Computer Learning (HELP)

[Newly2b]

I also notice funny business with updates going on with my computer, despite trying to stop updates without notification and approval by me.

The latest problem is when I first turn on my computer and the main screen has loaded it cycles for some time before I can open any program which tells me you are correct and MS is doing something in the background when I boot up. I've tried making some changes but nothing helps.

Anyway, I also shutdown using a power strip, but after shutting down with the start button. I suspect MS might be sending updates when the computer is off but somehow they load when I boot up each day (is that even possible?).

One thing you might try instead of shutting down with the power strip is to first do a hard shutdown by pressing control+alt+delete a few seconds, then turn off the power strip. Somehow that feels safer to me, but not sure.

I am also tempted to go to a Mac but dread the learning curve, LOL.

Newly

[Zorax]

Since late last year, even though I've tried every trick in the book to disable all that is win update, at various times when I've tried to shut down for the night, the computer insists on doing some sort of maintenance and states do not turn your computer off with a running counter.

Clearly it's still trying to do updates. I power off my system at the power strip so there is no power to my box when I shut down.

I believe if you shut all your active programs that you had running and browsers and wait some seconds until all activity lights stop, it may be safe to shut the power off instead of using windows shut down button.

I'll be trying this tomorrow night and see how it boots up. Pretty apparent windows monitors your keystrokes and is actively watching the 'start' button and will tell it to run update checks.

Matter of fact in settings under win updates, no matter what you click, if you're online windows calls home instantly and checks your system. This all really pisses my off but I still can't make a total switch to mac's.

People have to be careful with the the update buttons and pages because MS doesn't make it clear what you really can do. Allegedly, win 11 isn't supposed to download unless you okay'd it. I never try and download a new windows the first 6 months in the first place. Or even years.

Stay safe.

[Zorax]

The post 36266 is a political and disinformation post and does not belong on the computer learning board. I'm am reporting it to admin, even after the time limit, hopefully the admin will remove this political unrelated post.

[mr40]

That does look interesting, I added it to my list of things to do after I get this computer all set up.

[gtober]

Thanks. I have thought about using the cloud but I've never liked distributing my info all over the place. At least, not what I can control.

I just downloaded this to give it a try.

https://www.aomeitech.com/download.html

[Bull_Dolphin]

Yes when you click the windows logo it opens with the little power icon at the bottom right of the lower bar. From there you can sleep, restart, or shut down.

[mr40]

Had a MAC - didn' like it.

[mr40]

I believe WIN II has a way to synchronize files between phone and another device. Have not had time to explore that yet.

I think you could put important files in the cloud.

[mr40]

I think you have to use the Windows Start - the keyboard that came with the new computer has a key showing a half moon, right under the Page down button that puts it to sleep.

No issues with WIN 11 on the new computer, still have issues with the laptop. IT PRINTS BACKWARDS WHEN IT WANTS TO and nobody has found out why??

[Bull_Dolphin]

After thinking about the discussions here, I decided to go ahead and upgrade my new laptop to Win11. It installed without any issues and works fine. The only thing that I've noticed a difference in is the task bar. I had a hard time figuring out how to power it down. LOL.

So far, so good.

[gtober]

Hi newly. Nice to hear from you.

I have two computers and I also transfer/sync files manually. But, this involves about 30Gb. of files in total. I was wondering if anyone did any automatic backups between computers.

We are both doing well, but we lost Reagan in June 2019. That was, by far, the worst day of my life.

[Newly2b]

Hi, Geoff. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but like mr40, I backup all my files onto flash drives as I create them, and never leave anything I create on any of my three computers. I just plug the flash drive into whichever computer I want to use whenever I need to access any file I've created (all three computers have the same programs on them). This way I don't have to backup the files again, since I always access them from the flash drive. Once a week I use the primary flash drive to update the files on a secondary flash drive, so I have two identical sets of files just in case of a problem with one of them. I also backup specialty programs I use (those that cannot be downloaded online or for which I have no installation disc) just in case of problems. This isn't exactly synchronization but it works for me!

