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[Atraveller]

Did a fresh install of Win10 on friend's new PC (with an ADATA M.2 SSD). Sometimes it can boot into Windows, other times the system asked to insert bootable media (or goes into BIOS, and yes, all other drives were removed). I've updated BIOS, reformatted and reinstalled several times. Most of the boot repair methods don't work because it was formatted as a GPT drive not an MBR one.

This is most likely hardware malfunction right?

Edit: detail disk command in listdisk utility showed the SSD as not a boot disk.

 

[Spladam]

Did a fresh install of Win10 on friend's new PC (with an ADATA M.2 SSD). Sometimes it can boot into Windows, other times the system asked to insert bootable media (or goes into BIOS, and yes, all other drives were removed). I've updated BIOS, reformatted and reinstalled several times. Most of the boot repair methods don't work because it was formatted as a GPT drive not an MBR one.

This is most likely hardware malfunction right?

Edit: detail disk command in listdisk utility showed the SSD as not a boot disk.

Is this a newer machine with a UEFI motherboard? Are you booting in a legacy BIOS mode some times for some reason? Check the BIOS screen to make sure are not booting in a legacy BIOS mode, making sure you boot with EFI.

 

[Atraveller]

Is this a newer machine with a UEFI motherboard? Are you booting in a legacy BIOS mode some times for some reason? Check the BIOS screen to make sure are not booting in a legacy BIOS mode, making sure you boot with EFI.

It's a Z270 board. Tried both UEFI and UEFI + Legacy, the results are inconsistent.

Fake edit: friend has just called me and said store clerk installed his own Win10 on a new SSD. Seems to be working for now.

 

[Piercedveil]

I have to agree with you Pierced, motherboard's usually have built in protection against faulty power sources, so that they buffer the power a couple of ms ahead, and if they detect unclean power they will hard reset of power off. This is not universal, but most modern Mobo's will do this. That's why I don't want to say it's your PSU failing... what is the brand of your mobo, is it an off the shelf PC? Do you overclock the bus on the mobo or the CPU?

Mobo is an ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155
PSU is a SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W

Custom built PC that I built roughly 4 years ago. I have zero overclocks on anything.

The problem persists as it just locked up again about an hour ago

 

[zulux21]

is there a downside to having all of these installed?

or should I clean up a number of them and if a game needs them steam will just find them?

 

[Spladam]

Mobo is an ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155
PSU is a SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W

Custom built PC that I built roughly 4 years ago. I have zero overclocks on anything.

The problem persists as it just locked up again about an hour ago

Ok, man this is a tough issue, when you mentioned that ASUS Z77 motherboard something clicked in my memory, I did some digging and you're not alone. This problem is a real pain int he ass because most of the time these freezes do no generate a crash log, because of the lack of BSOD.

Have you checked for any firmware updates for that revision of the ASUS P8Z77-V LK? If not try updating the firmware first.

I see you've run the memtest, and you've stated you've updated the drivers for everything. I assume you mean you went to device manager and clicked "update drivers", if not, do this for everything under "computer", "disk drives", "system devices", and "USB controllers".

Also, pick up some compressed air and blow the motherboard and the inside of the PSU out.

I'm afraid I've read about this issue with that same motherboard where people have RMA'd it only to have it happen some more. ASUS discontinued it in 2014, some suspect for that issue. From Newegg:

It freezes randomly. As far as I can tell it's something that activates in the software that causes the crash. ASUS was aware of the problem and offered a BIOS update on the site. It corrects a lot of the problems. But it was discontinued in 2014. I feel whatever was the cause, made them give up and rush out another model. I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU BUY THIS MODEL! Do not RMA it! The whole line is defective.

here is also clearly some fault in the motherboard as the OS will randomly freeze. This happens even at stock clocks. I can transfer all the components to another board with the exact same configuration and OS image and not have this problem.

That's why I highly suggest you update the firmware if you have not done so.

I'm afraid the solution is most likely replacing the motherboard. If you do decide to replace it chance are you can find something reasonable (even used if you need) for a decent price. You're gonna be looking for P67, Z68, Z75, and of course Z77 chipsets. Since you're not overclocking you could go with one of the cheaper Ivy/ Sandy bridge chipsets, but you'd have less PCI slots.

Wish I could be of more use, but this is tough issue to solve.

 

[Spladam]

is there a downside to having all of these installed?


or should I clean up a number of them and if a game needs them steam will just find them?

No other downsize besides the storage used, which is pretty minimal. It just ensures you have greater compatibility with more apps and games. The problem with removing them is that they are included in the installs of your games, so you get them when you need them when you install the software, but if one of them is needed for something that is ALREADY installed, there is no guarantee that you will get any indication that it stopped working because of your missing redistributable.

 

[Geist-]

So, I was playing Prey (2017) and it crashed during the game (blue screen). After that my computer kept crashing after a few minutes so I went into safe mode and rolled back my 780 Ti drivers to an earlier date. Same problem. Used DDU to do a clean uninstall and reinstall. Seemed to work for a bit, so I tested it using 3dmark. Crashed again and now this.

I'm assuming I need a new card now?

Spoiler

I can't afford a new card. :-(

 

[Spladam]

So, I was playing Prey (2017) and it crashed during the game (blue screen). After that my computer kept crashing after a few minutes so I went into safe mode and rolled back my 780 Ti drivers to an earlier date. Same problem. Used DDU to do a clean uninstall and reinstall. Seemed to work for a bit, so I tested it using 3dmark. Crashed again and now this.



