unresponsive computer help

I need help, my comp is jacked up. My task bar is frozen, things like my control panel go unresponsive immediately, many programs do the same. I also can't download anything, it just never starts I have tried restarting everything, and I have no idea what could have caused this. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, in a few days prior to this happening, any help at all is appreciated. Thanks!

1. backup important stuff (linux livecd works well)
2. scan for spyware/viruses/whathaveyou
3. check hardware (take temperature first)

Post back with results.

Is this problem new, and how long has it been going on? Try backtracking and remember what you might have done that caused this issue.

sometimes it might be a simple tweak done carelessly, sometimes it might be a download and so on. Just try to remember what actually caused this issue, and maybe the problem can be solved easily.

The safest solution is to use a live cd to backup, then format your entire hard drive and reinstall you OS.

there's a chance that whatever it is that's causing the problem, say a malware or virus be picked along with the files he backed up, although he could re-scan the backup on a different computer before transferring it back to his own computer.

gregorian wrote: The safest solution is to use a live cd to backup, then format your entire hard drive and reinstall you OS.

That would be a last resort and a big waste of time, Reason being if this is hardware related it would suck to start formatting and have it lock up. Any virus or malware can easily be removed within a few minutes. I've repaired hundreds and I do mean hundreds of PC's and maybe reloaded 5% of them.

Now to the issue at hand: First thing as spy said is to check temps, If this thing is overheating it could be your problem. Pull your memory, video card, heat sink, etc and blow the box out with compressed air, Then reassemble it (use good thermal Paste on your heat sink) Even if it is not the problem it's a good idea to do about once a year to insure your not clogged up with dust and shit.

If it's not overheating try starting up in Safe Mode, Do a system restore to an earlier date. If that fails, Go back in Safe Mode and run Combofix and Malwarebytes both are easily found and can be loaded on a CD to run through Safe Mode.

If the problem still persists post back with more details on your hardware and any thing recorded in the event viewer found via admin tools, Also get Hijackthis and run it and post the log. We can go from there.

korg wrote:

That would be a last resort and a big waste of time, Reason being if this is hardware related it would suck to start formatting and have it lock up. Any virus or malware can easily be removed within a few minutes. I've repaired hundreds and I do mean hundreds of PC's and maybe reloaded 5% of them.

Now to the issue at hand: First thing as spy said is to check temps, If this thing is overheating it could be your problem. Pull your memory, video card, heat sink, etc and blow the box out with compressed air, Then reassemble it (use good thermal Paste on your heat sink) Even if it is not the problem it's a good idea to do about once a year to insure your not clogged up with dust and shit.

If it's not overheating try starting up in Safe Mode, Do a system restore to an earlier date. If that fails, Go back in Safe Mode and run Combofix and Malwarebytes both are easily found and can be loaded on a CD to run through Safe Mode.

If the problem still persists post back with more details on your hardware and any thing recorded in the event viewer found via admin tools, Also get Hijackthis and run it and post the log. We can go from there.

I was actually just doing a system restore, and my mom decided to turn my laptop off, so now its far gone unless i re-install the OS. I had a lot of shit I need on it, any ideas on how i could get any data off it? I'm bad at all this stuff. And it's always had heat problems, and a shitty charger that almost catches fire everytime i use it, but I can't afford anything right now so I can't get a new charger/computer

deshdude1754 wrote: [quote]korg wrote:

That would be a last resort and a big waste of time, Reason being if this is hardware related it would suck to start formatting and have it lock up. Any virus or malware can easily be removed within a few minutes. I've repaired hundreds and I do mean hundreds of PC's and maybe reloaded 5% of them.

Now to the issue at hand: First thing as spy said is to check temps, If this thing is overheating it could be your problem. Pull your memory, video card, heat sink, etc and blow the box out with compressed air, Then reassemble it (use good thermal Paste on your heat sink) Even if it is not the problem it's a good idea to do about once a year to insure your not clogged up with dust and shit.

If it's not overheating try starting up in Safe Mode, Do a system restore to an earlier date. If that fails, Go back in Safe Mode and run Combofix and Malwarebytes both are easily found and can be loaded on a CD to run through Safe Mode.

If the problem still persists post back with more details on your hardware and any thing recorded in the event viewer found via admin tools, Also get Hijackthis and run it and post the log. We can go from there.

I was actually just doing a system restore, and my mom decided to turn my laptop off, so now its far gone unless i re-install the OS. I had a lot of shit I need on it, any ideas on how i could get any data off it? I'm bad at all this stuff. And it's always had heat problems, and a shitty charger that almost catches fire everytime i use it, but I can't afford anything right now so I can't get a new charger/computer[/quote]

As has been mentioned before, just burn a live linux CD, boot it up, and then pull all your data off the drive onto a USB stick or something.

stealth- wrote:

As has been mentioned before, just burn a live linux CD, boot it up, and then pull all your data off the drive onto a USB stick or something.