Hope all is well with you and yours. How's Reagan? Happy Thanksgiving -- I believe Canadian Thanksgiving is the same date as U.S.'s, correct?

Newly

[gtober]

Do you synchronize files between the computers? I am wondering if anyone does and what they use if so?

[mr40]

After looking at the number of WIN 10 updates waiting, knowing I didn't want them taking up space, I again checked the no updates box.
BUT MSFT ignored that and this morning I discovered that WIN II is now on the new computer.
I am happy to report no problems.
I will use my laptop as a backup computer along with flash drives.

[gtober]

It costs a bit but carbonite backup has saved my ass a couple of times. Totally seamless. I just review the directories I want backed up periodically.

[mr40]

I even had the box checked for no upgrades until sometime in Dec. so I was totally shocked when I turned the computer on and got the blue screen. I ran though all the fix options but none worked.
I ended up paying an IT tech $300 to try and eventually copying the hard drive onto a Sandisk flash drive.

You never want to see this screen.

[mr40]

Somehow during the WIN II upgrade install the Registry got corrupted along with the processor.
The laptop upgraded OK but all login and password data disappeared.

[cintrix]

Here it is: As a free replacement for Windows 10, your PC will upgrade to Windows 11 automatically. If it doesn’t meet the hardware requirements, your PC will remain on Windows 10 until hardware support expires. At that point, you should really upgrade both your PC’s hardware as well as the operating system.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/394773/windows-11-faq-features-release-date-how-to-install.html

[cintrix]

omg i'll pm u

[Flobewan]

Just been lurking, been a real busy year. Almost lost my new hubby.

[cintrix]

That's what it should do!

[Bull_Dolphin]

FWIW. I recently bought a new HP laptop. It came with Win10. Yesterday there was an Icon in my tray advising that Win11 was ready to be installed. It did not install automatically. it gave the option to upgrade, or stay with 10. I stayed with Win10.

[cintrix]

Well I know that updates happen overnight especially if you allow your computer to automatically install them. But I have never heard of a new operating system installing automatically. Anytime I have updated to a new operating system there were a bunch of Warning Will Robininons! Double warnings about what you are about to do. I did not know that they now automatically install them.

Flo, where are you? What do you think of this? I've got to see if there is a way of blocking this. I can tell you that when I updated my laptop from 7 to 10, the computer is sluggish and hardly works now - didn't have enough memory I guess. They scam you into doing these updates by threatening they are no longer supporting updates for older versions.

[mr40]

I had the box checked that blocked all updates for something like 6 weeks but MSFT ignored that. Usually you get a message that an update is ready and not to turn your computer off - I got nothing.

The tech told me I should have turned off the computer and router at night, not just put it to sleep as I always did. He said most of those updates are done at night when people are not using their computer.



Spent 3 hrs with the HP tech yesterday and most of the problems were a lack of drivers and he could not find a driver for my 5 yr. old extra monitor. He found them for my speakers and printer, installed them and they are working fine.

The biggest problem was the loss of logins and passwords so I suggest everyone get our the pen and paper and write them down.

The loss occurred on both the desktop and laptop.

[cintrix]

Wait, how does a totally new operating system get installed on two computers without asking you for permission? I mean, this isn't a basic Windows update. How can something like that happen and I wonder how we can check settings to make sure it doesn't happen to us?

[Koog]

My advice: Get a Mac.

[mr40]

On Nov. 9th, my HP Pavilion All-In-One 27" screen was destroyed by MSFT installing WIN II on it. This happened at night and in the morning I discovered the blue screen of death!

I went through the repair suggestions but nothing worked. From the error messages - the registry was corrupted and the processor was dead. It got to the point that it would not boot up at all.