I'm assuming I need a new card now?

Spoiler

I can't afford a new card. :-(

So does the card work at all when you boot now? You can try blowing it out with some compressed air and making sure the fans are spinning up. I imagine you have a couple of years on that card (it's a nice GPU), sorry to hear about your loss there.

If anything, try plugging it into another PC and see what happens.

Edit: Also, if you have an alternate output means for your monitor (have a DVI cable lying around, or if you were using DVI, an HDMI cable) see if it still outputs using a different format. It's a very unlikely long-shot, but hey, sometimes troubleshooting works that way.

 

[cpp_is_king]

Does anyone know of an app that can list all my motherboard resources and what's plugged into them? For example, I've got a bunch of PCIe slots with various things in them, I want an app that can tell me exactly which slots have what device plugged into them, and which slots are availble.

obviously I can just open the case and look, but I'm just curious if there's some app that can do this. This is an HP Z840 Workstation if it matters.

 

[PatjuhR]

I got a weird problem with my D-Link DIR-635, which I basically use like a range extender. The DIR-635 is standing in my room and is connected by cable with our modem. I've got my PS4 and Apple TV hooked up to the DIR-635 and use my Phone, Macbook and IPAD on it wirelessly.

Since yesterday morning the WIFI signal from the D-Link was just gone. It was suddenly vanished. Now this happened before and a reboot always fixed it. Weird thing is, my Apple TV and PS4 which are connected with cable kept working. The WIFI didn't work anymore, and the reboot didn't help.

I messed around with some cables and I removed the LAN cable from my PS4 and put it in my macbook to reach the router interface and see what was wrong. Now suddenly nothing works anymore. No Signal, no cable. When I log into our modem I can see my modem still recognizes the D-Link. I don't know what to do since a reset also doesn't work.

I don't have fondled around with the settings so I tried the reset pretty quick to be over with it. But sadly that didn't work. I've encountered lots of internet problems in my life, but this is the first time I don't have a clue what to do.

This world is built on resets.

Update; Ok, my PS4 is working when connected with a cable to the D-Link still no signal tho and hooking the router up to my macbook doesn't work either. I believe I should be able to go through the setup if I did a reset right?
Update; Damn this thing is old. Didn't know. Maybe it's just time for a new one?

 

[PatjuhR]

Well, my old Windows laptop decided to ackknowledge the router.

Everything seems to be working perfectly fine except for wireless. When I go to the Status page it says; Wireless Radio; Init failed and that's it.

Upon googling it's a know problem to the DLINK routers. And sadly the only solution is removing power and factory resets. If that doesn't work the only other solution is to return it... That's a sad conclusion for so much effort.

Any tips for a new router? This one is well over it's warranty.

 

[Woffls]

Anyone had issues with X99 USB 3.0 controllers being unreliable... possibly with regards to power delivery in particular? It has been frustrating me for like three years now Am using the MSI X99 SLi Plus board.

 

[SailorCosmos]

I have two sets of Netgear PL1010 Powerline Adapters (Four adapters in total). I can have three connected with no network issues at all. However, if I decide to connect the fourth adapter, it causes my network to lose connection every couple of minutes. If I disconnect the fourth adapter, the network regains it stability. I have tried the fourth adapter in different outlets around my house but the results stay the same and the network loses stability until it is removed. I have swapped the adapters around in case the problem was just that single adapter but the problem re-occurs whenever a fourth adapter is connected. I have factory reset all of the adapters and the issue still occurs.

Any idea what could be causing this problem?

 

[rtcn63]

Anyone had issues with X99 USB 3.0 controllers being unreliable... possibly with regards to power delivery in particular? It has been frustrating me for like three years now Am using the MSI X99 SLi Plus board.

Do you space for a PCIE-card? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPIMJEW/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I have like a five-year old z77, the USB 3.0 implementation was just early/shoddy at the time.

 

[More_Badass]

Getting a "Can't connect to this network" message when I try to connect to my home wifi. Was working fine last night, and works fine on all my other devices. How do I fix that? I'm on Windows 10

 

[Apathy]

I am having an issue with my Ethernet port in windows 10.

Last week I had to reinstall, and I went from 7 > 10 (I was previously only on 7 and the ethernet port had always worked fine).

I have a asus p8z68-v gen3 mobo and that has an Intel 82579 Gigabit LAN Controller

When booting up from an off state (only know from and off state because I don't put it to sleep), when it comes up my ethernet is not working (I get the red x over the icon in the tray). When I go to my device manager, I see it have a problem and the only way to get it working is to uninstall the driver and reinstall it from the one 10 comes with (and it will start working flawlessly).

I did some searching and I found a place that suggested I go into msconfig > services and go and take the checkmark off "intel proset monitoring service" and that would fix it. I was wondering if anyone had run into trouble or if they had a fix that didn't need me to turn off that service from starting up.


Just update, checking off that thing in services didn't fix it for me.

 

[Spladam]

Well, my old Windows laptop decided to ackknowledge the router.

Everything seems to be working perfectly fine except for wireless. When I go to the Status page it says; Wireless Radio; Init failed and that's it.