Other than making the CD is it difficult to use or pretty straight forward? I have no linux experience.

maug wrote: you should be able to point and click. Mandriva One is a favorite of mine for a live cd.

Anyways, the other drives would be in /media. So from root, open up the media folder/directory, and then it will list your drives. Open the drive, and you have access to all the files on your windows partition.

Wordy thanks. I'm thinking of just switching to linux for good, or at least a while. any quick recommendations on which to use, or which is easiest for n00bs like myself?

Start with Ubuntu, it will install like Windows and is easy to use. It's the most popular linux desktop OS. You'll be able to access all of your files with a quick point and click, Computer -> 300 GB Hard Disk, there you are (from a live boot).

Learn your way around, look how the files are structures, practice installing things and using the terminal. Nobody sticks with their first distro, in a few months you'll make a move and know more of what to look for.

DigitalFire wrote: Start with Ubuntu, it will install like Windows and is easy to use. It's the most popular linux desktop OS. You'll be able to access all of your files with a quick point and click, Computer -> 300 GB Hard Disk, there you are (from a live boot).

Learn your way around, look how the files are structures, practice installing things and using the terminal. Nobody sticks with their first distro, in a few months you'll make a move and know more of what to look for.

Awesome thanks!

MoshBat wrote: That's no excuse for starting with a shit one.

Ubuntu isn't a "shit" distro. As far as OP is concerned, the actual differences between distros are minor. I suggested it (mainly) because the Ubuntu community is very large and helpful, but also Gnome is intuitive and easy to navigate, it is easy and simple to set up, and there is still lots of linux to be learned from it. A good mix to suit him, and he was looking for a definitive answer.

Please, let's not let this degrade into a flame war. There are some very good reasons to hate ubuntu, but there are also it's benefits. It depends on which angle you look at it from.

@OP My personal recommendation is going to be to install windows inside of a VM when you get your linux distro up and running (as long as you have a reasonably fast computer). Linux is great, but there are a lot of programs that just won't work well in it, so having Windows at the click of a couple buttons is great for when you need it. I find work arounds most of the time, but i notice a lot of new linux users can be pretty reluctant to do that. If you think you're going to be like the latter and don't have any other windows machine around, I'd look into Virtual Box or VMWare.

and how is this flame war gonna help the OP with his problem?

maug wrote: dual boot works well too,

Dual boot requires a shutdown. Having to shutdown your entire OS just to work for a little bit in one program is a huge pain in the ass for me. I don't want to have to leave linux and close all of my projects just because I wanted to open a file in my favorite flash decompiler (There are linux apps to do that, this was just an example). If your computer can handle it, which most can, in my opinion the best way to go is definitely dual boot.

since most hard drives now have plenty of space.

Dual boot and a VM take up the virtually the same amount of space…….

fuser wrote: and how is this flame war gonna help the OP with his problem?

What flamewar? It seems to me that people went on to talk about DE's and dual boot methods, which could be very helpful to the OP. o.0

fuser wrote: and how is this flame war gonna help the OP with his problem?

It's not! The OP doesn't need to boot a linux cd, He can use many windows boot cd's (One I wrote myself but is not freeware) Like this one: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Boot this up and you can recover your files in a windows environment no fucking around with something you no nothing about. Contains lots of useful tools to recover your files.

Now that you stated you have a laptop (Still didn't give any info on it). You can still remove your covers from underneath and pull your memory, hd, wireless (if applicable) etc. and blow it out with air to clean it. Laptops are the worst for dust and lint. The heat sinks are small and can clog real easy.

System restore even if interrupted should still work in safe mode.

korg wrote:

It's not! The OP doesn't need to boot a linux cd, He can use many windows boot cd's (One I wrote myself but is not freeware) Like this one: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Boot this up and you can recover your files in a windows environment no fucking around with something you no nothing about. Contains lots of useful tools to recover your files.

Now that you stated you have a laptop (Still didn't give any info on it). You can still remove your covers from underneath and pull your memory, hd, wireless (if applicable) etc. and blow it out with air to clean it. Laptops are the worst for dust and lint. The heat sinks are small and can clog real easy.

System restore even if interrupted should still work in safe mode.
I tried to just run a bootable USB i made, and no matter what i do the screen just stays black. No startup happens at all, i don't have a way to get to safe mode that i know of. I didn't say anything else about the computer because I simply know nothing specific about it other than its an HP. I'll clean it out tonight for sure though. Obviously, I don't know what I am doing, and just screwed myself over more. Right now all I'm looking to get out of this is a computer with a working OS on it, and all the bootable OS's i've tried dont change what happens when I turn the laptop on, which is nothing.

maug wrote: just checking, but usually you get into safemode by tapping F8 durring startup. How far does it get? Does the fan start, or are there any lights on the computer?