The IT guy tried to install WIN8 as he said both WIN 10 and WIN II were both corrupted/destroyed. No luck on WIN8.

Used a flash drive to recover files from it and it is done and I lost all my logins and passwords.

I also have an HP Laptop and to my surprise, WIN II got installed and it sucks.
YouTube has no sound but it is loaded with ads. Videos that I have enjoyed for years are now LOADED with ADS. FLEX card, Medicare, Faredrop, Semoprsalliedproject.com, Alphaheat, - lots of stuff I never heard of and don't want.
In one video - 28 min. there were FOUR long ads.

It was time to replace the desktop but the first three computers I liked were OUT OF STOCK - delivery in mid to late Dec. I finally settled on another HP All - In- One with a 22" screen. It arrived late yesterday afternoon - WITH WIN 10 on it.

I got it set up and a new set of nightmares started. (My fault)
In mid Oct. my cell phone died. It said "powered by Android" did its spin thing and then shut down.
Went to Verizon and their tech was not able to boot it up so I lost all my data, contacts and a few photos.

BUT I FAILED TO UPDATE THE PHONE NUMBER ON ALMOST EVERY WEBSITE, THE MOST IMPORTANT BEING google. I HAD CREATED A LOGIN-PASSWORD FILE BUT IT WAS IN MY EMAIL THAT I COULD NOT ACCESS WITHOUT THE GOOGLE PASSWORD.

TWO HOURS LATER, I finally got into Google. It will take me the rest of today to recover the rest of the data. Banks and brokerage websites are the most difficult due to extra security and most of them make it almost impossible to change the phone number.

Back to WIN 10 on the new computer. There must be 100 updates that MSFT wants to install and I don't know if I should just install them or download and install WIN II.

NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE 9GB TO INSTALL WIN II AND APPARENTLY MY 4 YR. OLD DESKTOP DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH SPACE.

I FEEL THIS IS A MSFT FAILURE TO NOT CHECK THAT MY COMPUTER HAD ENOUGH SPACE.

I have encountered dozens of new problems with WIN II on the laptop. Many of the logins and passwords are now WRONG. It can't find the HP ENVY printer, etc.

I tried to login into my MSFT account but impossible. So I tried to create a new account on the new computer. BUT when I enter my email, it tells me it is already in use with no place to login! INSANE!

The IT guy did tell me that by installing WIN8 they are able to recover the computer and it works about half the time.

Well back to work!

[Zorax]

Thanks RB. Again, this is not really for your consumption, but for readers less experienced as yourself. Here's another thing I've done for friends, but it only works incrementally with moving up to OS's like windows.

Say you have the XP, and the newer standard of sata after IDE. We'd get a new system back compatible with sata, which still are plenty. This was usually with working drives and the people didn't know, or want to actually try to the transfers. So, the new system had say win7 and you boot it up as purchased. Then turn it off, installed the old drive as sata 2 or whatever on the MB and when booting it up again, windows for the last 15 years has automatically recognized an unknown drive as a slave, gives it a drive letter and 95% of the time people can find and use their old data. This is usually a stop gap until they went with the proper transfer of files if able. The other issue with this technique is you're not speeding up your computer for the most part. And every older drive installed this way is always slower than what you just bought.

The problem I'm running into now is SSD and newer bios. New bios (of course even these are older now..) are optimized for SSD and the trim features which I understand help SSD maintenance. But newer SSD with larger capacities happening all the time have also been improved. All my drives are sata and I may have to go your route to get into SSD and yet preserve my file structure. Win11 may or may not throw a major wrench into the upgrading cycle. But I'm unfortunately at the crossroads.

[rbtree]

That's good, but back to the old PC. Is there any important data on its drive that you would like to recover?