Upon googling it's a know problem to the DLINK routers. And sadly the only solution is removing power and factory resets. If that doesn't work the only other solution is to return it... That's a sad conclusion for so much effort.

Any tips for a new router? This one is well over it's warranty.

For now you can do a factory reset, but that might not last long, it has all the symptoms of a dying router. The wireless radio (wifi) is a different hardware subdivision from the switch (the Ethernet ports) and it's common for the wifi to die first. I believe you have to keep power on to factory reset it though.

Anyway, you said you were using it as a network extender and repeaters and extenders are cheap now, you might even want to check out something like SailorCosmos below is using, a powerline adapter. I personally avoid D-Link, as they have had some infamously lack security standards on their hardware in the past, and I don't want to be part of someone else's botnet.

I would personally recommend against the powerline adapters, because extenders are cheap now. Just do a google search for "Wifi Extender" and you can find them for $15 - $20 if you're in North America.

I have two sets of Netgear PL1010 Powerline Adapters (Four adapters in total). I can have three connected with no network issues at all. However, if I decide to connect the fourth adapter, it causes my network to lose connection every couple of minutes. If I disconnect the fourth adapter, the network regains it stability. I have tried the fourth adapter in different outlets around my house but the results stay the same and the network loses stability until it is removed. I have swapped the adapters around in case the problem was just that single adapter but the problem re-occurs whenever a fourth adapter is connected. I have factory reset all of the adapters and the issue still occurs.

Any idea what could be causing this problem?

Powerline adapters are not as reliable as other home network infrastructures. Are you using that much because you have a lot of space to cover and the wifi doesn't reach, or you just trying to give everything a hard line connection?

I would suggest in your case investing in a traditional wifi extender, as it appears the copper in your home is not ideal for this use.

Multiple powerline adapters do share throughput, so possibly setting one of them for a lower connection speed MIGHT keep them stable.

Getting a "Can't connect to this network" message when I try to connect to my home wifi. Was working fine last night, and works fine on all my other devices. How do I fix that? I'm on Windows 10

Is this a hard line connection or wifi?
Have you checked the status of your Network Adapter? Right click the little network icon in the bottom right of the task bar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center".

On the Network and Sharing screen select "change adapter settings" on the left. It will show you the network adapter. Right click and select "status", check the status, then right click and select "create shortcut", this will allow us to enable and disable it without it disappearing in the Network and Sharing Center.

The Icon will be on your desktop, go there and right click the Icon and select "disable". Wait a couple of seconds and then right click it again and select "enable" (this is a good way to remove the internet from your PC if you ever want to quickly go offline, or just check the status of your network, I keep one of these icons on the desktop of every machine I work with.).

Now go back to the adapter screen in Network and Sharing Center (Change adapter settings), right click the adapter, select "properties", the select the "configure" button, then select the "Driver" tab, then select "Update Drivers", and then "search automatically".

I do this from time to time, and I'm surprised how much I actually have an update that Win 10 did not detect. Anything change? Let me know.

 

[PatjuhR]

For now you can do a factory reset, but that might not last long, it has all the symptoms of a dying router. The wireless radio (wifi) is a different hardware subdivision from the switch (the Ethernet ports) and it's common for the wifi to die first. I believe you have to keep power on to factory reset it though.

Anyway, you said you were using it as a network extender and repeaters and extenders are cheap now, you might even want to check out something like SailorCosmos below is using, a powerline adapter. I personally avoid D-Link, as they have had some infamously lack security standards on their hardware in the past, and I don't want to be part of someone else's botnet.

I would personally recommend against the powerline adapters, because extenders are cheap now. Just do a google search for "Wifi Extender" and you can find them for $15 - $20 if you're in North America.

Thanks for your reply, appreciated!

I've pretty much gave up the D-Link after browsing the internet and comparing that with the things I tried. It's been long. Probably overdue for a refresh already.

I don't know about the extenders. I don't have good experience with them albeit a long time ago. I've had bad internet almost all my life. The last years with the D-Link were perfect. I'm willing to spend to get even better.

The D-Link covered a pretty big part of the house and I'm thinking about getting a router with a bigger reach than I had.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

No worries mate, and thanks for the info, so the specifications for your TV tell us it has a native 50Hz refresh rate, so let's try to go back to that "change resolution" screen and make sure the settings are matching that. I think 50Hz is the lowest NVIDIA control panel will allow you to set. It's worth a try.
-Edit: Actually the specifications also state it supports "1080/60p (HDMI / Component)", so it should work at 60Hz....

-Edit: Yeah, your right DefMutes, despite the memory of having seen something like this, possibly on Tom's Hardware, I can't find anything like your issue. Every fix (and there are dozens of thread about it) for NVIDIA > HDMI > HDTV is for the well known color range issue (what you were messing with earlier with the full/limited settings, which is an issue for consoles on some HDTVs). I'll ask around and see what I can find.
One other thing, any chance you have a second HDMI chord? That would also be an easy and quick troubleshooting step if you did.

Update - I changed the HDMI cable with the XBO to test that, didn't work. Then I did DDU fresh driver install, which also didn't work.

