Lap Top Repair

[Numero Veinticinco]

On 10/05/2020 at 10:59, VladimirIlyich said:

Virgin is your problem! They are usually fine with wired connections but wireless is often shite. Add to this the fact that they are throttling speeds due to people working from home during the lockdown and its a recipe for disaster.

Not seen any throttled speeds? I get 382 both wired and wireless. That said, their router is rubbish, I’m going to replace it soon. When me and my son are on it at the same time, there’s bufferbloat. I need one with proper QOS and anti-bufferbloat. 

[Dougie Do'ins]

5 hours ago, Hank Moody said:

Not seen any throttled speeds? I get 382 both wired and wireless. That said, their router is rubbish, I’m going to replace it soon. When me and my son are on it at the same time, there’s bufferbloat. I need one with proper QOS and anti-bufferbloat. 

I've done multiple speed tests and they all say it's fine and I should be able to use multiple devices. Right now I'm streaming live football via two different android boxes which are fine, and a tablet which is also fine. 

 

I'm now thinking it must be the laptop as I can see a stall for example in this. 

 

https://www.windy.com/-Rain-thunder-rain?rain,53.438,-2.961,5

 

When I run the windy weather app on other devices, it runs smoothly, yet when I run it on this, I can see the wind arrows stalling every few seconds.

 

I've noticed the heat being dispelled by the fan seems hotter than usual. I've opened up the laptop and cleaned the fan impeller which had quite a bit of dust on it. Fired the laptop up and the heat from the fan seems cooler but the staggered typing etc it's just the same. 

 

Maybe my machine is just old and I need a new one ????????????????????

 

 

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

1 minute ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

I've done multiple speed tests and they all say it's fine and I should be able to use multiple devices. Right now I'm streaming live football via two different android boxes which are fine, and a tablet which is also fine. 

 

I'm now thinking it must be the laptop as I can see a stall for example in this. 

 

https://www.windy.com/-Rain-thunder-rain?rain,53.438,-2.961,5

 

When I run the windy weather app on other devices, it runs smoothly, yet when I run it on this, I can see the wind arrows stalling every few seconds.

 

I've noticed the heat being dispelled by the fan seems hotter than usual. I've opened up the laptop and cleaned the fan impeller which had quite a bit of dust on it. Fired the laptop up and the heat from the fan seems cooler but the staggered typing etc it's just the same. 

 

Maybe my machine is just old and I need a new one ????????????????????

 

 

 

 

What are your laptop specs? Might be that it needs a good clear out. 

[Dougie Do'ins]

4 hours ago, Hank Moody said:

What are your laptop specs? Might be that it needs a good clear out. 

No idea what you mean mate.

 

Since yesterday I've cleared all cookies etc and it's now on the back end of virus scan with nothing found.

 

Here's a video of the scan in progress.  You can see it not running smoothly. 

 

What is the device in the laptop that makes the internet work  ? Could it be that fucked ?

[Allan]

@Dougie Do'ins - Can you grab a screenshot of your Task Manager when the machine starts to slow down. Would be helpful to see if it's a CPU or Memory issue (if either).

 

There are multiple ways to access Task Manager. You can right click on the Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager:

 

 

 

You can use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to access Task Manager, or if you are using Windows 10, just go to start and then type Task Manager and it should be listed.

 

If CPU or Memory is high, then select the respective column to sort it from highest usage to lowest, similar to this:

 

 

 

That'll help identify any problem process(es) you may have and the associated application(s).

 

Seeing as you've got a McAfee scan running in your video above, I'm going to assume that there will possibly be a McAfee Scanner Service that will be running. This is known to cause intermittent high CPU usage as it performs real time malware checks. 

 

You can then grab a screen shot using either snipping tool or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Print Screen and then pasting said image into the reply box.

[Dougie Do'ins]

28 minutes ago, Dynamite said:

@Dougie Do'ins - Can you grab a screenshot of your Task Manager when the machine starts to slow down. Would be helpful to see if it's a CPU or Memory issue (if either).

 

There are multiple ways to access Task Manager. You can right click on the Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager:

 

 

 

You can use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to access Task Manager, or if you are using Windows 10, just go to start and then type Task Manager and it should be listed.

 

If CPU or Memory is high, then select the respective column to sort it from highest usage to lowest, similar to this:

 

 

 

That'll help identify any problem process(es) you may have and the associated application(s).

 

Seeing as you've got a McAfee scan running in your video above, I'm going to assume that there will possibly be a McAfee Scanner Service that will be running. This is known to cause intermittent high CPU usage as it performs real time malware checks. 

 

You can then grab a screen shot using either snipping tool or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Print Screen and then pasting said image into the reply box.

It's definitely slower since the scan is running. Is this what you want ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dougie Do'ins]

[Allan]

@Dougie Do'ins - Yes mate. Could I be cheeky and ask that you sort the CPU column from highest usage to lowest and take a screenie from the top of the list, so we can see everything at the top of the list.