If so, you need to follow my steps to determine the HDD type. If it is SATA, take it out, buy one of these, and, if it still works, transfer the files you need to a drive in your laptop.
https://www.amazon.com/Docking-External-Enclosure-Supports-Capacity/dp/B004N8ZR9E/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Rosewill+docking+station&qid=1636395046&qsid=130-2146828-4923602&s=instant-video&sr=1-3&sres=B08QFKTJ3N%2CB00N1Q2J3Q%2CB004N8ZR9E%2CB00ECDM78E%2CB08B3NV1BY%2CB00O0M46KO%2CB07CRSH25X%2CB07BFJSYFM%2CB08BYFQHC4%2CB086DS5Q6K%2CB07PRJJNGF%2CB07QNRM45T%2CB08HVFH3G2%2CB07DCLK55V%2CB08R9WZKFN%2CB08CV73ZC2&srpt=ELECTRONIC_DEVICE_DOCKING_STATION

Best, of course, is to get into the bios of the suspect PC and see if you can get it operational. It's not that hard.

[nwsun]

I bought a used used Toshiba about 5 years ago. It seems locked. Has all the bells and whistles but not accessible. I bought it from a woman who claimed it was her old roommates who moved out. She seemed credible as I was there to buy some furniture from her and she told me about this Toshiba. Paid $100. I thought I could just wipe it clean and reload it someday but I'm not that technical. A friend checked it out for me to be sure it wasn't holding any bad stuff. I do have another laptop I use for daily. In fact I just worked with the place I bought it at to update it to the latest version. Ever hear of a place called Free Geek. They take in donations of old lap tops and accessories and rejuvenate them. Then sell them very inexpensively. Great concept.

[rbtree]

Zorax has given you good info as to how to get into the bios. If you can get there, search for the drive....based on what you've said, it is the only drive. But you should be able to check the boot order.

It's a shame that so many don't have a means of recovery..best is to have a bootable CD (best for older systems like yours) Better still is that you made regular backups to both the system and files... best there is to have a 2nd drive installed.

You could help us a bit by opening the case and looking for the kind of cables. Flat ribbon cables means it has older IDE drives. SATA has small twin connectors, one for power and one for the data. The main pwr supply and CD connectors will also be ribbon cables.

I'd suggest buying a used PC or laptop, if you're on a budget. There's plenty that are modern enough to be set up with Windows 10 already installed and the latest style connectors. If you're on a budget, the $150-300 range would locate plenty.
Try FB mktplace, offerup or craigslist. Also, look for someone that does tech help. You'll find someone, for sure, that can help, and his fee will be much less than a shop..which are harder to find, these days

[nwsun]

Thanks for all your help.

[Zorax]

You're right, small honest computer shops are getting as hard to find as baskin robbins.
I believe the blue screen is almost 90% when it reaches windows phase.
The bios is basically independent of windows before windows takes over.
Your system is like two parts, hardware wakeup and ID'ing and then software control- IE: windows OS- operating system which sits on top of machine language that comes from the motherboard before you see any real graphics on your monitor.

Your motherboard recognizes device stuff in machine code which hardly anyone knows how to read or write and that's where the operating software c comes in allowing users to read in english or whatever they're language is and allows us to see images and type stuff using the keyboard which the machine code already set up for us in bios and that windows operating software goes over again to put the stuff in an understandable UI- user interface so we can post our kitten pictures and pumpkin carvings.

In other words, technically, you should still be able to stop the process at the bios before the screen appears. That's the basics of the oldest DOS user interface since like 1970 something.

Power off your sys, if you can, turn off the strip it's plugged into, whatever it takes to cut the actual power to the computer box. Then plug back in, start the comp and watch the screen for any lines or instructions flashing by that say 'hit del to enter bios' or some such.

While you're checking out a shop, post back your specs if you can go on another comp to the internet... yea, and oops, I forgot you CAN'T get to windows to check 'system information...'. My bad. That was like saying, after you got two flats on the road..."get to a gas station and use their air pump" ...