I believe I've cracked the case though. I went into Nvidia control panel settings and saw an option for "content type reported to display" (or similar). This appears as an option when you tell it to manually use settings for colours and such. It was set to automatically report based on application. When I switched to manually reporting what the content type was, it gives you several options (e.g. video, fullscreen video, photo), all bar 2 caused the display to go freaky. I set it to manually report as "desktop content", and now it seems to be fixed! So it's entirely possible it's the television interpreting content as a fullscreen video or something else based on driver shenanigans, and then my TV having wonky settings for those modes, with like the worst colours and sharpening and stuff.

I'll get back to you if it plays up again but for now I think it's right.

 

[Spladam]

Update - I changed the HDMI cable with the XBO to test that, didn't work. Then I did DDU fresh driver install, which also didn't work.

I believe I've cracked the case though. I went into Nvidia control panel settings and saw an option for "content type reported to display" (or similar). This appears as an option when you tell it to manually use settings for colours and such. It was set to automatically report based on application. When I switched to manually reporting what the content type was, it gives you several options (e.g. video, fullscreen video, photo), all bar 2 caused the display to go freaky. I set it to manually report as "desktop content", and now it seems to be fixed! So it's entirely possible it's the television interpreting content as a fullscreen video or something else based on driver shenanigans, and then my TV having wonky settings for those modes, with like the worst colours and sharpening and stuff.

I'll get back to you if it plays up again but for now I think it's right.

Thanks for the update, interesting fix, if it works this is one to remember, I have to make a note of this, it's a long shot but would be great if it works. Good troubleshooting.

 

[More_Badass]

Is this a hard line connection or wifi?
Have you checked the status of your Network Adapter? Right click the little network icon in the bottom right of the task bar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center".

On the Network and Sharing screen select "change adapter settings" on the left. It will show you the network adapter. Right click and select "status", check the status, then right click and select "create shortcut", this will allow us to enable and disable it without it disappearing in the Network and Sharing Center.

The Icon will be on your desktop, go there and right click the Icon and select "disable". Wait a couple of seconds and then right click it again and select "enable" (this is a good way to remove the internet from your PC if you ever want to quickly go offline, or just check the status of your network, I keep one of these icons on the desktop of every machine I work with.).

Now go back to the adapter screen in Network and Sharing Center (Change adapter settings), right click the adapter, select "properties", the select the "configure" button, then select the "Driver" tab, then select "Update Drivers", and then "search automatically".

I do this from time to time, and I'm surprised how much I actually have an update that Win 10 did not detect. Anything change? Let me know.

Through Wifi

Will try this, thanks

Edit: Status is greyed out, can't click it. My wifi is available, secured, and at full strength. Tried to update drivers, but said the most recent were already installed.

Really frustrating, I was connected just fine a few hours ago. Also been having issues with my PS4 not being able to connect recently

===

This just popped up for me (separate from my other issue)

 

[Spladam]

Through Wifi

Will try this, thanks

Edit: Status is greyed out, can't click it. My wifi is available, secured, and at full strength. Tried to update drivers, but said the most recent were already installed.

Really frustrating, I was connected just fine a few hours ago. Also been having issues with my PS4 not being able to connect recently

===

This just popped up for me (separate from my other issue)

Wow, when it rains it poors...

First off, nice desktop, that HZD screenshot thread you started is the best screenshot thread I've ever seen. Amazing game photographers we have here. (as recognized by Guerrilla Games). Back on topic...

When you said your PS4 is having some issues connecting too it makes me suspect you're having some interference issues from a neighbor's wifi network or some other EMI around you. So log into your router, go to wifi settings (or name wifi network or something in that theme) and look for your "wireless network channel" settings. If you're using 2.4Ghz network, change it from auto to 1, 6, or 11.

If you're using the 5Ghz channel., there really shouldn't be any broadcast overlap, but change it to a different one anyway. Both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi networks should have their own name (SSID), so you might want to check and see which name you're PS4 is connecting too, the PS4 supports both 2.4 and 5Ghz wifi.

Changing the broadcast channel is quite often the fix to connection issues, as a new neighbor's wifi or new building in the area can often interfere with yours.

Now, issue number 2: I really hate that message. Most people think they have an issue with RAM when they see it, but that's usually not the case, not that it won't hurt to test your RAM.
The things is this, this might just happen once, it might start happening regularly, but it usually happens during a shutdown with "hanging" software. So before you bother with everything that follows this, you might just want to see if it happens again.

First, make sure you have a recent restore point, just to be sure, you might need to get back to that later.

Have you installed new software really recently? Have you updated windows really recently? When you see this things are getting a little "messy" behind the scenes in the OS, and there are sooo many things that can cause this, most of the time it's software related and not hardware. Crappy software from the windows 10 "apps" running in background is often the case for this, have you recently installed anything that runs in background memory?

When you get the chance, when you're not going to be using your PC for a while, grab PassMark's Memtest (for the classic memtest you have to use a third party program to flash the ISO to a USB when using Win 10, as they have no auto installer for win10 yet as far as I know) you can use it on a USB or a DVD, but you have to boot it, so you'll have to go into your UEFI (BIOS) and set the storage drive it's on as the boot drive. Instructions for using it are here, let it check your RAM.

Next, if you don't have CCleaner, get it, the free version, install it, run it, check the app settings on the applications tab before you run it and make sure you're ok with the browser cleaning options, then have it do a clean.

Sometimes forcing a windows update solves this issue, so make sure you're up to date by hitting the windows key, typing "windows update" and selecting check for updates.
Let that beast update. If it starts happening regularly, you're going to run that restore point.

