Is my laptop ready for the bin?

Pythagorous

The last few weeks Ive been having issues non-stop with my lappy, so much so that I'm wondering if its worth just going out and buying a new one :mad:

My list of problems include....

For a start when I turn on the lappy if I don't hit a key and go into 'scan disk' (I think this is what it is - its the blue screen that gives you 10 secs to hit a key to avoid going in and checking the C and D drives) it takes about 10 minutes to get though the scan disk check.

Then as soon as I'm in I get the following message "[FONT=&quot]epower_DMC.exe Common language runtime debugging services. Application has generated an exception that could not be handled. Process id = ...., thread id = oxcb4. Click ok to terminate. Click cancel to debug the application"

I have then been finding some corrupt excel and MS money files and often get popup messages saying such and such a file is corrupt and that I should run a chkdsk utility (no idea what this is).

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot][/FONT]I've also noticed recently a number of Temp files have been created and left in the folder of an excel or word document I was using!

Everytime I run the superantispyware I get the same adware tracking cookie even though I always send it to quarantine

Finally when its time to go to bed the darn thing won't even turn off so I end up just having to press the button!

The protection software I run is Avira for antivirus (constantly running, although it had been off for a few days without me realising), superantispyware, threatfire and malware for the ad/spyware.

What do you guys think, am I fixable or is it time to reach deep into the pockets for a brand spanking new laptop?

Unfortunately I don't have the backup discs, although thankfully I do use carbonite online backups.

posted_2

All sounds fixable, software, not hardware.

temp files are normal, applications don't work without them, delete them at boot using ccleaner if you want to cleanup.

Ditto tracking cookies, the only way of minimizing them is to block 3rd party cookies in IE/Firefox, or just delete them at boot (ccleaner again)

chkdsk at boot may be because you aren't shutting down properly, the odd corrupt file could be the same. Could be faulty hard disk, but you would probably get more drastic symptoms if it was dying.

epower_dmc, acer power management? you could probably turn it off and not notice, possibly in msconfig, or reinstall the power management drivers/software from their website.

It won't turn off, kill all the processes in task manager, then try shutdown

S0litaire

it might a be a couple of things..

1) the hard drive is on the way out... When you get corrupted files it's either hte Hard drive or the memory, since it's just asterted to happen I think it's more likely to be the Hard drive that's to blame.

2) the program "Chkdsk" is what checks the disk (that's the program that runs to check your drives!) There are 2 types of check a) scan b) scan & reapir.


Best thing to do is start your laptop
open "My Computer" and right click on "C:"
Go to Properties.
Their should be a "Tools" tab, where you can find the utility to check the disk. You should tick both boxes then it will tell you to reboot to run the scan.

it will take a while to run but if there are any errors on the drive that will find them ald give you a bit more of a breathing space before the drive dies or you loose important system files. Will give you time to Back up all your documents and files and either get a new laptop or a new hard drive. :D

Pythagorous

posted wrote: »

All sounds fixable, software, not hardware.

temp files are normal, applications don't work without them, delete them at boot using ccleaner if you want to cleanup.

.

Thanks for the info posted. Re the above, its only recently that my folders havee become littered with these temp files.

Pythagorous

S0litaire wrote: »

it might a be a couple of things..

1) the hard drive is on the way out... When you get corrupted files it's either hte Hard drive or the memory, since it's just asterted to happen I think it's more likely to be the Hard drive that's to blame.

2) the program "Chkdsk" is what checks the disk (that's the program that runs to check your drives!) There are 2 types of check a) scan b) scan & reapir.


Best thing to do is start your laptop
open "My Computer" and right click on "C:"
Go to Properties.
Their should be a "Tools" tab, where you can find the utility to check the disk. You should tick both boxes then it will tell you to reboot to run the scan.

it will take a while to run but if there are any errors on the drive that will find them ald give you a bit more of a breathing space before the drive dies or you loose important system files. Will give you time to Back up all your documents and files and either get a new laptop or a new hard drive. :D

Great thanks for all the info Solitaire.

I didn't realise a hard drive would begin to malfunction if its on its way out. I thought it would be like a switch either working or not working! The laptop is only 2 years old, but gets a lot of use and abuse! What do you think is causing the hard drive to be on its way out - is it a wear and tear issue? The C drive recently hit its capacity so I had to delete some large files and have begun using the D drive for the first time. ot sure if this is relevant?

I've ticked the boxes for the chkdsk so we'll see what happens next time I start up.

Thanks again.

vitesse_pilot

Hi,

A quick surf turns up this interesting piece of commentary :


"ePower_DMC.exe = Acer ePower Management. Very useful utility, but extremely buggy. This is the worst piece of coding that I have ever seen. This process accesses the registry a whopping 4000 times per second! It also uses between 1 and 15% of CPU! This program is pummeling your computer, making it beg for its life. It is merciless, and no doubt the crappiest piece of excrement ever produced. We should demand that Acer fix this utility immediately! "


Since your ePower program is crashing on startup, lets stop it starting.

GO here http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml and download the control panel version of the startup tool ( I am assuming this is XP ). Install. Next open the control panel from the start menu, open the new Startup icon. You should see a tabbed window application. Search the tabs for ePower_DMC.exe and untick the box. This will stop the ePower from every be loaded at startup. Restart the machine just to make sure.


As for AV, try some other programs - it looks like there are some helpful stickies on this forum.

Good Luck !

Vit

Pythagorous

Wooh, that explains my extremely slow machine, the excrement must have been clogging it all up!

Thanks Vitesse Pilot.

GunJack

or even better, get spybot and stop the acer prog (and probably one or two others you may not have realised were there) running at startup via advanced/tools/system startup......and you get to use the Immunise feature to stop some nasties even getting to your browser and you ca nuse it as a backup scanner too...just make sure NOT to activate the tea-timer facility

on your HDD, either remove the partitions altogether, or move all your documents/photos/music etc., i.e. not any windows or program files onto the empty partition....what size are the partitions ?? This in itself could be causing file corruption if you're trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot !!! At least, do disk cleanup and defrag on both partitions to help ease things...normally if a disk is partitioned, it's so you leave windows and any progs you need in (usually the smaller) one, and everything else in the other..agree with psted..lappy trying to scan HDD on startup 'coz it wasn't shut down properly...get it to shut down ok and that will probably stop

FrugalFriend

Noooo.... don't dump that laptop! Even recycling it is too good! Your situation is a perfect candidate for a full OS re-install. If you've got the discs start from scratch and re-install your OS, drivers and apps. Have confidence, you can do this. If you haven't the discs, try downloading Ubuntu and installing it yourself. It's very easy and straightforward, plus theres plenty of help online. Good luck.

GunJack

FrugalFriend wrote: »

Your situation is a perfect candidate for a full OS re-install.

steady on....most of that stuff looks to be fixable....save the drastic measures until other avenues have been exhausted.....

vitesse_pilot

Agreed - use this - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx . Go through the list and see what is killing the machine, by looking at the performance monitor for each running process . Stop what you can - it doesn't all have to be the system tray !

Vit