[nwsun]

Thanks for the offer but my computer won't boot up. It's a blue screen. All the verbiage is provided in a blue screen. I've read the dreaded blue screen is not a good sign. I will look for a computer shop. Mine was custom built at a computer shop. There's not many around anymore.

[Zorax]

Well, that doesn't sound good.
Do you have a computer repair shop you can take the system to? The very least if you can take the drive out yourself and take that in to see if they can clone it to a newer sata drive? Or they can hopefully copy off the data to a newer ata drive and then you may have to get a brand new complete system. If a place can save your data much of your programs may still work on win7 or win10. You can run old stuff sometimes, but you can't run new programs on very old OS.

Is this the only sys you have? Is it a rush? I'm heading out of town today, but if you list your computer brand, and specs by this afternoon, I can check around this weekend for you. I need the MB model and chipset-(the version of the cpu software).
Look under Start> (on your taskbar) Windows> SystemsTools> select System Information and you should find most everything there under Hardware Devices.

GL

[nwsun]

The drive is as old as the computer. I've not done anything to it. I'm not sure how to get to the bios

[Zorax]

How old is the drive. Don't throw out anything yet.
Do you know how to get to the bios?
If you can get to the bios, which is usually on boot up look for a message at the bottom of the screen for like, esc, or f11 depending on the MB.

In the bios, go through the pages looking for hard drive identification.

Maybe go on the internet and search for bios illustrations. Even better, find and download your MB manual. They are still out there, and it will have a whole section on bios.

What you're trying to get to is a bios page that will rescan for devices. Remember, this is before the bios hands it over to windows OS.

Your Xp bios loads MB drivers, usb stuff and info about the hardware and then hands it over to the operating system to load the rest of the file system and some drive info.

If you are still having problems, come back on here and if you like, I'll take some screen shots of the bios stuff I'm trying to explain. Sometimes windows just loses it's mind, and or the bios resets and the order of the boot sequence gets messed up. I've had that happen on a rare occasion as I run older sata drives and not ssd fancy schmancy drives. I wish.

[Koog]

... and about 16-17 years old. Is there any hope?

Seriously, with that kind of age on the system, I doubt it. Have you ever done a system backup? If not, I'd guess your system is toast and you'll have to get a new one and start from zero.

[nwsun]

I turned my PC on recently and got this blue screen and a bunch of verbiage. The basic message was "unmountable (something)... Can't remember the other term. I looked it up and it basically says my hard drive crashed. I tried rebooting and safe mode but I still get the same message. It's an xp operating system and about 16-17 years old. Is there any hope?

[Zorax]

I think you're on the right track. Perhaps it's a settings in networks where your set up will limit uptime if you have a tight limited data package.

I'll look around to see if I can find it.

Just noticed this is weeks old, sorry. If not resolved check under
Settings > network&internet > Status > Local area connection > properties >
Metered connection.

'>' = click selection

[Wayne R]

Same router I'm using to type this, same wifi I can get on my cell phone.

Doing a little research I see that maybe, could be, a question of power saving settings.

I dunno.

[Flobewan]

Have you tried rebooting the router?

[Wayne R]

Just got back from a week of vacation, the wife's Samsung laptop doesn't want to connect to WIFI.

OS is windows 8, I hate that OS.

Anyway, we can see the WIFI connection, but it is marked limitée 'limited'

Any ideas?

[sharpshorts]

The saga's over finally done (for now anyway)
Got another cheap SSD in the mail today - Kingston A400 240GB ($38 inc shipping)

Successfully cloned it and it's running the same as the OCZ 120GB drive it replaced.
The OCZ is now installed in the older Dell and it's running fine too.

So I spent a total of $88 for two cheap SSDs including the bad HP 256GB ...
TigerDirect won't take it back without me getting authorization from HP -
neither company will get any more business from me!
This "don't return to where you bought it" stuff stinks...

But at least I have 100GB more capacity in the machine I use every day
and the older Dell operates markedly faster with the OCZ SSD vs it's old HHD.