Hit me up here or with a PM if it happens some more, but I'll warn you, the next troubleshooting steps involve live sacrifice and dark magic rituals.

 

[Rktk]

I want to see a log of every exe in time order that has been run in Windows.

Recently a window of something opens up and closes in a flash on my screen. Seems to be random and quite spaced out, I've run some scans and found nothing.

I would like to know what that process is. Suggestions?

 

[Spladam]

I want to see a log of every exe in time order that has been run in Windows.

Recently a window of something opens up and closes in a flash on my screen. Seems to be random and quite spaced out, I've run some scans and found nothing.

I would like to know what that process is. Suggestions?

Do you have Windows Pro edition? You can log all exe's with secpol.msc, but that is only accessable if you have Win 7, 8, 10 Pro. It would be a really huge log as well, so it would be hard to spot unless you were familiar with all system calls.

If you open secpol.msc you can go to local policies/audit policy. Activate Success (and maybe also Failure) on Audit process tracking and you will get an event log entry in the security event log every time a process starts or ends. If you activate the auditing, a lot of logs might get generated, so you should adjust the size of the security event log.

You can get in depth with the the Processes running using these two programs they might help. Good utils too have.

Process Explorer v16.21

Process Monitor v3.33

 

[Night Hunter]

Agreed. Super simple and hassle free. I can't figure out what is going on here either.

Ok, I know I'm a few days late, but I solved it. The problem was, that other computers didn't recognize the folders either. Otherwise I would have used that ages ago. Only on my TV I could see the folders and the files in them.

What happened was that Avira classified the folders as .exe files and moved them into Quarantine. Not the files, though. So I deactivated Avira, removed the folders from Quarantine manually, copied the files to another HDD, re-formated the stick a few times just to be sure et voila ...

Pretty weird problem though.

 

[Spladam]

Ok, I know I'm a few days late, but I solved it. The problem was, that other computers didn't recognize the folders either. Otherwise I would have used that ages ago. Only on my TV I could see the folders and the files in them.

What happened was that Avira classified the folders as .exe files and moved them into Quarantine. Not the files, though. So I deactivated Avira, removed the folders from Quarantine manually, copied the files to another HDD, re-formated the stick a few times just to be sure et voila ...

Pretty weird problem though.

Thanks for the update, gonna make a note of that for the future. Glad you solved it. Avira!!$#$%!!!

 

[Night Hunter]

Thanks for the update, gonna make a note of that for the future. Glad you solved it. Avira!!$#$%!!!

Yeah, honestly, I'm thinking about just deleting it. Such a worthless program. But I honestly have no idea which anti virus to use.

 

[linkboy]

Yeah, honestly, I'm thinking about just deleting it. Such a worthless program. But I honestly have no idea which anti virus to use.

I setup a new (well, new to me) laptop last month and just opted to go with Windows Defender, Malwarebytes and common sense.

It's been running nothing short of fantastic so far.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Yeah, honestly, I'm thinking about just deleting it. Such a worthless program. But I honestly have no idea which anti virus to use.

Malware Anti-Bytes is the best

 

[Night Hunter]

I setup a new (well, new to me) laptop last month and just opted to go with Windows Defender, Malwarebytes and common sense.

It's been running nothing short of fantastic so far.

I've read about Windows Defender, but only in connection to Windows 10. Is it feasible in Windows 8.1?

Malware Anti-Bytes is the best

Does Malware Bytes actually serve as a Anti Virus program? I thought it was just to manually scan for, well, malware?

 

[Spladam]

I setup a new (well, new to me) laptop last month and just opted to go with Windows Defender, Malwarebytes and common sense.

It's been running nothing short of fantastic so far.

I opt for only Windows Defender and common sense. You nailed it with common sense though, that's your greatest protection.

I've read about Windows Defender, but only in connection to Windows 10. Is it feasible in Windows 8.1?



Does Malware Bytes actually serve as a Anti Virus program? I thought it was just to manually scan for, well, malware?

Malwarebytes has an entire suite of tools, you're thinking of their free download scanner tool. You're going to have to pay for the rest.
Malwarebytes is a great protection service, better than most. It's what I have us using at work.

And yes, you can activate Windows Defender, which has some real time protection and a scanner with constantly updated malware definitions. Follow these steps.

 

[Rktk]

Do you have Windows Pro edition? You can log all exe's with secpol.msc, but that is only accessable if you have Win 7, 8, 10 Pro. It would be a really huge log as well, so it would be hard to spot unless you were familiar with all system calls.

You can get in depth with the the Processes running using these two programs they might help. Good utils too have.

Process Explorer v16.21

Process Monitor v3.33

Thank you, I am running Pro. I have found Process Monitor to be just the thing, you can set up filters so you aren't dealing with an absolute torrent of information and it's easy to use. Rather than referring to a log next time this window pops up I'll tab over to Process Monitor, halt the capture and see what looks off.

I lay in wait.

 

[woodland]

Tech Support GAF assemble!

I need some help with something that seems fairly simple. I have an Asus laptop using Windows 10 and a desktop I made using Win10. A couple of weeks ago I came back to my laptop (no one used it) and the touchpad was just sucky. Can't scroll with two fingers any more. Left-clicks only register if I'm on the far left of the touchpad and even then, I have to click like 10 times. Then the click will get stuck and stuff will get highlighted, etc. Tried updating the driver but nothing ;\

Similarly, on my desktop, I have a Red Dragon mouse. It's served me incredibly well, but fairly recently (idk if at the same time) the scroll wheel gets weird. Again, scrolling in/out will reverse in dead scrolls or maybe even a zoom out/up in the opposite direction I was going.

