which I know is crazy, because if it had anything I wanted or needed, I would be able to think of it.

 

I think I need to stop being a pack-ratting hoarder and do some spring cleaning on my laptop.

[TMedina]

You can do a couple of things:

 

Run "disk cleanup" - you mentioned Windows 64 bit, but that doesn't narrow it down to: 7, 8/8.1, or 10.  You probably have a lot of temp files - you can also run the scan on your system files to see if you have temp files lurking on your PC.

 

You can Google "Microsoft Safety Scanner" - this will take you to a Microsoft page with a free virus scanner that you can download and run on a deep scan.

 

You can also check your BSOD dump files - go to www.osronline.com.  This is a free BSOD dump file scanner.

--navigate to c:\windows\minidump\

--pick your latest dump file and upload it

 

You might also need to update the driver for your graphics driver - right-click on your computer, select manage, go to "device manager".

--find display adapter

--expand, find your manufacturer, and check their website for driver updates

 

Also, make sure your Windows updates are current - as annoying as it is, not having a currently updated OS can result in performance issues with new programs.

[Leego]

It's so strange! I can play Brawlhalla and run steam with ease, and even play Youtube videos on Google Chrome and Firefox, but as soon as I try to open Google Chrome whilist starting Windows Media Player at the same time, EVERYTHING locks up: First WMP, then the browser, then I try to open up my User folder to do a virus scan there, and it froze, then I tried using task manager, and it froze up after I clicked a few tabs on it. While all of this is happening, my computer is as quiet as a mouse, has a CUP Usage between 0% - 30%, physical memory of 18% - 20%, and 66 processes running.

 

It wasn't until after waiting about 5 minutes for the CTLR+ALT+DEL prompt to show up and I choose to log out does everything unwind, quickly log out, and then let me quickly log back in with everything in place as if nothing ever happened.

 

How low does a good, gaming desktop PC go for these days?

[Raincloak]

Why are you trying to run a browser and WMP at the same time?  I'm not saying your computer should hang when you do that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did, particularly if you're opening videos or sound files in the browser.  Obviously, it's a bad idea to be running two different programs that both try to access your video/sound simultaneously.

 

If you absolutely must run a media player and a browser simultaneously, try a more lightweight player.  I like VLC. 

 

Also check your browser, clear cookies and data, and update if the browser is due for an update.  Chrome usually is not too bad but any browser can have problems if it's cluttered with cookies and shit.

 

66 processes is an awful lot of processes to be running at once.  What the hell have you got going on there?  I just checked my task manager (also Windows 7) and it's got about 15 processes running, including 3 iterations of Chrome.

[Leego]

I have no idea. I thought I disabled a hand full of processes that launch at start-up.

 

And yeah, I guess I could try and take it a bit more easy with my computer, but when you've had your computer successfully do something over a hundred times, it's kind of hard not to get a little freaked out when your computer suddenly stops being able to do that one, seemingly simple thing.

 

I've also noticed that for some strange reason, after updating every game on it, Steam freezes and hangs up my internet connection, but when I force it to close and do a troubleshoot for my internet connection, it goes back to normal. And all of this began after I installed ARK and changed some download settings in Steam. I'm gonna change it back to default.

[eltoasted]

make sure ur computer meets the RECOMMENDED requirements to run the game.

monitor ur laptop and see if its overheating (i burned my lappy hard drive gaming )

try uninstalling ark and see if the problem persists.

 

u can also try running the task manager by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, then going to process and google every process there. some malware can be found running there. then just google "how to get rid of xxxxx malware"

 

and just because u bought a brand new drive doesnt mean u wont experience issues. hard drives life is usually short...also it may have come deffective from store. it happens, its just bad luck

[TMedina]

I have 70 processes running on my system.  Some are pre-loads from the manufacturer.  Others are program add-ons I've picked up from school and elsewhere.

 

If you've localized the issue to WMP and Chrome, do some Googling and see if it's a known issue.  

 

The easy answer is to avoid using those two in combination, particularly if it isn't necessary.  A virus or hardware issue would be more widespread - this problem seems to be highly localized.

[Leego]

After closer examination, I've found out that most of those processes are from Microsoft, but there's so many to disable, I'm nervous to touch any of them just in case I might need one of them.

 

My computer is acting much better now, I guess after doing a disk cleanup and uninstalling some games, and controlling what starts up, but I get the feeling that it isn't over. I am worried that ARK might overheat my PC if I continue to play it, but it's SO tempting! I mean, I already paid for it, and it's not like my computer can't run it, it's just dangerous to run it. But maybe I should take a break from it or set the settings on low. The game being poorly optimized and running like a clip show IS some of the main criticisms I hear about it.

[Raincloak]

well, you should put your laptop someplace where the fan vents aren't blocked, and try not to let it get too hot, obviously.  But if you run demanding software your computer is going to get hot.  It's simply a matter of more electricity running through more circuits.  And laptops get hot worse than desktops because everything is packed into a smaller space. (Some high-level gaming computers and servers actually have extra coolant tubes or stronger fans, so their expensive hardware lasts longer.)

 

Certainly turning off/down some game features is a good idea, since you're running a new game on an old machine.  If the game is skipping that's a pretty clear sign something is slowing it down.  Turn off every process possible, search online for more tips, and see if performance improves.  Oh, and check your Internet connection and your antivirus software; if the problem is with your internet, either of those could be the culprit.

 

as far as burning out the machine: all computers burn out sooner or later, and for laptops it's sooner.  When you buy and use a computer, it's always a race between obsolesence and physical breakdown.  Which will kill it first?  For me it's usually the latter, because I hate changing interfaces, so I use what I've got until it will work no more and the cost of repairs outweighs the cost of replacement.  (I do the same with cars and shoes.  Always better to consume less, I feel.)  But most people discard and buy new machines every year or two.  If you're one of those people, you don't have much to worry about; just back up your data and run the laptop into the ground