[Flobewan]

That would be Me and Marc, but I do keep him out of my kitchen, LOL

[Zorax]

I figured you did, that was more for the general public and I should have mentioned that.

It's really cool when both spouses are computer savvy.

[rbtree]

Yeah. know all that..... good chance the front connector wiring is defective, in my case.

My first NVMe drive was a Samsung 950 Pro...the board a Gigabyte Z170, CPU an i7 6700K. It was quite a chore getting the right drivers and figuring out the bios settings to get the MB/PC to boot from the NVMe drive. I don't recall what I did...

Now I have six NVMe drives, spread across 2 PC's and 2 laptops, and three extras. Three are the latest PCI 4.0 capable drives. Best CPU is the fastest non Xeon/Threadripper, the Ryzen 9 5950x...it rocks, great for photo/vid editing. My GPU's are 10 series, adequate; while I wait for the latest gen units to come down to earth..if ever..

[Zorax]

Locate the usb connectors on your motherboard and plug them in. It's basically a wired extension to the front of your box for your convenience.
Any other usb is usually hard wired to the MB.

And the MB and CPU have to be new enough, well, older now to run the newer ssd bios and trim standards of ssd's.

[sharpshorts]

Does Win-10 or Win-11 have Windows Classic like theme option?
(accessible in Win-7 via Control Panel Items\Personalization)

I'm fairly convinced there is a problem with the new 256GB HP SSD and not with my older 128GB OCZ SSD which is still operating my machine flawlessly. I just wanted to upgrade the OCZ's storage capacity...(I bought into the hype that SSD's tend to begin to fail as they run low on "Free Space").

I've decided to purchase another cheap 250GB SSD and try it again.

BTW, I was finally able to complete a "100% Complete" clone of the OCZ to the HP using Macrium Reflect Cloning software. But I still cannot boot up with the HP SSD. So I removed the HP from that machine.

Because I wanted to confirm the issue was the HP SSD, I then hooked up it up to my even older Dell Vostro machine that has a 150GB HDD and attempted to clone the Dell's HDD to the 256GB HP SSD...but I was not able to do so.

I also tried the OCZ SSD in the Dell. The Dell booted up no problems and was significantly faster than the HDD - - at booting up, at loading my files and connecting to the internet...even given the fact that the Dell only has a SATA 2 interface.

I'm just not interested in Microsoft Windows latest & greatest operating systems and I don't sweat the lack of the "latest security patches and fixes"...
I disabled Windows Update 2-3 years ago because (IMO) they caused unexplained random changes to my machine's settings...in that same vain, I stopped paying for any virus protection services over 10 years ago.
I have not regretted either of those choices. Just lucky I guess...

As I said, for my uses I do not need the new bells and whistles that Microsoft claims comes with their stuff.
When it gets to the point that my equipment becomes inoperable due to "technology advances", then I'm probably better off doing without.

[rbtree]

Go with option B, but, don't worry about the new SSD being incorrectly shown a a 1 tb drive in one configuration.

Cloning is very easy. Try easeus.com.......

However, if there is any issue with your PC, I'd do a clean install of Windows 10. I didn't check back, but, if you're still on 7, it's not being updated or supported. It's much better to have an O/S that is regularly updated, if for no other reason than to have the latest security patches and fixes.....

Just a Windows 10 .iso on a flash drive or CD, boot into Windows and then open the file the .iso is on and choose to start afresh. Make sure the empty, new drive is where Windows will be installed. After that, go into the BIOS and set that drive as your boot drive. Remove the other drive as a 2nd option. After rebooting, and confirming that the new drive and o/s is working properly, remove the Windows install on the old drive.

By the way, I have Windows 11 on my 2 laptops, and it's fine. The new features aren't all active yet, and some of the changes are a tad "mehhhh" even a bit irritating, but I know that 11 will be even more secure than 10. I likely won't install it on my two PC's for a while, however.