Any ideas?

 

[robox]

welp, i bricked my router

spent a several hours preparing and a few attempts to install ddwrt but it wouldn't take. had to restore to factory fw. was doing it in chrome, so i tried with safari and got it loaded! tried to set it up as bridge and then completely stopped responding. blehhhhhh


installed custom fw before. didn't have many problems. but it was a time when i was more tech savvy too, long long ago.... i blame apple stuff for making me complacent

what i want to do: use an old router as a bridge (switch?) to provide access to a wired printer.

what i have:
- modem/router provided by internet company that's the main router
- a printer located in another location in the house that only has wired network connection
- a d-link router, about 2013 vintage, still on d-link firmware


right now i connect to the printer directly when i want to print. it's annoying

i'm thinking i want the router to mirror/repeat(?) the wifi network. do i need custom firmware for that? help with the config please

 

[Spladam]

welp, i bricked my router

i blame apple stuff for making me complacent

I'll accept that. Lol.

Everyone bricks something at one point.

dd-wrt is tricky in that every different version for every different router and revision of said routers requires different steps that you have to follow very carefully, even using different browsers for some. I've yet to brick one flashing the dd-wrt firmware, but I think it's out of luck, I've had some close calls.

Sucks to hear about your experience there.

 

[robox]

yeah, the stupid thing is that even though the model is dir-615, there's over 10 different hardware versions. 4 of them have a wiki page dedicated to them. for the rest... just gonna go with the general guidelines.

oh yeah, dd-wrt and official firmwares stopped in 2013...
i still have one more spare router, but that one predates this bricked one

 

[Kaelan]

I'm building a PC soon and getting a GTX 1070. I'm most likely going with windows 10 - is there anything I should watch out for or not do in terms of OS updates? I heard windows 10 can be a pain in the ass with nvidia

 

[Celegus]

I got a new modem recently because my old one wasn't able to take advantage of the 200 mbps connection speed from my ISP. It is a Netgear CM400-1AZNAS, but my download speed didn't change (about 50-60 mbps). Tried my PC wired straight to the modem and it got 230+ mbps - awesome! Called ISP and they recommended a new router - fair enough, my old Linksys WRT54G is probably due.

Tried the TP-Link AC1200 (Archer C1200) router given the good reviews, and it has gigabit connection so figured it should be great. Hooked it up with no problems, test the speed and it's around ~20 mbps - even slower than the old one. Few hours with tech support and trying different things, they said to return it and try a new one.

Router #3 is ASUS RT-ACRH13 and gave basically identical results as the previous (though sometimes even lower, like 5 mbps). This is all wired, and I just tested the same cat5e cable direct to the modem again and got the 230 mbps speed. ASUS tech support said the router must be defective, but I just can't imagine I'd have 3 defective routers in a row. Could it be something with the modem? Or ISP? Really at a loss here. I'm far from an expert on stuff like this, so maybe I missed something silly (I hope!)

 

[Oracle Dragon]

I got a new modem recently because my old one wasn't able to take advantage of the 200 mbps connection speed from my ISP. It is a Netgear CM400-1AZNAS, but my download speed didn't change (about 50-60 mbps). Tried my PC wired straight to the modem and it got 230+ mbps - awesome! Called ISP and they recommended a new router - fair enough, my old Linksys WRT54G is probably due.

Tried the TP-Link AC1200 (Archer C1200) router given the good reviews, and it has gigabit connection so figured it should be great. Hooked it up with no problems, test the speed and it's around ~20 mbps - even slower than the old one. Few hours with tech support and trying different things, they said to return it and try a new one.

Router #3 is ASUS RT-ACRH13 and gave basically identical results as the previous (though sometimes even lower, like 5 mbps). This is all wired, and I just tested the same cat5e cable direct to the modem again and got the 230 mbps speed. ASUS tech support said the router must be defective, but I just can't imagine I'd have 3 defective routers in a row. Could it be something with the modem? Or ISP? Really at a loss here. I'm far from an expert on stuff like this, so maybe I missed something silly (I hope!)

I can't imagine 3 defective routers in a row, especially from different vendors. Is it perhaps a signal interference problem? If you install a WiFi analyzer on your phone and do a scan, what do you see? Potentially close neighbors or other sources using up your frequencies?

Also, what band were you using for your tests? 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz? 2.4 gets clobbered by everything these days, not just Wifi stuff... bluetooth, phones, microwaves...

If it's not a problem like that maybe it is physical barriers, lots of metal in the way, mirrors, etc.

 

[Celegus]

I can't imagine 3 defective routers in a row, especially from different vendors. Is it perhaps a signal interference problem? If you install a WiFi analyzer on your phone and do a scan, what do you see? Potentially close neighbors or other sources using up your frequencies?

Also, what band were you using for your tests? 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz? 2.4 gets clobbered by everything these days, not just Wifi stuff... bluetooth, phones, microwaves...

If it's not a problem like that maybe it is physical barriers, lots of metal in the way, mirrors, etc.

