Laptop woes

[zamler]

Put Linux on a USB drive and boot it (it won't change the Windows install) use it for a bit see if it runs reliably.
https://linuxmint.com/

Windows is a giant POS honestly it self corrupts after a few years in many cases. Sign of a failing HD are hard locks. BTW Windows 7 is quite resource intensive the lowest footprint Windows is version 8.0 (besides XP) but 8.0 is obsolete.

[shane_c]

It took about 1.5 days but I've managed to get all the Windows updates done. I've been waiting on the last 2 large updates for about 4 hrs now. Given that it was slow with all the updates I don't think these last 2 will make any difference.

After this I'll run some further tests on the hard drive. If it turns out that there's an issue with the HDD then I'll replace it with a SSD.

It's supposed to rain here pretty much the whole long weekend so I should have lots of time to work on it.

[shane_c]

As expected, the Windows updates made no difference but at least it’s up to date now.

I just ran crystaldiskinfo on C: to see what it gives me. It says health status caution. I seem to be having 2 issues…. 1) Current pending sector count (current 100 / worst 100 / threshold 0) and 2) Reallocated sector count (current 100 / worst 100 / threshold 50).

[Fuzz]

Ya, that sounds like a dying hard drive. Reallocation Sector Count indicates bad sectors. A few occasionally is not much to worry about, but 100 is bad. If you have a PC you can buy a new drive and duplicate your current one to the SSD. Then you don't have to do a full reinstall.


But I think you mentioned it has a Win 8 key? Might be better to install that fresh, update to 8.1 and install Classic Shell so it acts like an OS that doesn't suck.

[shane_c]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, that sounds like a dying hard drive. Reallocation Sector Count indicates bad sectors. A few occasionally is not much to worry about, but 100 is bad. If you have a PC you can buy a new drive and duplicate your current one to the SSD. Then you don't have to do a full reinstall.


But I think you mentioned it has a Win 8 key? Might be better to install that fresh, update to 8.1 and install Classic Shell so it acts like an OS that doesn't suck.

I'm running a scan to attempt to fix the bad sectors. Just letting it do it's thing while I work. I don't expect it to really make a difference though. Sounds like I'll be picking up a new drive this weekend. It has a Windows 8 sticker on the bottom but the activation key is for Windows 7. I saw on the Microsoft site that I can download 7 from the site and would need to enter my activation key to do the install. There's nothing on the hard drive other than windows so I'm not too concerned about copying it somewhere else. May as well start fresh.



Thanks for all the help!

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by shane_c

As expected, the Windows updates made no difference but at least it’s up to date now.

I just ran crystaldiskinfo on C: to see what it gives me. It says health status caution. I seem to be having 2 issues…. 1) Current pending sector count (current 100 / worst 100 / threshold 0) and 2) Reallocated sector count (current 100 / worst 100 / threshold 50).

I think using macrium free and using a USB to sata cord to clone to an SSD should work fine for your laptop. I'd consider trying that first and do a reset if it doesn't work well before jumping to a full reinstall.

It definitely seems like the HDD is dying.

[shane_c]

It took almost 7 hrs to run the c: scan to attempt to fix the bad sectors. When it was done it said it fixed several errors.

Seems like it did the trick!!! Power on/off times have gone from about 5-10 minutes to around 30 seconds!!!!! I was even able to get it to open Internet Explorer and go online without having to wait several minutes any time I tried to click or type anything!

Hopefully it's all good now! I'm cautiously optimistic despite crystaldiskinfo giving me the same errors as before.

[shane_c]

Haha! The party is over. It worked really good once. Then I installed 2 new important updates along with Silverlight and it is back to its usual extremely slow self. So this morning I restored Windows to the point before those updates but it didn't make much difference.

It is a bit faster than when I got it a week ago, but still for the most part unusable and still only connects to my home wi-fi

[psicodude]

Your hard drive is dying. The laptop probably won't even boot in a few weeks.

[shane_c]

Originally Posted by psicodude

Your hard drive is dying. The laptop probably won't even boot in a few weeks.

I plan on picking one up tomorrow

[shane_c]

The HDD was the problem. Cloned it and installed a SSD last night and now it's very fast. Startup times are around 15 seconds, shutdown a little quicker. If I click on Internet Explorer it opens and is ready in about 5 seconds.

Thanks for all the help!

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by shane_c

The HDD was the problem. Cloned it and installed a SSD last night and now it's very fast. Startup times are around 15 seconds, shutdown a little quicker. If I click on Internet Explorer it opens and is ready in about 5 seconds.

Thanks for all the help!

Glad it worked out.

Whoever told your dad the mobo was the issue...