 

Already it looks like McAfee is your issue, but I'd rather have/take multiple checks of CPU usage when the machine is on slow down, just to be sure that it is the cause of your problems.

[Allan]

@Dougie Do'ins - To sort the columns to ascending/descending, just single left click the respective column to toggle the views - It's easier to see when it's set to a descending view, so we can see the culprits of higher usage.

[Dougie Do'ins]

4 minutes ago, Dynamite said:

@Dougie Do'ins - Yes mate. Could I be cheeky and ask that you sort the CPU column from highest usage to lowest and take a screenie from the top of the list, so we can see everything at the top of the list.

 

Already it looks like McAfee is your issue, but I'd rather have/take multiple checks of CPU usage when the machine is on slow down, just to be sure that it is the cause of your problems.

It's always slow and has been for some time. I've tried running it with the McAfee firewall and live scan off and it hasn't helped.

 

Is this what you want ?

 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

11 hours ago, Hank Moody said:

Not seen any throttled speeds? I get 382 both wired and wireless. That said, their router is rubbish, I’m going to replace it soon. When me and my son are on it at the same time, there’s bufferbloat. I need one with proper QOS and anti-bufferbloat. 

Might have been the fact that my son has been working from home over past few weeks which has caused slowness with mine. 

[Dougie Do'ins]

Think I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and get a new one. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite C850 - 1KN

 

Ideally, I'd like to stick with a Toshiba and windows. Budget between £300-£400 

 

Any suggestions ????

[VladimirIlyich]

2 hours ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Think I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and get a new one. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite C850 - 1KN

 

Ideally, I'd like to stick with a Toshiba and windows. Budget between £300-£400 

 

Any suggestions ????

My last couple of laptops have been Lenovos and have been priced under £500.

[Allan]

18 hours ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Think I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and get a new one. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite C850 - 1KN

 

Ideally, I'd like to stick with a Toshiba and windows. Budget between £300-£400 

 

Any suggestions ????

Before you do, it's certainly worth removing McAfee from your existing machine and installing something like Avast! instead to see how the performance compares.

 

Did you, or do you, pay for a subscription to McAfee, or are you just using the pre-installed free version?

[Dougie Do'ins]

2 hours ago, Dynamite said:

Before you do, it's certainly worth removing McAfee from your existing machine and installing something like Avast! instead to see how the performance compares.

 

Did you, or do you, pay for a subscription to McAfee, or are you just using the pre-installed free version?

I pay for McAffe. I'm going to delete it to see if that helps.

 

I've been doing some homework and I've done three separate ping tests all within a few seconds of each other. I don't know what the results mean but there's a huge difference between the first one and two others  ????????

 

 

[Guest]

I have a wired connection to my desktop computer and I used the following app to check speeds...

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/speedtest-by-ookla/9nblggh4z1jc?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

 

Ping speed was 11ms, download speed was 107.37mbps, upload speed was 10.05mps

 

The same test on a wireless connection on my laptop gave the following results:

 

Ping speed was 41ms, download speed was 17.05mbps, upload speed was 9.94mps

[Allan]

5 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

I pay for McAffe. I'm going to delete it to see if that helps.

 

I've been doing some homework and I've done three separate ping tests all within a few seconds of each other. I don't know what the results mean but there's a huge difference between the first one and two others  ????????

 

 

Of the 3 images posted, only the bottom one would have me asking questions. Looks like the ping test failed to complete (timed out I should imagine). The jitter on the bottom image is also incredibly high, though it's likely to be elevated due to the possible timeout of the test.

 

What would have been interesting to see, is if McAfee Scanner Service was spiking CPU at the time of the bottom test. 

 

The more information I'm seeing, I'm certainly more inclined to say that the issues you are experiencing are related to McAfee, specifically the Scanner Service.

 

However, a couple of the Task Manager screen shots you have provided also show WMI Provider Host as using a large chunk of CPU, this could be as a result of an application not functioning as designed, which coupled with the McAfee Scanner Service is causing the stalls on your machine.

 

Below is a link to a page on How-To Geek that explains what WMI does, and how to go about checking if you have an issue with an application/service that you're not aware of, should you be inclined to take a look.

 

How-To Geek

[Dougie Do'ins]

2 hours ago, Dynamite said:

Of the 3 images posted, only the bottom one would have me asking questions. Looks like the ping test failed to complete (timed out I should imagine). The jitter on the bottom image is also incredibly high, though it's likely to be elevated due to the possible timeout of the test.

 

What would have been interesting to see, is if McAfee Scanner Service was spiking CPU at the time of the bottom test. 

 

The more information I'm seeing, I'm certainly more inclined to say that the issues you are experiencing are related to McAfee, specifically the Scanner Service.

 

However, a couple of the Task Manager screen shots you have provided also show WMI Provider Host as using a large chunk of CPU, this could be as a result of an application not functioning as designed, which coupled with the McAfee Scanner Service is causing the stalls on your machine.