The wi-fi signal has been pretty consistent at around 20 mbps on 2.4ghz as well as 5ghz. I'm not in a super crowded area so not much interference. Should definitely be better than that, but it's actually been higher than my wired connection all week.

I actually might've got the wired connection under control. I tried updating the ethernet drivers on my PC (device manager > network adapters > intel ethernet connection). It found an update and now everything is showing 230 mbps. What a stupid thing to make that much difference. Did it on my wife's computer too and hers went from 5 mbps to 230. Wi-fi is still the same at around 20, and the wired connection to the PS4 is only showing 15. Baby steps at least, feels good to make some kind of progress for literally spending every night this week fighting with it.

 

[Spladam]

The wi-fi signal has been pretty consistent at around 20 mbps on 2.4ghz as well as 5ghz. I'm not in a super crowded area so not much interference. Should definitely be better than that, but it's actually been higher than my wired connection all week.

I actually might've got the wired connection under control. I tried updating the ethernet drivers on my PC (device manager > network adapters > intel ethernet connection). It found an update and now everything is showing 230 mbps. What a stupid thing to make that much difference. Did it on my wife's computer too and hers went from 5 mbps to 230. Wi-fi is still the same at around 20, and the wired connection to the PS4 is only showing 15. Baby steps at least, feels good to make some kind of progress for literally spending every night this week fighting with it.

Just saw your post and was going to suggest it's either your ISP not really giving you what you paid for until I re-read it and saw you tested 200+mbs wire straight from the modem. My next question would have been is this just with one PC or more than one that it's doing it with. I'll be honest, if you told me more than one, I would have put the ethernet adapter on the PC down the list, but there you go, both adapters need a driver updates, you never really know. Good work trying every troubleshooting option though.

Don't know why your PS4 is testing so low, all I could suggest is trying a different ethernet cable between the points, the one your using might have an iffy termination on one end, or change the port you are plugging it into the router on, I've seen ports go bad too many times to not suspect that. That CM400-1AZNAS is a decent modem though. The reviews on the ASUS RT-ACRH13 are good and both bands should give you a signal well above the 200mbs. Nice internet connection by the way.

Like Oracle Dragon suggested, your biggest culprit for the wifi would be interference, try setting a different channel on the 2.4Ghz, try 1, 6. or 11, they tend to be the channels with the smallest broadcast overlap.

 

[Celegus]

I would expect the PS4 to be slower in general since it's going from the router upstairs through a powerline adapter, which are obviously not known for their efficiency (though I don't recall if this was the normal speed before the new modem/router or not).

The 2.4ghz is the best signal by far in the analyzer and it was automatically going to channel 1 already (though I did also set it to stay there). Channel 11 looks the most crowded actually, but still everything else is pretty weak. Nothing else even on the radar for the 5ghz. Tested a few times (standing next to the router for what it's worth) and the 2.4ghz is getting about 20 mbps while the 5ghz is more around 15 mbps.

Update: Tested my PC again just to make sure it's still good. 0.98 mbps. Awesome.

 

[GutsOfThor]

Here's a problem I've experienced at work:

A user is searching through his pdf files and some show up but others do not in the file explorer search results. For example, lets say he has multiple files that are named:

3456-18-44a
3456-18-44b
3456-18-44k

Rather than typing out the entire file he just types either 44a,b or k. The problem is that the 44k file is not showing up in the search results. We've rebuilt his index and checked that his pdf filter is installed but still nothing.

What could be causing this?

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

Just solved a problem (I think) which I had never seen before that has been TERRORIZING me since a new build recently and wanted to share in case someone experiences it.

Behavior was that, randomly, upon booting up (cold or sleep), no USB devices work. USB ports themselves are providing power but no devices recognized or usable regardless of whether it's in mobo ports, case ports, etc. Everything works in pre-boot/BIOS.

With a newer mobo that has no PS/2, I couldn't get into Windows and check USB hub drivers, etc. But Windows was up-to-date and no obvious issues.

First time it happened I did BIOS firmware update and checked settings; ultimately I had to reinstall Windows. This fixed it so I figured not a hardware issue.

Second time it happened I had to use system restore but way back before I had installed most shit, so had to reinstall everything.

It happened again yesterday when I thought I was past it. This time my many, recent system restores didn't help.

But I was smart enough to take a system image with all my shit installed. However, after 3 hours of restoration, SAME problem. I almost lost it.

As I was plugging my keyboard into different ports (which I had done before to no avail) I plugged into a port on the motherboard that I had not tried before I guess (I have like 9), because the keyboard started working. Not sure what is special about that port yet (will investigate later).

So I was able to log into Windows and use keyboard to get into Device Manager. USB Root Hub and another USB device were DISABLED. Re-enabled, and everything is fine.

My first suspicion is power management so I disabled the feature to allow turning them off to save power.

Hopefully this keeps the fix permanent.

I was on the verge of having to reinstall Windows or do a system restore from before I had installed 300gbs+ of applications and games...again, and still without a root cause. That special USB port, whatever is special about it, fucking saved me! I'm so glad I tried every single port before giving up.

Here's a problem I've experienced at work:

A user is searching through his pdf files and some show up but others do not in the file explorer search results. For example, lets say he has multiple files that are named:

3456-18-44a
3456-18-44b
3456-18-44k

Rather than typing out the entire file he just types either 44a,b or k. The problem is that the 44k file is not showing up in the search results. We've rebuilt his index and checked that his pdf filter is installed but still nothing.

