We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Computer crashing/not responding

Options
My laptop has been running very slow even as I log on before I get to connect to the internet.

I was on chrome tonight and Facebook crashed, then MSE and then chrome totally crashed. My email was still working for a while however that has since gone into not responding. Have tried to load Firefox and opera but both not loading. I've also restarted my computer.

Router is ok and so is wi-fi as I am using my tablet with no problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do to resolve this problem.

Frogletina
Not Rachmaninov
But Nyman
The heart asks for pleasure first
SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
«13456

Comments

  • need more info really laptop make and model, windows version, antivirus etc....
    4.8kWp 12x400W Longhi 9.6 kWh battery Giv-hy 5.0 Inverter, WSW facing Essex . Aint no sunshine ☀️ Octopus gas fixed dec 24 @ 5.74 tracker again+ Octopus Intelligent Flux leccy
  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 10 February 2017 at 8:47PM
    need more info really laptop make and model, windows version, antivirus etc....

    It is a Samsung 3530, windows 8.1, McAfee antivirus

    Frogletina
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,915 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    McAfee <~~~ there is the problem.. Dump it.

    Comodo, AVG, Avast almost anything except McAfee.

    I had to keep fixing some silly persons computer because they would uninstall the protection that i installed and put McAfee onto it. Then it would come back infected...
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    McAfee <~~~ there is the problem.. Dump it.

    Comodo, AVG, Avast almost anything except McAfee.

    I had to keep fixing some silly persons computer because they would uninstall the protection that i installed and put McAfee onto it. Then it would come back infected...

    Oh, well I've always used that. However I cannot now even get into that at the moment.
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • System
    System Posts: 178,340 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Windows 8.x laptop so about 3 years old? Heatsink and fan assembly blocked with fluff. I'm betting that if you put your ear to the bottom you can hear the fan running and if you put your hand over the vent you can barely feel a slight draught, if anything at all.

    Pretty common issue on laptops 2/3 years old, less if you smoke or use it laid on your duvet a lot. First they start off running OK but slowing down after a while which progresses to running slow all the time as the CPU slows itself down to stop from overheating and finally it gets to the point where it shuts down after a while with the time it takes to shut down on its own getting shorter and shorter after turning on.

    clogged_heatsink.jpg

    Good news is it looks like you can just take off the large bottom cover to get at the heatsink and fan. So first of all remove the battery, unplug the charger, take off the bottom cover. You'll see a fan and on one edge of it a bit of card or what looks like electrical tape. Peel that back and you'll see a load of fluff where there should be a gap. To clean it out properly you'll need to take the fan out. It'll be held in place by two or three screws. Remove those and move the fan out of the way, no need to unplug the wires from the mainboard. With a small paintbrush clean all the fluff out of the heatsink. You'll see as you do that its actually a grille. Make sure all the fluff is completely cleaned out of it and check inside the fan to make sure it hasn't got any in either. Put it all back together and job done for another 2-3 years.
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Tarambor wrote: »
    Windows 8.x laptop so about 3 years old? Heatsink and fan assembly blocked with fluff. I'm betting that if you put your ear to the bottom you can hear the fan running and if you put your hand over the vent you can barely feel a slight draught, if anything at all.

    Pretty common issue on laptops 2/3 years old, less if you smoke or use it laid on your duvet a lot. First they start off running OK but slowing down after a while which progresses to running slow all the time as the CPU slows itself down to stop from overheating and finally it gets to the point where it shuts down after a while with the time it takes to shut down on its own getting shorter and shorter after turning on.


    Good news is it looks like you can just take off the large bottom cover to get at the heatsink and fan. So first of all remove the battery, unplug the charger, take off the bottom cover. You'll see a fan and on one edge of it a bit of card or what looks like electrical tape. Peel that back and you'll see a load of fluff where there should be a gap. To clean it out properly you'll need to take the fan out. It'll be held in place by two or three screws. Remove those and move the fan out of the way, no need to unplug the wires from the mainboard. With a small paintbrush clean all the fluff out of the heatsink. You'll see as you do that its actually a grille. Make sure all the fluff is completely cleaned out of it and check inside the fan to make sure it hasn't got any in either. Put it all back together and job done for another 2-3 years.

    I did try to take the back off a few days ago as it felt hot but I could not get into it. I've just seen a YouTube guide so I will try again

    Thanks
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Frogletina wrote: »
    I did try to take the back off a few days ago as it felt hot but I could not get into it. I've just seen a YouTube guide so I will try again

    Thanks

    Guide I saw was for a different Samsung. Cannot work out how to do it. I think it has beaten me
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 11 February 2017 at 4:49AM
    I've not been able to get into my laptop to get at whatever fluff may be there - however, I have had it switched off for sometime.

    I have managed to get onto MSE via my laptop but not able to get into face book - the message is still saying it is taking too long. I have transferred my word and excel files to my hard drive in case I lose them.

    Edit

    Later I was able to log onto Facebook via Opera, but not via chrome or Firefox. Will try to find a solution tomorrow as it's all crashed again.

    Frogletina
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • Frogletina
    Frogletina Posts: 3,914 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Well - worse today.

    Went into Curry's today and all browsers worked, and all loaded facebook. Typical. Also the adviser used compressed air and said fan sounded fine.

    Came home - still only getting facebook on Opera. Ran CFC/scannow which didn't help at all. Went through everything I could see on the internet regarding the error timeouts, nothing helped at all.

    Then it all went wrong at once - again. All browsers I went into were not responding. Once I'd logged out and back on again, I tried to open Opera only I kept getting 'Can't open user profile directory because you lack sufficient privileges. You might want to contact the administrator of this machine' Who is of course me. Then after a few tries I got back in.

    Later everything crashed again and I lost all of my icons, just had a blank screen. Hard turn off and back on again and I'm back on Opera, eventually, and using it ok.

    But for how long?

    I've completely run out of ideas as to what to do now. I deleted chrome from my firewall and it made no difference - I still couldn't use facebook on it. I'm using Opera as my preferred browser for now, but I imagine it will go into not responding before too long

    frogletina
    Not Rachmaninov
    But Nyman
    The heart asks for pleasure first
    SPC 8 £1567.31 SPC 9 £1014.64 SPC 10 # £1164.13 SPC 11 £1598.15 SPC 12 # £994.67 SPC 13 £962.54 SPC 14 £1154.79 SPC15 £715.38 SPC16 £1071.81⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Declutter thread - ⭐⭐🏅
  • bsod
    bsod Posts: 1,225 Forumite
    edited 12 February 2017 at 12:28AM
    Frogletina wrote: »
    I've completely run out of ideas as to what to do now

    uninstall McAfee Antivirus & firewall - (Avast is free)
    reboot router/test internet access with wired ethernet when wireless fails
    Malwarebytes scan (free)
    chkdsk scan c
    reinstall Chrome/Opera/Firefox or use internet explorer
    create (and test with) a new user account

    reinstall Windows and Office and data
    Don't you dare criticise what you cannot understand
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.8K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.5K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.8K Life & Family
  • 257.1K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.