 

Below is a link to a page on How-To Geek that explains what WMI does, and how to go about checking if you have an issue with an application/service that you're not aware of, should you be inclined to take a look.

 

How-To Geek

Should have added, all the ping tests to the same time.

 

Thanks to you and to everyone else who has offered help with this. I'm in the process of uninstalling McAffee to see if that helps. If not then I'll just have to look at buying a new laptop.

[Dougie Do'ins]

Right, so I've uninstalled all McAffe and it seems to be running better. No delay between typing letters and them actually appearing on screen. Pages an here are loading quicker. I'll see how it goes over the next few days and report back.                                                               

[Allan]

1 minute ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Right, so I've uninstalled all McAffe and it seems to be running better. No delay between typing letters and them actually appearing on screen. Pages an here are loading quicker. I'll see how it goes over the next few days and report back.                                                               

Have you got any other anti-virus software installed now that you've taken McAfee off the machine?

 

Windows Defender is good enough to look after your machine if you're just doing general web surfing and email, but if you're streaming or downloading, then I'd look to install one of the free versions of AV software that are readily available. I used Avast on my machines, and have Malwarebytes installed to run system scans periodically.

 

If the machine does stall again as it had been previously, could you grab a screenie of Task manager again with the CPU sorted highest to lowest, and pop it in here please?

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Right, so I've uninstalled all McAffe and it seems to be running better. No delay between typing letters and them actually appearing on screen. Pages an here are loading quicker. I'll see how it goes over the next few days and report back.                                                               

I HATE McAffee. It is a bag of shite. No idea why it gets installed as the default software as first thing I always do is take it off.

 

Avast has been most reliable for myself, AVG second place although it did slow down one of my computers. I think the issue is sometimes different software locks files and this causes virus software to decide what to do about the lock. McAffee must have shit decision making algorithms when locked files are hit.

[Allan]

7 minutes ago, S.i.t.M aka The Boring One™ said:

I HATE McAffee. It is a bag of shite. No idea why it gets installed as the default software as first thing I always do is take it off.

 

Avast has been most reliable for myself, AVG second place although it did slow down one of my computers. I think the issue is sometimes different software locks files and this causes virus software to decide what to do about the lock. McAffee must have shit decision making algorithms when locked files are hit.

McAfee is the default for most machines as they were owned by, and are still part owned by, Intel.

 

McAfee is just too bloated these days. It's very thorough in what it does, but to be that thorough it needs more resource, so when you start adding real time malware monitoring to an already resource hungry application, you're going to experience problems from time to time, and these will likely be more prominent on older hardware.

 

I'm currently working from home using an older model laptop which like all our company machines, has McAfee installed and I have experienced the issues that Dougie has been having. Unfortunately I don't have any administrative access to do anything with the bloody thing, so have to live with it and work around it as best I can.

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Dynamite said:

McAfee is the default for most machines as they were owned by, and are still part owned by, Intel.

 

McAfee is just too bloated these days. It's very thorough in what it does, but to be that thorough it needs more resource, so when you start adding real time malware monitoring to an already resource hungry application, you're going to experience problems from time to time, and these will likely be more prominent on older hardware.

 

I'm currently working from home using an older model laptop which like all our company machines, has McAfee installed and I have experienced the issues that Dougie has been having. Unfortunately I don't have any administrative access to do anything with the bloody thing, so have to live with it and work around it as best I can.

Interesting, I didn't know that. That may be why I had no performance problems from the outset with my AMD based PC as I would assume they would install anything other than Intel's software. I installed Windows from scratch on that one anyway but it was definitely smoother out of the box on Windows 10 than the Intel and they are very similarly specced CPUs.

[Dougie Do'ins]

59 minutes ago, Dynamite said:

Have you got any other anti-virus software installed now that you've taken McAfee off the machine?

 

Windows Defender is good enough to look after your machine if you're just doing general web surfing and email, but if you're streaming or downloading, then I'd look to install one of the free versions of AV software that are readily available. I used Avast on my machines, and have Malwarebytes installed to run system scans periodically.

 

If the machine does stall again as it had been previously, could you grab a screenie of Task manager again with the CPU sorted highest to lowest, and pop it in here please?

I don't have any other anti virus but I only mainly only use my laptop for the forums (2) and emails etc. I don't use it for streaming as I have a tablet, phone and android tv box. If I do download, it's only from trusted sauces.

 

I've had McAffee since I've had this machine with no problems. It was fine until a few weeks ago when my last subscription was renewed. I've just checked and it was early April which corresponds with the time I started having problems. I'm sure there may have been an update at that time too.

 

Hopefully it'll be OK but as I've mentioned previously, this machine is getting on a bit now so probably best I start planing ahead for when I have to take Ol Yella out to the barn for a visit to tech heaven. 

[VladimirIlyich]

I pay about 35 quid a year for NOD32 antivirus. Its consistently rated as one of the best products on the market.