What could be causing this?

Windows gonna Windows.

You've done the obvious. Only other thing I'd suggest is to log in as another user to see if the same behavior occurs under a different profile. If not, rebuild his profile.

Otherwise, I'd try a free, third party search app and see if that works properly.

 

[snacknuts]

Do we have an Apple support thread? I am having a weird issue on my MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra (most current update).

We use Slack at work, and when starting a voice call the other day, it told me that I should update the installation for better performance. I went to the main menu for the application and selected the option to restart and install updates. It would close Slack, but would not install updates or restart the app. I tried this a couple times. I tried rebooting the computer and doing the same, but the behavior did not change. It is worth noting that I had originally installed Slack by downloading the package installer directly from their website.

I uninstalled Slack and then installed it from the app store. Now Slack shows up in Mission Control, but it's not listed in my Applications folder and it won't show up if I search for it in Spotlight (which is how I launch most applications).

Any thoughts?

 

[Spladam]

Just solved a problem (I think) which I had never seen before that has been TERRORIZING me since a new build recently and wanted to share in case someone experiences it.

Behavior was that, randomly, upon booting up (cold or sleep), no USB devices work. USB ports themselves are providing power but no devices recognized or usable regardless of whether it's in mobo ports, case ports, etc. Everything works in pre-boot/BIOS.

With a newer mobo that has no PS/2, I couldn't get into Windows and check USB hub drivers, etc. But Windows was up-to-date and no obvious issues.

First time it happened I did BIOS firmware update and checked settings; ultimately I had to reinstall Windows. This fixed it so I figured not a hardware issue.

Second time it happened I had to use system restore but way back before I had installed most shit, so had to reinstall everything.

It happened again yesterday when I thought I was past it. This time my many, recent system restores didn't help.

But I was smart enough to take a system image with all my shit installed. However, after 3 hours of restoration, SAME problem. I almost lost it.

As I was plugging my keyboard into different ports (which I had done before to no avail) I plugged into a port on the motherboard that I had not tried before I guess (I have like 9), because the keyboard started working. Not sure what is special about that port yet (will investigate later).

So I was able to log into Windows and use keyboard to get into Device Manager. USB Root Hub and another USB device were DISABLED. Re-enabled, and everything is fine.

My first suspicion is power management so I disabled the feature to allow turning them off to save power.

Hopefully this keeps the fix permanent.

I was on the verge of having to reinstall Windows or do a system restore from before I had installed 300gbs+ of applications and games...again, and still without a root cause. That special USB port, whatever is special about it, fucking saved me! I'm so glad I tried every single port before giving up.

Thanks for sharing, some motherboards have a feature where they will allow power to the USB while the system is off so that you can use them to charge devices. I've seen Windows 7 not recognize the ports if his feature was OFF and Windows 10 not use the ports if the feature was ON, strange thing is I've seen it not happen on one build with Win 10 but happen on another that had the SAME motherboard. If Windows deactivates the hub again, try toggling that feature if you have it.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

Thanks for sharing, some motherboards have a feature where they will allow power to the USB while the system is off so that you can use them to charge devices. I've seen Windows 7 not recognize the ports if his feature was OFF and Windows 10 not use the ports if the feature was ON, strange thing is I've seen it not happen on one build with Win 10 but happen on another that had the SAME motherboard. If Windows deactivates the hub again, try toggling that feature if you have it.

Yeah I checked BIOS through and through, found nothing related. Plus, when the system restores worked I focused strictly on Windows. I'm going to check my mobo manual to see if it sheds light on what exactly is special about the one USB port that continued to work. Still can't believe my luck there.

 

[Spladam]

Can anybody help me with this dumb WLAN adapter? I'm at my parents' home for the summer and I brought my desktop here and I'm using a Serioux WA150 for WiFi. Problem is, it only goes to 3Mbps down (should be 10Mbps here, rural internet sucks here). I thought it was the adapter's problem so I tried it on my dad's laptop from the same room but it gets 9Mbps down and I have no idea what's different between the two. Both running Windows 10, adapter plugged in USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, same results and both computers don't have the drivers for the adapter installed.

I know most usb wifi adapters are plug and play and use Windows generic drivers but have you checked to see if there are manufacture drivers available for your adapter?

 

[Grath]

I have a strange software (firewall?) problem: my PC won't connect to Youtube and Amazon. I have an active internet connection, everything else works, even Youpak. I can reach both sites on any other platform (phone, tablet, xbox), although those are on wifi, while the PC is on wired connection. It happens on both Chrome and Firefox and also in incognito.

I get the stock "This site can't be reached www.youtube.com took too long to respond.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" error message.

I tried the Windows Network Diagnostics, and it says the following:

Issues found
resource (www.youtube.com) is online but isn't responding to connection attempts.
The remote computer isn't responding to connections on port 443, possibly due to firewall or security policy settings, or because it might be temporarily unavailable. Windows couldn't find any problems with the firewall on your computer.
Contact the service provider or owner of the remote system for further assistance, or try again later

I opened port 443, thinking it might be the problem, but it did nothing. I restarted the modem and the PC as well already.

I used the same computer, even the same active Chrome to watch YT videos yesterday evening...

Any tips?

EDIT: heh, gaming.youtube.com works to make it stranger...