On the bottom of your laptop there should be some sort of number to tell you the exact kind of computer you have. For example, I have an "Aspire 4530-5627"

Its a Pavilion DV7-2043CL i believe. Wow, I hit F8 and it suddenly decided to work, kinda. I'm back to square one. I had tried all of F keys when i start it up before and had no luck so I must be part retarded or something. Thanks for all of the help though! I'm just gonna do the system restore again, and make sure it isn't interrupted.

maug wrote:

Awesome! You made a copy of all your files then I take it?

If Windows works after this, then is Linux still something that you would like to get into? For the USB, you should check the bios and make sure that it has the right boot order. If you're booting from a USB, then make sure that the USB comes before the hard drive.

Yeah, I got all the data I need off it, I would love to get into Linux, I've always just been really intimidated by setting it up and using it effectively. And the system restore didn't help, it seems as though programs are even less responsive than they were before. I might just run Ubuntu off the USB I made till I get a job and can buy another POS laptop before I change the OS on this one just so I don't have to worry about breaking it in the middle of the school year. At very least I'll just get ?VMware? and run some kind of Linux out of that for fun.

check the stickers on your computer for a windows key. It's probably on the bottom. You can download a windows trial, and then upgrade to the full version. There is no need to buy a whole new computer, because this sounds like an OS issue.

And there's no need to be intemidated by Linux. It can be a love-hate relationship, but as long as you know how to look in the documentation, forums, and man pages, you're golden. Mandriva and Ubuntu are very noob-friendly. After 30 minutes, you'll be past the learning curve.

maug wrote: check the stickers on your computer for a windows key. It's probably on the bottom. You can download a windows trial, and then upgrade to the full version. There is no need to buy a whole new computer, because this sounds like an OS issue.

And there's no need to be intemidated by Linux. It can be a love-hate relationship, but as long as you know how to look in the documentation, forums, and man pages, you're golden. Mandriva and Ubuntu are very noob-friendly. After 30 minutes, you'll be past the learning curve.

The key is rubbed off of the sticker. I also don't like this laptop very much. I have every intention of getting it working again, but its really big and bulky, a 17" screen isn't very portable.

I've been just messing about in Ubuntu and I can't get an internet connection on my laptop. I need to get a wifi driver, but even if i hard-line to my router I can't get connected.

Try booting the laptop while you have the cable plugged in.

spyware wrote: Try booting the laptop while you have the cable plugged in.

No luck, it just seems like its trying to connect for a bit then said I'm disconnected.

You can also try downloading a torrent. There always seems to be one driver that doesn't work. But you should be able to go to your laptop manufacturer's web site, and download all the drivers without too much trouble.

For my laptop, getting wireless working was kind of a roundabout process. I found the model number for my wireless card on a sticker, found what drivers supported my driver on a wikihow page, and then followed the documentation for installing that driver.

edit: Not having drivers working kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of having a livecd. You may want to try out a different disto.

maug wrote: You can also try downloading a torrent. There always seems to be one driver that doesn't work. But you should be able to go to your laptop manufacturer's web site, and download all the drivers without too much trouble.

For my laptop, getting wireless working was kind of a roundabout process. I found the model number for my wireless card on a sticker, found what drivers supported my driver on a wikihow page, and then followed the documentation for installing that driver.

edit: Not having drivers working kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of having a livecd. You may want to try out a different disto.

For sure, I was thinking about doing something like that. I'm just curious why I can't get on-line at all even with an Ethernet. I think if I can get the drivers on my laptop it would work fine, I jsut have no way to connect to the internet and download them

deshdude1754 wrote: For sure, I was thinking about doing something like that. I'm just curious why I can't get on-line at all even with an Ethernet. I think if I can get the drivers on my laptop it would work fine, I jsut have no way to connect to the internet and download them

Man, it should be supported. Open a console and type "(sudo) ifconfig eth0 up".

Then type "(sudo) ifconfig eth0" and post the results here.

spyware wrote:

Man, it should be supported. Open a console and type "(sudo) ifconfig eth0 up".

Then type "(sudo) ifconfig eth0" and post the results here.

ubuntu@ubuntu:$ sudo ifconfig eth0 up ubuntu@ubuntu:$ sudo ifconfig eth0 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:23:8b:b6:fd:20
inet6 addr: fe80::223:8bff:feb6:fd20/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:139 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:17 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:26277 (26.2 KB) TX bytes:4230 (4.2 KB) Interrupt:30 Base address:0x6000